November 6, 2009
Franck has returned to Le Mans this weekend, for a Peugeot Sport Meeting. I’ve never heard of this event before, but there’s some more info available. It looks like it’s all different types of Peugeot cars and drivers head to the track to entertain the fans.
Franck won’t be in the 908, but is still happy to drive, and will be sharing the wheel with Minassian and Sarrazin.
If you’re lucky enough to be near Le Mans, here’s a schedule for the weekend:
Friday, Nov 6
9:00 Drivers briefing
13:30 Qualifying session (1 hour)
Saturday, Nov 7
10h45 Signing session at the Peugeot motorhome
11:30 908 Demo
12:30 6 Hour-race start
Keep your eyes peeled for pictures!
October 31, 2009
FKM will be on TF1 tomorrow in France to talk about the first ever Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi. The race will be interesting as it is also the first twilight GP, and looks like it might be an interesting one.
He’ll be on at 13:55 French time. I don’t have access to the channel, but yay for Mr M anyways!
October 21, 2009
It’s very quiet in Franckland at the moment – by the way, wouldn’t that be the best theme park ever? The only bit of news doing the rounds is a rumour about a potential 2010 F1 drive with Renault. From what I can see the source is this interview, which was about the Singapore scandal, and doesn’t mention driving for the team at all. My French is not that great though, so perhaps I am wrong.
In much more important news, I had an email from a Sidepodcast listener in the US – Steve – who had been to see Franck in action at Petit Le Mans. The email goes something like this:
While at the track on Friday, the series hosts an autograph session with the drivers. I made my way over to the Peugeot table to get Franck’s signature. When I got up to the table, I asked Franck if he had heard of Christine from Sidepodcast.com. I don’t know if he had been hearing your name from other fans that day, or is a fan of the show himself, but he immediately looked up and with a smile said: “Yes, I know Christine…on the internet right?” The driver next to him (Lamy?) then immediately started teasing him.
As he was preparing to sign the Peugeot poster, I requested that he sign it to you. I’ve attached a photo of the poster showing where he wrote “To Christine, big kiss!”
Steve attached the picture, and then sent the original poster on to me which arrived just a few days ago. It’s awesome!
We’ve just moved house so I haven’t put it on the wall yet, but it will certainly go pride of place in our new abode. Thanks Steve, and of course Franck!
September 28, 2009
From the Peugeot press release:
Franck MONTAGNY: “It’s great to have won the Mini Le Mans! It all feels very weird, but I think the organisers were right to stop the race, because the conditions really were dangerous. We had an excellent strategy and our car was very fast once we were able to run on slick tyres.”
I am wondering if mini Le Mans has been translated badly, but I quite like it. I may call it that from now on. Here’s a picture of lovely Franck with added trophy.
How long have we waited to see that?
September 27, 2009
Franck won the race – hoorah!
The Montagny/Sarrazin car was in the lead when the race came to an end, although it wasn’t exactly a stunning victory. The entire race was marred by bad weather, with a lot of the running halted due to lightning concerns.
McNish was dominating up until a serious downpour, when he spun on his cold tyres, and let the lead change hands.
It may not have been a thrilling way to take the trophy, but nevertheless, a win is a win, and it’s all about being in front when it matters. Well done to Franck, he did a fabulous job!
Here’s to many more!
September 24, 2009
The first test day is complete, although Audi finished the day on top just ahead of FKM and Sarrazin’s car. The difference was only about 0.16 seconds, so that is a good start.
One very important thing to note, from the Peugeot press release:
Running in blue and chrome livery, the two Peugeots will be distinguished by:
- white mirrors and wing for the N°07 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP Pedro LAMY (Portugal) / Nicolas MINASSIAN (France)
- blue mirrors and wing for the N°08 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP Franck MONTAGNY (France) / Stéphane SARRAZIN (France)
It looks like you need to stay tuned to RadioLeMans.com for coverage of all the sessions, including qualifying and the race, and we will be live commenting it over on Sidepodcast.com as well.
Good luck Franck!
September 18, 2009
It’s all quiet in FKM-World right now, so here’s a quick photo to brighten up your Friday.
Credit: Mark & Jojo Mattox
August 25, 2009
Franck’s official site has updated with thoughts on the race at Sonoma, and confirms what we all thought – a disappointing race but FKM still showed well.
We would have loved seeing Franck repeating his last year’s success in Long Beach as he scored a strong second place for his first Champcar race. That was finally not the case this weekend but Franck still did an amazing job getting used to the car so quickly. He scored the 3rd-fastest laptime during the race! Pretty good for rookie!
Franck’s returning to Europe now to work with Peugeot on the upcoming Petit Le Mans race. It’s just been confirmed that Audi are planning to join in the fun so it looks like we’ll see a repeat of the battle we enjoyed last year. FKM is determined, too:
This time, it won’t be about making a strong impression though… he will be there to fight for the win and that’s pretty good news for all of us!
Yay!
August 24, 2009
Boo.
I can honestly say that I stayed up to watch the race, and then went to bed once Franck had to retire from the race. How disappointing.
FKM had been involved in an incident on the very first lap, when the cars in front tangled together leaving little space for those behind to squeeze through unscathed. Although he was now running towards the back, miles away from his 8th place starting position, it was still going okay.
Reports came through that he was struggling with the car though, and after another incident and a couple of pit stops, the race ended early for our favourite Frenchman.
Meanwhile, Dario Franchitti took a rather superb flag to flag victory (which I did not stay up to see!)
The AGR report has this snippet from Franck:
“I never really had a chance today. We were hit from behind on the very first lap, went into the gravel and that was pretty much the end of our race. We tried a few things as the day went on, but there was not much we could do and I didn’t want to cause problems for the drivers that are competing in the championship fulltime. It was a tough day, for sure.”
The entire AGR team had a mixed day, with the other drivers finishing 5th, 8th, 14th and 16th. FKM was the only retiree for the team.
I guess I was hoping he could have got a decent result to open up some paths for the future, but the team did seem impressed with how dedicated he was and how he carried himself through the weekend. Maybe results aren’t everything?
August 23, 2009
Hello!
I know I have been quite since Franck’s race seat was announced, and I should have been following his performance in testing as well as in qualifying yesterday. Apparently rookie’s get a bit of extra time on track which is a really good thing to see.
I saw some of qualifying yesterday, although I never really established which car was Franck on screen, and only caught the last few minutes of Round 2.
I was following live timing though, and spotted that Franck qualified 8th, which is notably above of Danica Patrick – who’s seat he was rumoured to be taking. (This looks unlikely now, but you never know.)
If you are planning to watch the race, then why not join us over on Sidepodcast.com, where as clueless as we are about IRL, it might turn out to be fun.
October 31, 2009
Franck on TF1
FKM will be on TF1 tomorrow in France to talk about the first ever Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi. The race will be interesting as it is also the first twilight GP, and looks like it might be an interesting one.
He’ll be on at 13:55 French time. I don’t have access to the channel, but yay for Mr M anyways!
Leave a Comment
Filed under Formula 1
Tags: Abu Dhabi, Commentary, Frank Montagny, Grand Prix, TF1