Le Mans Series – Interview with Norbert Siedler

After a fifth place finish at the inaugural Le Mans Series race of the season at Monza Norbert Siedler and his team Kruse Motorsport are now keen on taking the challenge to the top teams of LMP2. The 24-year-old Austrian on his goals in a championship that has obviously made magnificent progress, both in terms of quality and popularity.

Q: The first race is over and people are already raved about the new face of the series. Almost 50 cars on the grid and a works team that showed up with a spaceship?
A: “Yes that’s true, the 908 Peugeots are fascinating cars and their appearance is very positive for the sport. Everybody is looking forward to seeing their battle against the Audis at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It will be very exciting."

Q: On whom would you place your bets in the LMP2 class?
A: “Hard to say, but I am sure we will be in the game. Reliability is the spell at Le Mans and my team has proved it more than once that they are extremely good in that respect."

Q: And what about pure speed?
A: “The Lolas and the new Zytec are very quick cars, but you must not underrate Pescarolo Sport. They have built a very good car, reliable and also quick. However, our main task for Monza was to finish the race, as an aggressive strategy would have been too risky."

Q: Given the short time they had to get the car prepared for Monza it was a miracle that you didn’t suffer from any kind of mechanical problem…
A: “Our main problem was a tire puncture that caused a damaged underbody. And in addition with a battery change that cost us definitely a podium. However, it was a good result for the inaugural race of the season and I am pretty optimistic that, with the help of Sean (Kruse Motorsport’s first engineer Sean Thompson), we will manage to work out a perfect set-up and go for a top result at Valencia."

Q: By the way, your engineer was missing at Monza but in the limelight in Bahrain…
A: “That’s right. Sean also works in GP2 for Super Nova and his driver, Luca Filippi, won the race over there."