Kevin Estre expressed a desire to share a few driving stints with his Porsche IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP teammates Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich in the LMP2 field at this year’s Le Mans, hoping they can push each other and enjoy the experience together.
The three were unable to land top-class assignments in the main Hypercar category after Porsche Penske Motorsport left the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar ranks at the end of last season, but each has since found seats in the LMP2 division.
Estre, who will line up alongside Matthias Beche and Tobias Lutke for TDS Racing, is enthusiastic about taking on a fresh challenge.
“We were speaking last week with Julien and Laurin and how we are going to approach this,” Estre told Sportscar365. “The car is very different. There is no factory team behind, it’s a lot less people, a lot leaner team, which is in a way fun.”
“It’s very competitive and you have to be on top of your game and hopefully I can match these guys.”
Estre completed only a single partial day of testing in the Oreca 07 Gibson at Paul Ricard last month before arriving in Le Mans, but he is confident in quickly getting to grips with the LMP2 category, a class he last contested in 2015.
He also stressed his determination to secure a place on the grid despite Porsche’s absence from the Le Mans lineup.
“There was no chance, no possibility for me to drive a Porsche this year in Le Mans and I wanted to be in Le Mans,” he explained. “I think a few teams thought that would be interesting so I had a few calls and TDS was probably the best package for me and the best fit and I’m happy to be here in LMP2.”
Fellow Porsche works driver Heinrich is likewise looking forward to racing alongside his stablemates.
“I wouldn’t call it a rivalry so far because we all focus on ourselves until right now,” he said when Sportscar365 asked if there was any rivalry within the trio. “But, once the green flag drops, it’s going to be a funny situation once I know that the car in front or behind is one of my Porsche brand colleagues — it will be funny to fight each other in a different type of machinery this time.”
Heinrich will make his Le Mans debut in the Pro-Am subclass, competing with the CrowdStrike by APR entry alongside LMP2 regulars George Kurtz and Alex Quinn.
“It’s very exciting because I’m a rookie and that’s not a situation which I find myself very often in,” he said. “But I’m just enjoying the experience so far and can’t wait to get out on track to feel the car on track for the first time.”
“It’s not easy because there’s not so much driving time, especially also if you consider it’s not only the race which is new to me but the car and the category I’m racing in.”
Heinrich first sampled the Oreca at a Watkins Glen test and admitted to being surprised by how different it was from the Porsche 963 he’s now accustomed to driving.
“Both are prototypes but the characteristics of the car are very different — they couldn’t be any more different actually,” he explained. “From where I come from, which is sim racing, where you keep driving new tracks and new cars all the time, so I think that’s something I’ve learnt to adapt quickly and I hope we can use that well here also.”
Andlauer, meanwhile, is set to share the Team Duqueine entry with Doriane Pin and Richard Verschoor and brings with him prior LMP2 experience from two Asian Le Mans Series campaigns with Proton Competition and Pure Rxcing.
“It’s all very different [at Le Mans] but in the end to have this little background driving the P2 for two winters in a row I think helps me a lot because I know what to expect from the car,” said Andlauer, who completed two days of testing with the team at Paul Ricard.
“It feels strange for me because I’m the oldest (in his lineup) — that’s never happened before. I’ve always been the kid of the crew but I feel like I’m the daddy who needs to take care of the crew now.”
“We’re going to be against drivers and teams which have a great experience and I think it’s going to be full of challenges.”
