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American LeMans
ALMS: Emanuele Pirro Sebring Thursday Blog
Emanuele Pirro completes his third exclusive blog on SPEEDtv.com following the day’s three practice sessions at Sebring.
SPEED Staff  |  Posted March 19, 2010   Sebring, FL
After a day of no seat time on Wednesday, Emanuele Pirro took part in all three practice sessions on Thursday. (John Dagys)

We had a very good day and tried to capitalize on what we learned yesterday. So we put everything together and had three sessions with no problems in the car. The car is fast, so we are all very happy as it’s a blast to drive. This makes us feel confident of our race pace.

It was relatively warm in the afternoon practice, but cool in the first practice, so we were able to try the car in two different temperature ranges. We have to make a good call for the tires because our car is very easy on tires. So we need to try the car in different temperature conditions to explore and get as much information as possible. Obviously you don’t want to get the wrong tire choice in the race.

The sessions in general went quite well, but I don’t think the Peugeots are showing everything just yet. They’re not using all of the potential they have, so they still have a little bit to go. For me, I don’t see them as competition as they’re in another league. If we can keep the same pace as the ‘best of the rest’, I would be happy. In both sessions, we’ve been ahead of the Highcroft HPD and Aston Martin, so things are looking good.

In the morning, we had half of a session for me and half a session for Paul Drayson, who was very, very good. Normally our plan would be to always to leave more or less half of each session for him to get used to the car. Obviously he’s the one with the least experience at this level. But after the morning session, Paul was so happy with the car that he offered Jonny Cocker and me to share the session in the afternoon and do some more work in the car. This was a good call, so Jonny and I did a half session each. I’m very impressed and happy with his progress.

I’m not surprised by Paul’s pace, though. I told him to take it easy. It’s a well balanced car and if you drive 95 percent of its full potential, you’re really driving it without much effort. It’s more of a case of getting there with a relaxed attitude and you have to do it step by step. If you’re five seconds off the pace and you’re looking for the five seconds altogether, it’s going to be difficult, impossible and dangerous. But I told him that every session you establish pace and consolidate it. The next session, you take it a little step forward. This is what exactly happened. I’m sure there’s more to come from him.

From a driver’s point of view and also from an engineer’s, practice is never enough. The cars are so complicated, especially so early in the season. There’s a lot of things you want to explore. So there is a lot of practice, so it’s good. But for a driver, you always want to do more because there’s things you want to explore and other things you want to try. Fortunately, our car has shown a good balance and potential to start with, so it’s been just a case of trimming out a few things and explore a few aero settings to see if it would be better with more or less downforce.

Altogether, Sebring is an eventful race and it’s a big party on and off the track. Yesterday, I was taking Paul Drayson’s dad around the track to show him all of the parts. I stopped on the inside of Turn 10 and told him that Turn 10 is a hot spot with very, very warm people with flags. I’ve always had a good relationship with those people. I wave to them while I’m on track. Today they came to me and gave me two Turn 10 ‘Passes’ They’re rubber key chains that’s a pass for that area. They said that me and a guest are always welcome to come during the weekend. So that was very cool. Turn 10 is a nice spot!

But all fun and games aside, we had a third session, night practice. There were several priorities for us. The first objective was to qualify all three drivers. You need three laps: one out lap, one timed and one in lap is good enough to qualify a driver, which we all accomplished easily. After that we checked if the race nose and spare nose have the headlights set up properly. If we have a problem in the race, we’ll want to switch to the spare nose quickly, and if the lights are no good, it would be bad news again. After that, we evaluated what tires we should use for the nighttime hours of the race. Everything went great as there were no problems.

At the end of the session, we took the opportunity to practice driver changes and seat fittings. We are still new to each other and the car is also new, so we needed to make sure everything can run as smoothly as possible. I have base seat and I sit on the base and Paul and Jonny have inserts, since they’re smaller than me. But I’m also the slimmest, so I can open the seat belts better and with them slightly bigger, they’re having some problems. So we have to find a solution to the issue tomorrow. But I’m sure it will all work out.

Tomorrow is final practice followed by qualifying. I’m not sure who will qualify the car yet. We’ll probably make the decision after the morning practice. Wish us luck!

~Emanuele

In 2010, Emanuele Pirro joins Drayson Racing for his return to Le Mans Prototype One (LMP1) competition. He will co-drive the Drayson Racing Lola B10/60-Judd V10 with Paul Drayson (London/Gloucestershire, UK) and Jonny Cocker (Guisborough, UK) at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Six Hours of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Petit Le Mans. The popular Italian continues as an Audi Brand Ambassador and will campaign in select racing events for Audi as well.  

The native of Rome is a five-time, overall winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (’00-’02,’06,’07) has won the 12 Hours of Sebring twice (’00,’07), the Petit Le Mans three times (’01,’05,’08) and has also collected endurance race victories at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring (‘89) and the 24 Hours of Daytona (‘81) to complement his 18 ALMS overall victories. A former Formula 1 test and race driver, Pirro has seven automobile championships to his credit including ALMS LMP1 honors in 2001 and 2005. He has an unprecedented nine consecutive Le Mans podiums (2000-2008) and was part of the driver squad in a diesel-powered entry’s first victory ever at Le Mans.  

Emanuele Pirro is a man of many interests and passions. Dedicated to his craft, he has a committed training regime which includes a large workout facility in his home. He has a love for building scale replica cars and airplanes, collects frog figurines from around the world, enjoys spending time outdoors with his family and brings together his love of scuba and photography creating exquisite underwater images. He owns a software company for setup simulation of competition go karts and is in the hotel business, owning 3 Le Mans which has four hotels. He also owns a sports clothing company called Adrenalina and flies his own plane, a Mooney M20. He is member of the “Nazionale Piloti” and the “Star Team for Children” of Prince Albert of Monaco soccer team. Pirro lives in his native Rome with his wife, Marlene and two children.

For more information, please visit www.pirro.com and www.draysonracing.com.


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