Rallycross of Belgium – Meet Pierre Arnaud, the race engineer of Grégoire Demoustier!

After a weekend when he was racing on home turf, Grégoire Demoustier’s summary of the third round of the World Rallycross Championship is one of contrasts. The Belgian who drives for Sébastien Loeb Racing got back on the pace in the closing stages of the event after two very difficult qualifying heats. Greg left Mettet having added two more points to his tally. He was also satisfied as he knew he had improved throughout the third round. He takes advantage of this event to introduce his race engineer to us, Pierre Arnaud.

Summary

Grégoire Demoustier was in 16th place after the first two qualifying heats and there was no way he could be satisfied with such a result. So the whole Sébastien Loeb Racing team got down to work to help him achieve a position more in keeping with his potential and that of the Peugeot 208 WRX. Their work quickly paid off as on Sunday morning the Belgian improved his results in Q3 and Q4 and finished his weekend on a high note!

Grégoire Demoustier (Sébastien Loeb Racing driver): “To sum up my weekend I have to say that the first day was pretty frustrating as in Montalegre we began to glimpse that our performance and results were starting to improve compared to our rivals, and we didn’t find ourselves in the same situation here. We couldn’t understand why. I had the impression that I was driving better and pushing harder, but the times weren’t as good so it was frustrating. As a result we called ourselves into question and tried to find a different approach; we modified some setups, which helped us to suddenly improve our times. In Q3 and Q4, it was better, but with all the race incidents it’s never simple. Overall, it’s positive as we put our finger on what wasn’t working even if I’d have preferred to have put on a more scintillating performance here. In the end we’re continuing our learning curve, and I don’t forget the fact that I too have to improve!”
Story of a team

From Mettet to Lohéac by way of Silverstone and Riga, Greg opens the doors of Sébastien Loeb Racing to you by spotlighting a member of his team race after race. The first link in the chain to tell us about himself is race engineer, Pierre Arnaud. But that’s not his only role!

“I wanted to take advantage of our visit to Belgium to introduce you to my brother-in-law and race engineer. I met Pierre for the first time when I was racing in GT. He’s from the south, but he’s spent a lot of time in Belgium and he’s my sister’s partner and the father of my nephew who arrived a short time ago. We have a rather special relationship as we see each other outside the races. This year we decided to work together and we’re both very happy about this. It’s going very well and we haven’t got the right to have a row!” Grégoire Demoustier.

Pierre Arnaud (Gregoire Demoustier’s race engineer at Sébastien Loeb Racing) “Basically, I’m a race engineer and until this year I’d only done circuit racing. I began this job eight years ago. Grégoire had done a fair amount of racing in various championships and he had his first taste of rallycross last year, which is what he now prefers. His father, Jean-Paul, then said to himself that he had an engineer in the family as I’m Grégoire’s brother-in-law and that he could bring me in on this project provided it interested me. This turned out to be the case and I was incorporated into the project right from the start as I did all the calculations and drawings to create the car. I then helped in assembling the 208. Put simply, I was involved from the concept of the car to the fabrication of the parts, the assembly and now the running, so it’s one of the best projects in which I could have taken part, and what’s more it’s a family one! I see the car that I created racing so for me it’s far from just being a simple race engineer. We finished the car rather late and we had to give the first official practice a miss, but we were there for the second one. Before tackling the season, three days weren’t enough as the other entrants already had experience from the previous seasons. In addition, the majority of the teams have test mules while we have to make do with this one car. Obviously, we’re paying for our lack of experience in terms of results. For me we’re where we should be. After that it’s interesting as we’re learning everything at the same time whether it’s Greg in the driving seat, me in the operating phases, and the team too, as for Sébastien Loeb Racing Rallycross is very new even if they can call on their experience in other branches of motor sport as well as Sébastien’s, of course. The car’s sound and quick out of the box so that’s already a piece of good fortune for us. To come back to my relationship with Greg, it’s clear that the family aspect plays a role as we see each other outside races. At the weekend I take all the technical decisions concerning what should be done on the car. I coach him too and we get on like a house on fire. He’s very easy to work with. I was incorporated into Sébastien Loeb Racing without problems. When Yannick the car chief and ‘Bobby’ the second mechanic came to assemble the 208 at Richard Tur’s (part of Onroak Automotive) for whom, don’t forget, it was all new too we worked hand in hand. There’s always a slight lapse between the design department and the practical side that the mechanics spot immediately. For example, there mustn’t be five kinds of screws for the same part so we don’t waste time. That’s why it all got off to a great start with Sébastien Loeb Racing right from the word go as everyone did their bit. I bet a lot on the operating team and we haven’t had any mechanical failures that have stopped us in our tracks as the car has always raced, which proves that we’ve done a good job. The regulations of this championship allow us to make the car as we see fit so all the guys give us their opinion on the design and don’t hesitate to make modifications. Everybody’s really heavily involved. From a sporting point of view our aim this season is to reach the semi-final and niggle the top guns a bit more. Where I’m concerned I have only one wish and that’s to build another car to make improvements where I see fit!”