How Romain Dumas is walking in the footsteps of other Le Mans legends

“I was itching to come back.”

Romain Dumas may have missed out on the last two runnings of the Le Mans 24 Hours, but he has returned for 2026, this time in a double role.

The epitome of an eclectic driver, Dumas has always tried his hand – and excelled – at as many disciplines of motorsport as he could, from rallying to rally-raid, while he may be best-known for his endurance exploits. He even holds the all-time course record at Pikes Peak, arguably the most prestigious hillclimb event in the world.

Nowadays, Dumas’ racing activity typically involves his own team, which he has entered in the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time.

As we enter the RD Limited hospitality in the paddock at Circuit de la Sarthe, something immediately draws our attention.

Taking centre stage is a glass case displaying scale models of Dumas’ previous machinery, mostly from Le Mans. A throwback to a glorious past, from Porsche to Audi via Pescarolo and Glickenhaus. Miniature trophies replicating that wielded by Dumas on the nearby podium were meticulously placed in front of the race-winning Audi R15 TDI plus, Porsche 911 RSR and Porsche 919 Hybrid. The Frenchman triumphed outright with the first and the latter, while the 911 RSR was driven to a class win in GTE Pro.

Models of the cars driven by Dumas at the RD Limited hospitality area

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

As it happens, 2026 will mark Dumas’ 24th Le Mans start as a driver, making him joint-sixth in the history books – nine races down on record holder Henri Pescarolo.

The two French legends’ stories are deeply intertwined. As a youngster, Dumas admired popular stalwart Pescarolo, who took four outright victories in a Le Mans career that spanned from 1966 to 1999. A few years later, Dumas would race for Pescarolo’s own team, taking an overall podium finish in 2007.

As it happens, Pescarolo and Jean Rondeau are part of a rare breed of drivers who raced at Le Mans as team owners – with Rondeau writing history as he triumphed in the car bearing his name, back in 1980.

"We’re not trying to be different, but we like being different" Romain Dumas

So when those two endurance icons are brought up in the context of RD Limited’s Le Mans bid, Dumas’ reaction is telling. “This question proves what people like about our challenge,” he says. “We’re the only team with the owner/driver, a completely French one, we’re newcomers coming in. In France, people are happy to see me drive, so this team is a nice story which people appreciate.

“Look at our hospitality: it’s neat, it’s pretty, it’s evocative of France, and I think it’s completely different from everyone else, but that’s great. That’s what I wanted: something very neat, with a human touch, and welcoming.

“We’re not trying to be different, but we like being different and, mostly, being ourselves. Doing things cleanly, doing them well, and we don’t have to do things like everyone else.”

Rondeau made history when he drove his own car to victory in the 1980 Le Mans 24 Hours

Photo by: Bernard Cahier / Getty Images

Interestingly, in this hospitality, the furniture is wooden. This may be a detail, but this writer has never seen the like, and it does create a much warmer atmosphere than plastic or metal.

However, tables and chairs are just one of many ways Dumas will unapologetically stand out from the crowd.

“When we entered endurance, we didn’t do it like anyone else, we went straight to LMP2,” he explains. “Many said we should go to LMP3 and gradually step up. I considered that with the results we were having, we didn’t need these entry steps. In the first year, we won our very first race.”

RD Limited did enjoy much success in the 2024-25 Asian Le Mans Series – without Dumas at the wheel, it must be clarified, as Australian driver James Allen took the third spot for two seasons alongside Tristan Vautier and bronze-rated Fred Poordad.

“But at Le Mans, we’re completely humble.” Here, Dumas speaks hours after Poordad qualified the #48 car in 18th out of 19 in the LMP2 category, some eight seconds off Doriane Pin’s pace. “We’re lucky to do it in Pro-Am this year. This allows us to have less stress. We’re freer and can learn everything around it.

“We’re very much aware that we’re going to get our asses kicked,” he adds with refreshing honesty, “because some teams have been here every year for five years, and we’re just getting here. We’re missing some years, but it’s okay. You’ve got to start somewhere.

Dumas welcomed us in the RD Limited hospitality, with a warm atmosphere

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

“We can’t start in Hypercar, everyone will agree. We can’t start in GT3, because 80% of the time it’s a constructor – and we don’t have one. So the only category where you can start is LMP2. And LMP2 is good because there’s no BoP. So it’s about your work, your performance – the drivers’ like the team’s.

“But LMP2, from that point of view, without BoP, when you get to Le Mans for the first time, is the hardest category. If today, we’re two seconds off, which is huge for a spec category – if I were in GT3 or in Hypercar, I’d blame the BoP. In my garage, everyone would be happy, including myself! But here, you can’t hide behind anything because there’s no BoP. All you can do is work a bit more and try to understand.”

In that context, it would be easy to suggest Dumas simply should have picked a better amateur driver, but the 48-year-old has a different outlook. He’d rather stick with the people he has built his team around, regardless of their potential lack of experience – as many will work on several of the outfit’s racing programmes – or speed, in Poordad’s case.

"I know how complex the system is – I know it all too well, actually. Sometimes, you think you must be completely stupid to keep fighting like this" Romain Dumas

“What I’m proudest of is, out of the 25 people in my garage, 12 or 13 had never been to Le Mans. The idea for this team was to be like me, but there’s also loyalty here,” Dumas explained. “I could very easily have told Poordad, ‘I’m not taking you because you’re the slowest, or one of the slowest amateurs, second-to-last yesterday’. But without Poordad, we couldn’t have done this in the last two years.

