To date Romain Dumas is the only driver confirmed by Glickenhaus Racing for the 2023 season of the FIA World Endurance Championship, for which there is a great desire to start over.
The acrobatic Jim Glickenhaus’ team appears for the third time on the starting grid with his SCG 007 LMH #708 managed by Podium Advanced Technologies to fight in the Hypercar Class.
It will be the ‘David vs. Goliath’ challenge again for the Italian-American team, but a lot has been learned in three seasons and Dumas underlines how much this thing is enormously burdening the entire team.
#708 Glickenhaus Racing Glickenhaus 007 LMH di Romain Dumas
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
“We are all very motivated to restart the season, the last race last year in Monza went very well. A long time has passed since then, Sebring certainly won’t be the best track from which to start again, but we are excited”, explains the French in a round table with journalists in which Motorsport.com took part.
“If we think about how the last two years have gone, we were certainly the big surprise because no one at first would have expected us to arrive in the championship and be fast right away. In 2022 we were very close to the others, just look at the results at Spa. Le Mans and Monza”.
“Now it is true that things get complicated with the arrival of so many important brands, but in the end we know what we have to do thanks to the experience of these two years. Reliability is on our side and the only serious problem in both seasons took place in Monza last year”.
#708 Glickenhaus Racing Glickenhaus 007 LMH at Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas, Luis Felipe Derani
Photo by: Morgese / Gandolfi
At 45, the transalpine has already seen all kinds of things in his career and knows very well that fighting against manufacturers of the caliber of Toyota, Peugeot, Porsche, Cadillac and Ferrari will not be easy at all.
But as it is for the ByKolles Racing Vanwall, also in Glickenhaus there is the desire to put a spanner in the works of the bigger ones by exploiting the fact of not having great external pressures due to… history.
“We’ll see how it goes, we know it will be difficult, but we have advantages, such as being a small group of people who have less pressure from others who necessarily want you to win. Unfortunately, in the end, only one can make it, so we don’t it would be realistic to think of winning the title or Le Mans, but we are close to the others in terms of performance”.
“We can count on reliability and stress-free motivation, we all work hard and will try to take advantage of every opportunity. We are lucky that our boss wanted to carry out a private program against very big houses. It reminds me of what Pescarolo did 15 years ago, not many they succeeded”.
“Last season we showed up at Sebring after not racing for months, so for this one it will be more or less the same. We will have to find out how to use the tires and other aspects, it will certainly be difficult, but we know Spa, Monza and Le Mans, so there I think that we will be competitive”.
#708 Glickenhaus Racing Glickenhaus 007 LMH at Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas, Pipo Derani
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Dumas then touches on a very ‘uncomfortable’ topic such as that of the Balance of Performance, in his opinion the real referee of the match who will determine the values on the pitch.
“We have known the car for two years and we know that everything revolves around reliability and Balance of Performance, which in the end is what matters most. We have a two-wheel drive car which compared to those with a hybrid, which leads to all-wheel drive, it’s certainly unfavorable. We know it and the others know it too, we’ll see what happens.”
“Frankly, I don’t know what will happen at Sebring because in the Prologue there will be those who want to hide, something I’ve seen for years now and on which the FIA is struggling to understand which choices to adopt with the BoP. We know there will be those who will complain, I hope that in these two days of testing we can find the best solution. But I know it’s a complicated job and so I wish all the best to whoever has to face it”.
#708 Glickenhaus Racing Glickenhaus 007 LMH at Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas, Pipo Derani
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Finally, the veteran Romain follows the thoughts of his boss, James Glickenhaus, who a week ago underlined the absurdity of the new rule banning tyrewarmers, which he said were dangerous for those who go on the track with cold tyres.
The choice was adopted by the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest in the wake of the reduction of pollution and environmental impacts, but this will involve additional risks and difficulties for the drivers, as Dumas himself points out.
“I think this is one of the most important aspects of the discussion, so much so that our boss James immediately spoke about it. I remember having a chat about it with Pierre Fillon, President of ACO, and we had different points of view” .
“Frankly, it’s difficult to give the right answer. My idea is that motorsport today must certainly find a way to be a little less polluting and give a good image of itself. But speaking as a driver, it certainly won’t be easy and we’ll have to work a lot to find the best compromise”.
“Also remember that there are some tracks where people are always in the middle of the racing line when you arrive, while at Spa and Le Mans the temperatures are low, especially in France at night. This could create serious problems, so it’s good to take your chances to be more ecological, but in such a situation things become more difficult and I don’t completely agree with this decision”.
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