It's a race against time that Isotta Fraschini and Duqueine are facing in view of their debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Last week the Tipo 6 LMH-Competizione was officially homologated and in a month it will be on stage among the rivals of the Hypercar Class at the 1812Km of Qatar.
Duqueine only took over the management of the prototype built by Michelotto Engineering in December and therefore the time available to organize everything was not much at all.
“For us it is an honor to participate in the WEC with Michelotto, who developed the Isotta Fraschini and did a truly excellent job in the past year”, declared in the round table with journalists – including Motorsport.com – Max Favard, who will fill the role of Team Manager and Team Principal.
“We arrived at the last moment to try to help them as quickly as possible to be ready in Qatar. It will be a very challenging season.”
Photo by: Isotta Fraschini
Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 LMH Competizione
Favard was able to make contact with the Tipo 6 LMH-C together with the Duqueine team in the tests carried out at Estoril, starting a collaboration with Michelotto's men with their heads down.
“The data collected in the latest tests were positive and we are happy to have had some good tests.”
“Now in Qatar we will really see how we will fare, we are aware that we are smaller than many big teams and we will enter on tiptoe.”
“We will try to be as professional as possible and do our best. We are trying to use the 24 hours of every day for this.”
Photo by: Isotta Fraschini
#11 Isotta Fraschini Type 6 LMH-C: Jean-Karl Vernay, Alex Garcia
Jean-Karl Vernay, one of the first to begin the development of the Type 6 and already announced as part of the 2024 lineup, had a hand in the bond that blossomed between the French company and the Milanese company.
“The relationship with Jean-Karl began a long time ago, we helped him grow when he was young and we know the performances he achieved in various series in which he took part.”
“He worked with Duqueine Automotive in LMP3 and also developed the Isotta Fraschini, so we started talking about the possibility of entering the project with a second car.”
Here then occurred the division from Vector Sport, which chose to abandon the project as it did not agree on some things already established some time ago when Isotta Fraschini had chosen it as the reference team for the next season. And Duqueine seized the opportunity to take over.
“The scenarios have changed a little on the part of Isotta Fraschini, who would have only had one car, so it was a difficult story, but we will continue the preparation in Qatar, which will be the first real test of this bond. We try to optimize the everything every day.”
Photo by: Isotta Fraschini
Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 LMH Competizione
As the drivers had already said after the tests, Favard was pleasantly surprised by how the car reacts to the various modifications and changes that are subjected to it between one test and another, convincing himself that – despite all the difficulties involved – the path taken is the good one.
“The first impression we got was that the car was born well, there were no problems with the schedule and it's quite impressive to see how the car can react.”
“Now it's an easy car to drive for all drivers, even for those who get into it for the first time, which helps us build confidence.”
“For this we want to thank the guys at Michelotto, who used 40 years of experience to create such a good machine.”
Photo by: Isotta Fraschini
#11 Isotta Fraschini Type 6 LMH-C: Jean-Karl Vernay, Alex Garcia
Finally, the official status of the trio that we will see at work on the Tipo 6 #11 from Lusail onwards is still missing, but the reservations will be resolved shortly.
“It takes some time to organize everything, especially for us who started late. We are talking these days and finalizing some details, in the next few days we will be able to announce the lineup for the 2024 season.”
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