How does a leading endurance racing team prepare for a race which takes place on practically unknown territory? LeMansLive asked Peugeot Sport’s Technical Director Bruno Famin.

Bruno Famin comments on Peugeot's preparations for Zhuhai?

“Like most of the teams, we had very little data concerning Zhuhai, apart from its basic layout, its length and its turns.

“At the end of August, someone from the team travelled out to Zhuhai to prepare the logistical side of our trip to China and he profited from his visit to film a lap of the circuit, take notes regarding the surface and describe the corners in more detail. The intelligence he brought back was essential.

“We used this information to establish a basic set-up which is actually quite similar to that used by the Oreca-run Peugeot at the Hungaroring this summer. Once in China, we will use the different practice sessions to fine-tune these settings. We will certainly have a big workload ahead of the race.”

The manager of Michelin Competition’s car racing programmes Serge Grisin explained that tyre manufacturers faced the same problem: “We looked at all the information we had on file and we found a record of our FIA GT win at Zhuhai in 2006. It is a very twisty circuit which calls for repeated acceleration and braking. We have prepared medium/soft compound tyres for all our partners.”

Michelin, Peugeot, Zhuhai