Drivers' and teams' champions in LMP3, Team Virage made its mark on the 2024 Ultimate Cup European Series season. In addition to its prototype victories, the team also played a leading role in single-seater racing. Team manager Julien Gerbi looks back on a very positive year for the Valencia-based outfit.
After winning both LMP3 titles in the European Endurance Prototype Cup, we can imagine that you're very satisfied with the 2024 season!
The initial aim was to continue in the same vein as our last few years in the Ultimate Cup European Series. We'd won in 2020, 2021 and 2023, after missing out in 2022. Naturally, we wanted to do it again. Every season, the competition is renewed and we don't know how our drivers will perform, especially when they're new as was the case at the start of the season. Right from the first race, we saw that we could play for the title with both cars.
How important is the Ultimate Cup European Series program to the Virage structure?
It's a great way to get started in endurance racing. The championship is a very good school for learning procedures, long runs, tire and fuel management. That's what's always attracted us. It helps prepare drivers, as we saw this year with Raphaël Narac and Georgios Kolovos, who competed in LMP2 in another category. Some of them will also be moving up to the next level with us.
This season, you never left the front-runners in any of the year's six races. In addition to your pace on the track, you've always been outstanding strategically. What's your secret?
Clearly, strategy is one of our strong points. The Ultimate Cup Series, with its particular rules and regulations on refueling, means that we sometimes have to come up with strategies that are a little off the mark. During the race, teams sometimes send us messages because they're wondering what we're doing. Then we see the result at the end of the race. But that's not all, because we also have fast drivers and cars that work.
You won the LMP3 team title in the penultimate round at Magny-Cours. Even if it's not your first, it's still something to be proud of?
Yes, because it's the result of hard work on and off the track. We had the advantage of having two competitive cars entered, and even a third at Mugello and in the final. We were constantly present, and even when one car wasn't finishing ahead, it was the other.
The drivers' championship came down to the final round between the N°1 (Axel Gnos, Georgios Kolovos, Sacha Lehmann), the N°88 (Raphaël Narac, Daniel Macia, Jacek Zielonka) and Pedro Perino (Inter Europol). Did you have any special instructions before the final?
Within the team, the only instruction was to do the job as usual, to prepare the cars in the same way as for the other rounds, and to leave nothing to chance. As for the drivers, we had to give them the same chances, so that the title would be decided solely on the track.
How did you feel about this last race?
We didn't do the calculations for the championship until the last half-hour. We were really focused on reading the race. We knew that as long as we managed the race like a normal event, the title would come. We started doing the sums about thirty minutes before the chequered flag.
In 2025, the LMP3s will have their own sprint championship with the European Sprint Prototype Cup. Will you be there?
As a team, we're always interested in running our cars. We just need drivers to be interested. Our presence doesn't depend on us.
In addition to your Prototype presence, you also took part in the Ultimate Formula Cup with Art-Line Virage. How did this single-seater project come about?
Single-seater racing is an area where we're less used to seeing Virage, but Philippe Gautheron and I come from this milieu. It's our first love. Philippe was an engineer, then technical director and even owned his own team. I raced single-seaters before becoming a coach and team manager in other categories, from F4 to GP2. For several years, we worked with Charles Pic, before he bought DAMS, testing in F3 but never racing. The project was relaunched with Art-Line as Alexander Abkhazava, the director's son, began his career.
Juan Francisco Soldavini arrived in Portimão for the second round.
His initial goal was to race in Portugal, as he didn't have a full schedule this season. He wanted to see how it would go and then decide on the future. He won the third race and then returned to Hockenheim, where he was a cut above his rivals. Juan Francisco understood that he had a chance of playing for the title even if he had missed the first meeting. He was joined at Mugello by Alexander Abkhazava, who wanted to gain experience in addition to his full Eurocup-3 program.
Juan Francisco had a very difficult weekend at Magny-Cours, where he was up against Enzo Richer for the title. It would have taken a miracle for him to become champion. Is that why he was absent from the final?
Magny-Cours was a big disappointment. In Race 1, he got caught up in it when he was in the lead. In Race 2, we tried a strategy of putting on rain tires in the hope that the race would be restarted. For safety's sake, it wasn't, otherwise he'd have won. Juan Francisco chose not to come, as it was no longer of any interest in terms of the championship.
Will you have single-seaters on the 2025 Hoosier Formula Cup grid?
We're working on it because it's a great program. This category allows us to run cars similar to FRECA, except for the tires. The championship is very well laid out, with plenty of running, starts and races at a price that's affordable compared with other categories. Young drivers can gain the necessary experience before moving up to the higher echelons.