Cool Aiming to “Strengthen Position” With Second LMP2

Cool Racing is aiming to ‘strengthen its position’ in the European Le Mans Series by increasing its LMP2 stable to two cars  next year, according to managing director Nicolas Lapierre.

The Swiss-flagged, French-based outfit is set to field one Oreca in the main LMP2 class and another in Pro-Am where a Bronze-rated driver is required. It received a second Oreca 07, the manufacturer’s 100th model, ahead of this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Pro-Am lineup is set to include Alexandre Coigny, who is poised to return to racing after a one-year hiatus, and Danish ace Malthe Jakobsen who currently drives for Cool in LMP3. The pair will also contest the Asian Le Mans Series together in February.

The rest of the ELMS crew is being worked out, although Alpine Hypercar driver Lapierre told Sportscar365 in July that he intends to continue racing for the team.

Lapierre and Coigny became managing partners of Cool Racing at the start of last year and formed a new business, CLX Motorsport, to run the team as an independent entity after it previously received input from French team Racing Spirit of Leman.

“From next year we want to strengthen our position in LMP2,” Lapierre explained.

“We would like to run one car in ‘pro’ and one in Pro-Am, so we can fight for both championships next year. That’s plan A.

“Of course, we want to go back to Le Mans. This year we did OK on our first participation, but we need to improve. To fight for a podium would be a good step next year.

“We also started a karting academy this summer. The plan is to get young drivers and help them move forward. We are looking at lots of different opportunities.”

Lapierre explained that Cool Racing’s future remains in ELMS, with no plans to graduate into the FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 class next year.

The team entered the WEC in 2019-20 with Lapierre, Coigny and Antonin Borga, when the program was run by Racing Spirit of Leman which is now in LMP3 and GT4.

“We looked at it, and this would have also secured our space at Le Mans,” Lapierre said when asked about a potential WEC return under the CLX management structure.

“The problem is that it’s a big step to go to WEC for us. In terms of logistics and costs, we were not ready for this.

“In ELMS we have requests from drivers. I think we can build a strong lineup to fight at the front.

“In WEC when you go to fight against teams that are soon going into LMDh… they don’t have budget issues and support from manufacturers, so there is no chance.

“We cannot fight these structures that are supported by manufacturers like Alpine next year and WRT; they probably get factory drivers in the cars.

“For a 100 percent private team, it is almost impossible to fight with them.

“We are pretty happy with ELMS because it’s easy to operate: six races in Europe. The level is very strong, and the field is packed. For us, it’s great to be here.

“We don’t feel that we have to be in WEC. And if WEC teams are switching to ELMS in the medium-term, it means ELMS will be even stronger.”

Lapierre feels that Cool Racing has been operating at a higher level during its second season as an independent outfit but described its ELMS results as “frustrating”.

The team this year hired former ORECA customer manager Anthony Megevand as its sporting director and graduated to the main LMP2 class, signing reigning ELMS champion Yifei Ye and German prospect Niklas Kruetten to partner Lapierre.

The Cool Racing trio are the fourth-highest crew in the points heading into this weekend’s Portimao season finale, with their best results being third at Imola and Barcelona.

“It was a challenge for us to go from Pro-Am to [overall],” Lapierre reflected.

“Overall, I am quite happy with the team’s performance. We built a strong lineup and could fight at the front. Unfortunately, we lost our championship chances early in the season.

“We never got the opportunity to win a race, and every time it was coming we had an issue somehow. I am happy with how the team has performed but frustrated by the championship position.

“Last year we focused more on the gentleman, but now it’s more like a professional team.

“We have improved all our processes and worked on details we didn’t have time for last year, because we built the team in January, so it was a big rush.

“It’s been a good step forward but there is still room for improvement.”