Reigning World Endurance Champion Romain Dumas says he is relishing the opportunity to race an LMP2 car at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time.
The 39-year-old Frenchman, who has won the race twice overall and once in class, stepped back from his Porsche LMP1 role at the end of 2016 having clinched the world title with Neel Jani and Marc Lieb.
This year, Dumas is taking on the new challenge of piloting an Alpine A470-Gibson in the secondary prototype class alongside Signatech's regular WEC drivers Gustavo Menezes and Matt Rao.
The trio shared the car for the first time at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in May, finishing fifth.
“It’s such a great opportunity for me,” Dumas told Motorsport Week.com, “After trying my hand and winning in LMP1 and GT, I wanted to complete the set and race in LMP2.”
“Last December I contacted Porsche and expressed my plan to do Le Mans with a different team.”
“They were interested in the idea of me doing LMP2, especially with a top team like Signatech Alpine. I saw Alpine’s success last season and that made me keen to join. I contacted the team and everyone was willing to have me on board.”
The move was made possible by Toyota’s decision to recall Nicolas Lapierre from Signatech Alpine for its additional Le Mans LMP1 entry.
Had that not gone through, Dumas says that he would have pursued a GT3 drive in the Blancpain Series instead.
With a Le Mans drive in the bag, Dumas is relishing the opportunity to compete with a French team for the first time since 2008 when he drove for Pescarolo Sport’s LMP1 programme.
However, he admits that the combination can create added pressure, especially with Alpine's status as a top team in the category.
“It’s hugely important for the fans,” he said.
“We have a French team, a French brand and myself, a French driver, competing in a French race – it is an excellent mix,” he said.
“It’s huge because Alpine is a popular French brand. Admittedly that does put some pressure on us because we are fully aware of the importance of Alpine at Le Mans, but our team is very strong.”
“I watched both Gustavo and Matt [in WEC LMP2] last year and was impressed by their performances. I’m sure they’ll learn a lot under Nico during the season and at Le Mans for sure I am helping share some of my experience with them. This weekend we are sharing a small motorhome in the campsite – so we know each other well now!”
Dumas has been driving at the top level of endurance racing for over 15 years, and is preparing to make his 17th start at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
His profound experience means he has driven in different eras (most recently the hybrid revolution) and tried different cars with constantly evolving regulations.
In 2017 he will sample another drastic change in the debut of the new LMP2 formula, which sees increased all-round performance including a power jump to approximately 600 horsepower.
“The new LMP2 category is very exciting, and is now at a level of performance where it is producing enough power to be the class that sits under LMP1 Hybrid,” said Dumas.
“I think we are seeing that it has become like the new LMP1 privateer – teams from there are looking at LMP2 as the next step and it is a good, competitive place for young drivers to race.”
“I have been involved in quite a few changes in the structure of the sport, like the introduction of hybrids and the arrival of closed-cockpit LMP1s, and this is one of the major ones.”
After a successful test day, the #36 car qualified 11th in class and 17th overall, with Menezes posting a time of 3m 28.021s that would have been enough to beat Dumas' LMP1 Pescarolo by half a second.
Although Dumas believes the team can go faster, he is wary that the class has numerous potential winners and so it taking a pragmatic approach.
“It’s the toughest class I’ve ever driven in, based on the competition,” he said.
“For me, between seven to ten cars can win. I compare that to when I won GTE-Pro with Porsche in 2013 – we realistically six cars in competition, and in LMP1 last year we had seven cars in total.”
“A lot of people might think I’m claiming it’s tougher for the sake of saying it, but I genuinely think it is because every car has one silver driver and that can make a big difference. I think we have a good package, but all [ORECA] 07s have the same so it is very close.”
“We do need to be fast but there is no point adding more pressure on ourselves because there is enough as it is – we have a plan in place and we will stick to it.
The 85th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is set to get underway on Saturday, June 17th at 15:00 local time (CEST).
