Grosjean: I always said I would return to Le Mans

Roman Grosjean spent 179 Grands Prix in Formula 1 and is already in his fourth season in IndyCar, but over the years of his motorsport career he started only once at Le Mans. This was in 2010 and Roman was driving a Ford GT1 sports car from the Swiss Matech Competition team, but his crew did not reach the finish.

And now, after a break of fourteen years, he is ready for his next attempt – this time he will have to fight for victory in the general classification, because he is part of the Lamborghini Iron Lynx team and together with his teammates in crew number 19 will drive the Lamborghini SC63 hypercar.

“I still remember well what everything was like then – both the atmosphere and the general enthusiasm,” Roman recalled the events of the summer of 2010. “Unfortunately our engine failed and we had to withdraw from the race. But I always said that one day I would return to Le Mans to fight for the overall victory.

The break lasted 14 years, but now I’m back! Although I would hardly have believed it if they had told me at the beginning of my career that I would participate in the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”

In 2022, Grosjean became one of the first drivers to be invited to the Lamborghini factory team, which was then just being established, and now he is happy to be able to perform again in front of a packed grandstand of French fans.

“Since moving to the United States, I haven’t had the opportunity to race in Europe,” he continued. – Meeting French fans again is just great! My 2024 schedule is very busy with 31 race weekends, so there is a lot to do, but that’s what life is good for and I’m not complaining!

I like driving different cars. I love IndyCar, but the partnership program with Lamborghini complements it well. This is a new project, a great team and we have a real fighting spirit. The SC63 hypercar’s on-track performance is somewhat comparable to that of both a GT car and a single-seater formula. It has an excellent combination of their different qualities: the handling is similar to a formula, but the downforce is less than that of an F1 car.

But if Formula 1 is dominated by the tendency to ban technical diversity, then there is much more freedom in terms of technical creativity in the WEC. The hypercar is a fairly heavy car, but it has sufficient downforce and achieving optimal balance is not easy. So we have to try different approaches, but we learn with each round.

This year my goal is to master everything in a very short time. You could say I’m new to endurance racing and haven’t gotten the hang of our car yet. But considering everything I’ve accomplished since 2010, I can’t be considered a complete beginner!”