2019/20 FIA World Endurance LMGTE Am Drivers Champion François Perrodo returns to the European Le Mans Series in 2021 alongside fellow world champion Emmanuel Collard and Italian Alessio Rovera in the no88 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO.
The Franco-Italian trio competed in the last race of the 2020 season in Portimão as a precursor for their full season entry this year.
To help prepare for the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans, Perrodo, Collard and Harrison Newey took part in the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in August, scoring an ELMS podium when they finished second behind the no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari.
François Perrodo also competed in the ELMS in 2018 where he raced in LMP2 for TDS Racing alongside Loïc Duval and Matthieu Vaxiviere, where they scored two second place finishes at Paul Ricard and Monza.
The 2021 season is going to be a busy one for François Perrodo as he is also defending his world crown in the FIA WEC alongside Emmanuel Collard and 2019 ELMS LMGTE Champion Nicklas Nielsen.
We caught up with François as he prepares for the busy season ahead.
Q: Welcome back to the ELMS.This season you are racing with AF Corse, the team you won the world title in Bahrain last November. What are your expectations and goals for the 2021 ELMS season?
“So, I would say, in all modesty, that our reasonable expectation would be to finish in the top three at the end of the season.When you look at the field this year, with ten cars and judging by the teams that have entered, the level is definitely going to step up from the previous season, which is great and is what we want.Obviously, we’re going to shoot for victory but if we finish in the top three, we will be very happy.”
Q: You will be racing with Emmanuel Collard once again this season. You two have been racing together for many seasons, can you describe to use how important it is for you to work with Emmanuel?
“We’ve been racing together since 2013, so that’s eight seasons.It is very important for obvious reasons because as an amateur, this is not my day job.I’m doing racing for pleasure as above all it’s a passion.If it’s not to have fun with your teammates whilst you’re not in the car, trust me, it can make the weekend very long indeed!To be able to share these moments not only with a good pilot / mentor / coach, but also with a good friend makes all the difference.
“I knowingly decided not to race with Manu in WEC this season because I was offered to race with Nicklas (Nielsen) but it was important for me to keep sharing those moments with a good friend; so Manu it is for ELMS!I hope we will be able to race together until we get really old!”
Q: What was it like to win the World Endurance LMGTE Drivers Championship with Emmanuel, Nicklas and AF Corse?
“It was amazing, it had been a roller coaster season. We were generally not the favourites in terms of outright pace, there were two or three cars that were always faster than us.If you look at the season, the reason we won was because we were the most consistent.We never had a DNF and I think we never finished worse than fourth place.So even though we only scored two wins out of eight races, it was the fact the others had a DNF or mechanical issues or accidents.
“The last race in Bahrain was amazing because halfway through the race we were last one lap down and somehow, we finished second and won the championship. It’s definitely credit to Nicklas, he was the revelation of last season and to the boys at AF Corse; a credit job by the mechanics and the engineer, who was brilliant for the strategy.”
Q: Apart from racing, what else have you been doing to keep busy during these difficult times of the Covid-19 pandemic?
“Work and more work!I work in the oil and gas industry on the operations side and my company is involved in fifteen different countries, so you can imagine what a nightmare it was all the way back to April/May with all the border closures and the problem to travel.
“We have to send out our colleagues to the oil rigs, so for a few months I was very happy the racing season was put on hold as I know it was a nightmare for everybody, but it was particularly for ourselves.Once we got used to the new world, I was able to stay focused on my job but also focus a little bit more on family life and try and keep up the sports.”
Q: The first race of the season will be the 4 Hours of Barcelona.What are your thoughts on the track?
“I have raced there in other series and we had the WEC Prologue there in 2019.I’ll be honest, it’s not one of my favourite tracks.Barcelona is not a bad track, it’s a 6 or 7 out of 10 for me.I find it very technical and very hard to put up a good lap.
“My personal feeling is it doesn’t have a lot of rhythm, as opposed to Red Bull Ring for example, which just has more flow.Hopefully we’ll get this one out of the way and the rest of the season has some better tracks for me.”
The opening round of the 2021 European Le Mans Series will be the 4 Hours of Barcelona on the 16-18April.
