Chrysler LMP update for Donington

NEW LIVERY, THREE MORE DRIVERS FOR CHRYSLER LMP The 2001 Chrysler Le Mans Prototype makes its race debut at Donington Park, England, this weekend at the first round of the European Le Mans Series in preparation for the 69th edition of the Le Mans ...

NEW LIVERY, THREE MORE DRIVERS FOR CHRYSLER LMP

The 2001 Chrysler Le Mans Prototype makes its race debut at Donington Park, England, this weekend at the first round of the European Le Mans Series in preparation for the 69th edition of the Le Mans 24 hours on June 16/17.


	The LMP. Photo: DaimlerChrysler

The car features a new silver and blue livery, replacing the grey in which the car was launched in Barcelona in January. The team has also taken the opportunity to announce three more drivers who will race the Mopar-powered 6-litre, V8 open-cockpit prototype at Le Mans.

Frenchman Stephane Sarrazin, who drove in the 1999 Brazilian Grand Prix for Minardi and was an official Prost Grand Prix test driver, will join Chrysler's driving line up, as will countryman Franck Montagny and Germany's Norman Simon.

Montagny contested last year's Le Mans and was on course for fourth position overall before a mechanical failure forced his team out. Simon has experience of prototype racing, having driven in four rounds of the American Le Mans Series last year and was on course for second overall at the "Race of a Thousand Years" in Adelaide, Australia, on New Years eve before he, too, retired due to mechanical failure.

All three drivers have experience of Formula 3000, the single-seat racing category that is one step down from Formula One commonly used as the final proving ground for Grand Prix drivers.

"These drivers are very young, but they all have experience and brains," said ORECA Sporting Director Pierre Dieudonn=E9. "Our target with the new Mopar-powered Chrysler LMP is to be in a position to win next year and we are working with a group of young drivers, giving them a chance to develop."

Other drivers already included in the nine seats available for Le Mans include Frenchman Yannick Dalmas, who has won Le Mans on no fewer than four occasions, Monegasque Olivier Beretta and Austrian Karl Wendlinger. Wendlinger and Beretta have formed one of the most succesfull partnerships in modern endurance racing, twice winning their class at the Le Mans 24 Hours as well as international titles on both sides of the Atlantic.