Zoom Development needed to fit the drive

The Epsilon Euskadi team made its dream of lining up the first Spanish car on the 24 Hours of Le Mans grid come true this year. In fact, two team entries were at the start after the ACO accepted that a second Euskadi manned by Gounon-Johansson-Nakano take the place of the forfeit Lucchini car.

Despite his lack of training, Jean-Marc Gounon brilliantly qualified in 15th position, but nonetheless far from the petrol-powered LMP1s. The Epsilon Euskadi had the benefit of using the same Judd engine as most of its rivals, so it appears quite likely that the deficit came from the car's handling.

It is somewhat of a surprise to see that a team full of F1 veterans could not develop the car faster than it did: three previous Le Mans Series races seemingly brought little improvement.

Reliability will also have to be worked upon, most notably in regards to the transmission – the cause of both cars' retirements at Le Mans. In trying to build a sophisticated model, were the essentials forgotten?

14th after three hours of racing, Gounon-Johansson-Nakano took the plunge. Burgueno-De Castro-Valles maintained themselves within the top 15 after eight hours of competition, not bad for a debut run. But both cars spent a good part of the night in the garage, slipping down to the back of the field before calling it quits during the morning.

However, it will be interesting to see how things go next year for Epsilon Euskadi, once a reliable transmission and a team better experienced with the challenges of endurance racing makes a brand new attempt.

Daniel BASTIEN © CAPSIS International
Source: François Hurel