Nicolas Minassian: Peugeot's dark horse

There was a time when Nicolas Minassian would have been forgiven for thinking that his career just wasn't meant to be. He finished as runner-up in four consecutive championships in his junior career, without winning one, and ground to a halt after finishing runner-up in Formula 3000 in 2000 (ahead of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso).

With nothing on the table in Europe, he followed in the footsteps of many before him and headed out to America, but he found only a handful of races with Chip Ganassi.

Over the next couple of years he appeared in one-off F3000 and World Series races back in Europe, and winning a British stock car title didn't exactly progress professional ambitions.

But he was quick enough everywhere he went that he never fell entirely off the radar, and he got his break in sportscars at Le Mans in 2003 with Pescarolo. Five years later, he's leading Peugeot's factory assault with the quickest car on the grid and has a golden opportunity to finally take home that elusive silverware.

It's a true testament to what might have been that in a team of nine drivers, he's the only one not to have raced in Formula One, yet he's the quickest of the bunch and regarded by many in the paddock as probably the best sportscar driver in the world.

So, does Minassian wonder what could have happened if he'd got that break? At 35, does he see his career as one of as yet unrewarded talent? Not a bit of it.

Nicolas Minassian leads an Audi during the Le Mans test © Peugeot

"You know what, about F1, I don't care," he says. "I just don't care about it, I never had any problem with that. I know what I can do and I'm happy to keep that to myself.

"I'm comfortable where I am and I never look behind, there's no point. I know I'm not rubbish compared to the Formula One drivers. Every time I'm in the Peugeot I'm quick and I can do pole positions, and I'm happy that I can say I'm doing a good job.

"But that's not just me, we are all doing a good job. I think anybody who is quick in an LMP1 car could be in F1; I don't see why not - look at Allan McNish."

Minassian says that, unlike many drivers these days that are backed by manufacturers or sponsor programs such as Red Bull, he never had any opportunities to get into F1 with nobody fighting his corner.

"I never had a sniff of F1. I was never considered, even though I raced with Alonso, Webber, and Montoya and they were often behind me. I think it was partly because I'm French. It depends which era you're in, but in 2000, French was not fashionable.

"There were plenty of good French drivers, there still are, just look at them winning in other places, But neither Renault nor the French sponsors pushed to have a French driver in a car and the other countries push for their drivers more.

"I remember when Jenson Button first tested a Formula One car, the press went crazy. They helped him get a drive by talking about it so much, but I think it's a good thing to have this support otherwise you don't go anywhere.

"If it wasn't for me phoning and sending letters myself I never would have even driven a car. I tested for Williams in 1997, but what do you want me to show you with 35 laps?

"I had to try for a year to get a BAR test in 1999. I called Craig Pollock all the time saying, 'give me a chance to show you what I can do'.

"I got three days at Pembrey and I did a good job, but when the contract for the test driver came up it went to Darren Manning. I've nothing against Darren, he's perfectly capable and a very good driver that I like, but I don't know why they didn't want me, looking at what I'd achieved.

"I can talk about all this now if someone wants to know, but I'm not bitter about it. It just wasn't meant to be and I wouldn't change sportscar racing for anything. I'd be more than happy to stay doing this and I've got the break I wanted with a constructor. They give you everything you need to do a good job.

Teammates Jacques Villeneuve and Marc Gene © LAT

"I have Le Mans now and I really want to win it. For me, to win the Le Mans 24 Hours would be the biggest thing there is, better than anything else. That's my focus, I only think about winning that race."

And the chances are that Minassian won't get a much better chance to win one of the world's greatest races than the one he'll have at La Sarthe this weekend. He's back, sharing the No.7 908HDi with Marc Gene and Jacques Villeneuve for the second time, and the trio won the recent Le Mans Series race at Spa-Francorchamps.

Minassian led the team to what could have been a second place finish on Peugeot's comeback last year, until engine problems forced the car into retirement in the final hour of the race.

But with a year's development on the car, the 908 comes into this year's event quicker than the previously all-conquering Audi R10 and one of the French factory's trio of cars will be expected to win if their reliability holds together.

"I don't think you should put us as favourites," says Minassian cautiously, "but I think we've got as much chance as Audi have got. Last year I was running second, a few laps behind the leader but a few laps ahead of the third, and two hours before the end I was already thinking about the podium. How wrong was I? It was unbelievable.

"But last year the team was there just to learn and get as much data as possible. Even so, I was still thinking I could win the race because you've got to think like that. But this year, given how we've started the season and how the testing went, I'm quite confident that we'll have a chance."

Although Peugeot has an advantage over Audi on pure speed, Minassian says that the team can't afford to drive at anything other than 100 per cent in the race.

"If you try to drive slower you can make more mistakes than if you keep a good rhythm because the concentration is not as high.

"Of course it's always better to be in a position to not have to take too many risks to be as quick as the other guys. We know we can be quicker if we really push, but Le Mans is always different.

"Audi know what they're doing. They have probably reacted a little bit (from their LMS form) and they will probably be closer here than they've been at other places. But I think we might have a little bit of a cushion, if you can call it that."

As always, reliability will be a key factor, and this is the area where question marks still hang over the Peugeot.

"Le Mans is not always about pace. You've got to have a bit of pace, but you've also got to have reliability," Minassian added. "You can never be 100 per cent confident, but I am confident. I've seen enough to know that it is a reliable car, but I couldn't say that it's exactly 100 per cent.

The third Peugeot of Ricardo Zonta, Franck Montagny, and Christian Klien © LAT

"Something can always happen somewhere, you never know. Sometimes Audi tell you they can run for 30 hours non-stop with no problems, but sometimes they turn up to a race and have a problem with an alternator or something. Nobody is completely sure.

"The addition of the third car is a plus because it gives us a bigger chance. It's one more car that could be there at the end of the race. All of our drivers are good, but that's the same at Audi too. In sportscar racing, and at Le Mans, the level is getting higher all the time so it gets harder every year."

So how does Minassian rate his chances going into Le Mans week? He's optimistic, quietly determined, and although he says the right things, he can't hide his hunger.

"I think we're nicely ready to give it a good shot. Everything is ready. To say we are going to win it, I don't know, you can never say that. But at least we've done our best to prepare and now we just have to get in the car and do the job."