Pascal Couasnon (above at Le Mans this afternoon) is a man with a lot on his plate at Le Mans this weekend. The Director of Michelin Motorsport is overseeing 100 personnel, 30 dedicated tire engineers and approximately 8000 Michelin tires. As jobs go this one is a biggy.

“Le Mans in many ways is the ultimate sporting challenge. It tests everything from the mental and physical strength of the people involved all the way through to the obvious technical skills required. It is completely unique but in my mind one of the greatest spectacles of racing anywhere in the world,” said Couasnon.

The regulation changes have meant that the challenges we face are very different,” stated Couasnon. “The LMP1 cars now have much more torque so we had to bare that in mind when we discussed things with the ACO. The key element initially is safety and then we look at the performance characteristics. We learn something new every time a car goes out on to the track and of course here at Le Mans we have so much that we can study from extreme speed to the dynamics of the tyres over the kerbs and much more besides.”

For Couasnon, as an engineer with years of experience in many forms of tire engineering, he remains passionate about the transfer in technology between track and the regular highway.

“Racing plays a vital role when it comes to developing our road tires, too,” continued Couasnon. “The products we test, and which prove satisfactory on the track, go on to become available to the motoring public. When we get back from a race the first questions we are asked come from our research and development engineers at our center of excellence. The pursuit of perfecting attractive products to the public often comes from the race track.”

Keep up to date on how all the Michelin runners get on at the 82^nd running of the Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend by following www.twitter.com/michelinalley