Pagenaud Wants to be at Le Mans “Every Year” After Absence

Simon Pagenaud says he hopes to turn the 24 Hours of Le Mans into a regular feature on his schedule again as he prepares to compete at the French endurance classic for the first time in more than ten years.

Pagenaud has joined Cool Racing’s No. 47 Oreca 07 Gibson lineup, teaming up with Vlad Lomko and Reshad de Gerus in this weekend’s centenary edition of the race.

It marks the first Le Mans entry for the former Indianapolis 500 winner since 2011, when he raced with Peugeot’s LMP1 program.

“I didn’t think it would take me this long,” Pagenaud told Sportscar365. “It was mostly a question of schedule. Without that, I would have been here every year.

“So I’m just glad to be back. I’m just glad that I get to enjoy driving this amazing track, honestly. It’s such a fun track to drive.

“I want to be back every year, I’ve been wanting to be back every year. I’ve had issues with schedule, conflicts with the IndyCar schedule.

“Now that Roger Penske owns IndyCar I think it’s going to be a lot easier since he has a team in the series here.

“I hope the schedule stays open and I want to be able to come back. Obviously my goal is to come back and try to be in a situation to compete for the win.”

During his 12-year absence from Le Mans, Pagenaud established a successful career in U.S. racing.

Alongside his Indy 500 win, he captured the NTT IndyCar Series title in 2016 and took back-to-back Rolex 24 at Daytona overall victories with Meyer Shank Racing.

Pagenaud noted that his focus on American racing, along with the changing nature of sports car racing in Europe, made it difficult for him to return sooner.

“This opportunity I really liked because one of the things that has changed since I was here back in 2011 is that you could just do a one-off back in those days because you didn’t have to enter the full WEC series,” said Pagenaud.

“The WEC wasn’t yet formed so the driver line up didn’t have to do the full season.

“Now the teams have full season drivers and if you want to do a one-off there’s no seats. So this opportunity was perfect because it was an invitation and I’m going to find a way to make it work in the future.

“It’s definitely the regulation that has changed and makes it a bit more difficult for drivers like me or Scott Dixon for example to come over and do both IndyCar and Le Mans.”

Pagenaud Appreciating Increasing Professionalism at Le Mans

The Frenchman pointed out some of the changes he noticed compared to his last appearance, hinting he’s been focused on understanding some of the sporting regulations introduced in his decade-long absence.

“The biggest thing has been the [rules], slow zones, next slow zone and all that kind of stuff,” Pagenaud said. “That’s different from what I know in IMSA as well so I’ve had to learn and be very cautious on all the regulation stuff.

“It’s probably the most focused I’ve ever been on an actual regulation change.”

Pagenaud also expressed his appreciation for the level of some of the modern-day LMP2 operations, indicating that they’re on a similar level that factory teams were on a decade ago in terms of paddock presence.

“Then the state of the paddock is very different,” he said. “The LMP2 teams are at the level that Peugeot was in terms of presentation, in terms of professionalism, organization.

“I’m very impressed with [Cool Racing] here for example. It’s very high level. It’s great to see.

“It’s refreshing in many ways and the sport seems like it’s been growing massively. Good resources it seems like, good funding.”