Alméras – la grande équipe.

The story begins with brothers Jean-Marie and Jacques Alméras turning their small-town workshop in the outskirts of Montpellier into a technically skilled and passionate racing team. In fact, their race cars set some of the standards for both private development and race preparation for Porsche models in France.

Team Martinet by Alméras’ series of successes in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup began during their 2015 debut: a podium finish by Côme Ledogar, who today competes in the Supercup with his own team, CLRT. Alméras boasts ambitious drivers, such as Mathieu Jaminet, Florian Latorre and Ayhancan Güven, which help them secure success when paired with the team’s overall racing expertise.

Today Philippe Alméras continues the family tradition. With Martinet by Alméras and Pierre Martinet by Alméras, his racing team Pro GT by Alméras is participating in the 2021 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup with two team licences and five race cars. The cockpits of his brand new Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars will be captained by talents like last year's Porsche Junior #20 Jaxon Evans (NZL), #21 ProAm Clément Mateu (FRA) and former Formula 2 driver #19 Dorian Boccolacci (FRA) participating as a Rookie.

Last year, Martinet by Alméras finished 3rd in the team standings. Ayhancan Güven took 3rd place in the Overall Classification and Marvin Klein finished 2nd in the Rookie Classification. So, what are the plans and goals for 2021? We had a chance to talk to Marc Drudis, the official representative of Pierre Martinet by Alméras and Martinet by Alméras.

Hello Marc. 
What are your goals in the PMSC this year?

Our main goal this season is to win the Team Classification, the Rookie Classification with Dorian, and maybe take our chances on the ProAm title with our three ProAms, even though the level of competition this year is very high.

 

How much punch has Jaxon developed having won the Porsche Carrera Cup France last year?

Jaxon is a driver who’s helped us develop the new car, and to be as fast as possible. I think we will see him on some podiums this year.

 

What are your expectations for the home race in Le Castellet?

It really will be our home race, since Le Castellet isn’t far from our headquarters in St Jean de Védas. Our goal is to win this race with a french driver. That would mean a lot to everyone.

 

Young Hot Shots and experienced ProAms – this season you will again be offering an ambitious and broad field of drivers. What is the aim behind it?

Primarily, we want to develop young drivers into top-level performers and maximise their talent for the future. At the same time, they also help the ProAm drivers to become faster and be more successful with their motorsport careers. Let’s not forget though that the ProAms have a lot of experience that the Rookies don’t have. So it’s basically a win-win situation.

 

Which driver in your team will most likely surprise everyone in the series?

Probably the two drivers who haven’t raced a single round in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup so far, but who have been really fast in testing: Rookie Dorian Boccolacci and ProAm Aaron Mason. New drivers are good for giving us some surprises. So let‘s see what will happen this year.

 

What do you think of Porsche’s plans to force sustainability with their one-make cups?

Porsche‘s goal is very honourable. Climate change is a reality that nobody can deny. That’s why it should be everybody's goal to walk a path to preserve our environment to the best of our ability. Because a lot of the technology developed for racing cars is translated over to street vehicles. So hopefully that will reduce CO2 emissions in the future.

 

Marc, thank you so much for the chat.