[LM24] Pescarolo Sport future plans...?!?!

[Karl Kling]

I'm totally confused, what the ---- happened? Can someone please provide a short recap?

[Victor_RO]

Very briefly, it seems as though Henri was short of budget, tried to sell a share majority in the team and it all went horribly wrong.

[WMUCarGuy]

So how might this affect Oak racing since they're still running Pescarolos?

[isynge]

I suspect a short recap will be almost impossible; but here's an initial stab at it...

Perpetual... Pescarolo has never been an especially well funded team, especially after the loss of the Peugeot engine supply in 2003. This led to a fairly hand-to-mouth existence, even if we could safely say that what money there was was spent on what was worthwhile.

At the same time it's worth bearing in mind that Henri's never been that focused on the marketing aspect of his team, and the falling out with Soheil Ayari and more particularly the Bouchut affair in 2006 could be seen as leading to the loss of Matmut as a sponsor.

By the end of '07 Pescarolo Sport became Pescarolo Automobiles, with Jacques Nicolet taking a considerable stake in the team. At the end of 2008, with the economy rapidly going downhill Nicolet stepped his involvement back, and Sora Composites stepped in and purchased the Pescarolo race team for 1 Euro.

What exactly was involved in this transaction is still unclear in mind but either way it put Sora firmly in the driving seat. The Sora involvement did not involve funding the team, instead there was an idea that they would in some way support the search for new backers. Over the course of 2009 this didn't appear to happen, and around the time of Okayama I seem to remember there being some staff changes at Sora Racing which involved some of the people more involved in the racing side of the operation leaving the team.

Also in late 2009 the intellectual property rights to the Pescarolo 01 were sold to Oak Racing (so back to Jacques Nicolet). Henri himself appeared to have been marginalised at Sora (he didn't go to Okayama) and over the winter there were a lot of question marks over what was happening and there was something of a surprise when the two entries for Le Mans were taken up.

Py, the Sora owner, now appeared focused on selling the race team and being focused on building the racing school cars commissioned by the ACO. This led to the whole Genii sage, that has now come to a standstill. At some point Henri Pescarolo was dismissed by Py, and there may well still be court proceedings ongoing, probably meaning that comment on this directly is sub judice.

It would appear that Py has not wanted to directly run a race team - and from the start he was clear that he was not interested in funding it - hence, once the Genii deal fell through it was pretty much all over for the LMP1 Pescarolos at Le Mans.

Henri has said that the buildings and staff are there to run a sportscar campaign, but not at present the cars (which belong to Sora), the IP to build more (this belongs to Nicolet and Oak), or one assumes the budget.

I think we all hope that a regrouping can take place, and I'm sure we could speculate about how Nicolet could once again start to play more of a role, assuming that his financial position is now a bit more secure as Europe starts to move out of recession (subject obviously to what happens in Greece etc) but ultimately I think we can look at Pescarolo as being a victim of the recession's real long tail.

[Karl Kling]

Thanks! That makes it a bit clearer. Still a bloody shame though. I'll really miss Henri and his cars this summer. And what will happen to the little green man?

[Aysedasi]

Thanks for that Ian - I really was clueless as to what was going on. Henri really did get himself into a pickle, didn't he. So he was dismissed from 'his own' team then? That must have hit pretty hard.....

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Thanks for that Ian - I really was clueless as to what was going on. Henri really did get himself into a pickle, didn't he. So he was dismissed from 'his own' team then? That must have hit pretty hard.....

It has, every interview i've read since he got dismissed, he has sounded depressed, and very sad of the fact that he will not be at Le Mans.

I really really hope some manufacture picks him up as team manager, so he can do, what he does best, and all the other aspects is taking care of.

[Aysedasi]

Henri has forgotten more about running sports cars (particularly at Le Mans) than most other team managers/owners actually know. It would be awful for that knowledge to go to waste.....

[GT6]

Would it not be in Aud's interest to give him role?, I can think of no better way to get at Peugeot and perhaps give Henri some revenge for past treatment.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by GT6

Would it not be in Aud's interest to give him role?, I can think of no better way to get at Peugeot and perhaps give Henri some revenge for past treatment.

No way!
I think Henri is a bit mad at Audi for "stealing" his two victories in 2005 and 2006.
And if not, im not sure that the french and german are ready for that kind of alliance. Also it might conflict with Dr. Ullrich's position.

[Victor_RO]

If there's any new manufacturer coming into prototype racing, they'd be utterly barmy not to employ Pesca. Nissan's alliance with RLM suggests a possible return to LM in the near fture... I wonder if they're looking at a European-based team with possibly Henri in charge.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

If there's any new manufacturer coming into prototype racing, they'd be utterly barmy not to employ Pesca. Nissan's alliance with RLM suggests a possible return to LM in the near fture... I wonder if they're looking at a European-based team with possibly Henri in charge.

With the ungoing economical climate, im afraid there will be some time before we will se any new major effort from a car manufacture.
The one i still see as the most likely is a increased effort from Mazda, who currently are running in Pescarolo chassis, among others.

[Victor_RO]

Well OAK is running Judd engines with Mazda France sponsorship, Dyson is probably the only team in the world left running the Mazda MZR-R engine. Also, that sponsorship deal has to be a clue to at least something tentative going on behind the scenes... after all, we didn't know details of several major sportscar plans until they actually surfaced officially.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Well OAK is running Judd engines with Mazda France sponsorship, Dyson is probably the only team in the world left running the Mazda MZR-R engine. Also, that sponsorship deal has to be a clue to at least something tentative going on behind the scenes... after all, we didn't know details of several major sportscar plans until they actually surfaced officially.

Sorry i thought that they continued with last years engines.
But a Pescarolo Mazda connection has existed.
But i still seriously doubt any new effort from a manufacture.

[Félix]

At least having the Charouz kid in a Pescarolo for LM could mean interesting things for the future. We know Charouz is full of money and has invested it in a wide variety of it in Sportscars in the last few years. I could see them backing the P1 OAK Pesca for the Intercontinental cup, at the very least...