“And it’s exactly the same for the mechanics. Some of them were in Argentina with me 10 days ago for the Rally-Raid World Championship, and some of them are going to Pikes Peak with me on Monday. Who, in the paddock, can say they’re doing this or they’ve done this? No team can.

“That’s what I want to highlight above all. To put it simply, we’re not here to be amateurs in the first year, but we’re here to be a nice human story – loyal, clean.

Dumas is passionate about all kinds of racing machinery, but he also values the human aspect of racing

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

“We know the first year is the worst. But I didn’t want to hire 20 guys with Le Mans experience and squeeze out some of the youngsters in my workshop, who are working like crazy to be here.

“In the Pitstop Challenge, they screwed up, they were upset – but two days before they didn’t even know there was going to be a Pitstop Challenge! I would have said, ‘Let’s not do this, this is a bad idea, it’s the best way to get injured’. And this morning all of them were like, ‘How are we going to find two seconds?’ They get it quickly. We all have racing in our blood.”

But when it comes to this Le Mans, the challenge clearly is different to everything Dumas, a former Porsche factory driver, has ever experienced.

Coming back to Sarthe after a couple of years away is one thing – and Dumas doesn’t feel like he’ll be held back by fitness, based on his practice performance and the fact that he’s still been driving race cars regularly.

But his mental load has significantly increased, though managing your own team up to the slightest detail is rewarding. Asked about how much busier his schedule has been with his double role, Dumas details: “I do lots of races for my team – we do the Dakar, we do Pikes Peak, we do rallies. We’ve done kind of everything – a bit like myself! But we’d never done Le Mans.

“But organising Le Mans is a heavy, heavy workload. When we do LMP2 [in Asian Le Mans Series], it’s quite easy – the freight travels from one race to another in a container. So once it leaves the workshop, you don’t have to manage it anymore.

Nobody has ever been faster than Dumas in the legendary Pikes Peak hillclimb race

Photo by: Volkswagen

“Here, there’s the freight, the pits, the hospitality, what’s behind the pits. All of this must be drawn, measured to the centimetre, the ACO must be informed… all the homologations and norms – so many things we’ve never done for other races. So, a huge amount of paperwork. But we’ve been learning gradually – we’re learning for the future.”

So what’s the difference like on a day like Le Mans Thursday, with two practice sessions on the agenda? “Mainly making sure everything goes well within the team, which is 80% of the day,” he replies. “From the radio systems to people getting on well, the schedule being correctly established, collecting people from the train station – stuff you’ve never worried about before. People’s parking situation, the hospitality, food being ready on time – unlikely stuff.”

“When I drive for a constructor – Porsche in the past [in endurance], Ford now [in rally-raid] – I get paid to race, I send my invoice and I have nothing to do. But when you’ve got a company, a team, when you do the Dakar, when you do Pikes Peak – as a privateer – you have to build the programme. So I know how complex the system is – I know it all too well, actually. Sometimes, you think you must be completely stupid to keep fighting like this.

 "As long as I can be quick, there’s no reason to stop. I’m very much aware I don’t have another 24 [races] ahead, let’s face it. I’m very much aware I’m one of the oldest, this has been said to me enough – constructors have said this to me enough, rightly or wrongly so, I don’t know. But I don’t care" Romain Dumas

“Most teams are a business above all. I can tell you my first business is my passion for being here. I could stay at home; on Monday I’m going to Pikes Peak, I’m doing my race, I’m sending my invoice, and like everyone else I get my check at the end of the month. So getting into this is another challenge. But I do it out of passion and for passion. And I’ve got no regrets about this, it’s delightful.”

And when we ask about RD Limited’s Le Mans future, Dumas is adamant this is what he wants – and he’s keen to make the most of everything he has learnt so far.

“Once you’re here, you know…” he ponders. “The hardest is this year – organising everything, understanding everything. Once you know the inner workings, the second year is a lot more straightforward.

Dumas (middle) got to race at Le Mans with Pescarolo Sport, his hero’s racing team

Photo by: Andre Durand / AFP via Getty Images

“You learn things you’d never have imagined. This tent here is 6m wide, the truck is 2.50m, because you’ve got 8.50m by 20m. I know this by heart. I can tell you how much the flower cost, where the fridge came from, and meals are €30 per person. There’s colossal work ahead of Le Mans. Those last four months… I hope we’ll be back, because all the work I’ve done for this means it’ll be a bit more relaxed later. Not many drivers know everything I now know about Le Mans – not even team managers, who outsource it to companies which do it for them.”

But how long Dumas will be at the wheel is another topic altogether. His entry as a driver is understood to have strengthened RD Limited’s case for a spot on the very competitive Le Mans grid, but he will turn 50 at the end of next year. Still, there are much older drivers at the French classic – Poordad himself is 61 – and, albeit aware that time is working against him, Dumas intends to keep racing for as long as he can.

“I have no idea, everyone is asking me!” he says of his future at Le Mans as a driver. “As long as I can be quick, there’s no reason to stop. I’m very much aware I don’t have another 24 [races] ahead, let’s face it. I’m very much aware I’m one of the oldest, this has been said to me enough – constructors have said this to me enough, rightly or wrongly so, I don’t know. But I don’t care. I’ve always been an autodidact. I do things the way I want to. Many talk much and do little. But we are here.”

And the makeup of the RD Limited squad matches Dumas with much more juvenile team members, whose youthfulness provides a reminder of how exciting life – and motorsport – can be.

“It reminds me of myself in the late 1990s, when I was in the grandstand like an idiot, watching Pescarolo and his team.”

Nearly three decades on, perhaps this is Dumas’ full-circle moment.

Perhaps Dumas was watching from the grandstands when this picture was taken...

Photo by: LAT Images via Getty Images