Michael Christensen says he and partner Kevin Estre are not changing their race approach after being retroactively stripped of their win in the 4 Hours of Shanghai last week.
The Porsche pair had initially been handed the victory in the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship after the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi was disqualified for a ride height infractions.
The Italian squad immediately filed an appeal, and it was confirmed last week that the win for Ferrari had been reinstated, thus demoting Christensen and Estre back to second.
When asked by Motorsport Week ahead of this weekend’s Lone Star Le Mans if the decision influenced their approach to the fifth round of the championship, Christensen replied:
“Nope. No change in approach. We are going in here trying to win. We would also do that if we had the other scenario.”
The reinstated victory for Calado and Pier Guidi means the Ferrari duo now sits second in the championship standings, just four points ahead of Estre and Christensen, who sit in fifth.
“But for sure, the championship gets much, much closer,” Christensen continued. “There’s another competitor up now, if you can put it like that. Which on the one hand, is really good for the championship, but on the other hand, there’s no difference.”
“We still have to learn. It’s still a new car for us, we still have to learn a lot and we have to build up for Le Mans. At the end of the day, Le Mans will decide the title I believe, so no difference.”
When Christensen’s partner, Kevin Estre, was asked if he felt the decision was fair, the Frenchman replied:
“I think it’s fair to be able to do a protest. I was not in the court, I was not involved in anything, so I’m not sure what exactly was wrong or what was right. In the end, it’s racing.
There’s always some possibility to get against the decision and there are some people that are clever enough to state on the decision and I don’t know, it’s tough to say when you are on the outside and don’t know exactly what happened.”
