De Ferran vs. Penske

Gil de Ferran spent his best days in the old CART series and Indy Racing League driving for Roger Penske, winning two CART championships and an Indianapolis 500 for Team Penske.
But now that de Ferran will be driving Acuras in the American Le Mans Series, he will be racing against his old boss, who has a team of Porsches in the LMP2 class.
De Ferran was asked if he’s thought about what it’s going to be like racing against Penske instead of for him.
“Let’s establish one thing here: Roger’s a personal friend. A lot of the guys that work at Penske are friends,” de Ferran said Friday at Long Beach. “Despite the fact that we’re going head-to-head, for my part that won’t change.
“You got to learn how to separate things. At the end of the day, I have a duty to my team. I have a duty to Acura. I have a duty to my sponsors, Panasonic, and to myself."
De Ferran won’t make his debut in the American Le Mans Series until next month’s race at Salt Lake City. That will be the fourth race of the year. He announced his team’s formation during the season opener at Sebring and hoped to be ready to race at Long Beach, but getting his team together is taking longer than he expected.
Even though his team won’t be ready to race until next month in Salt Lake City, de Ferran said he’d rather start racing midway through the season than wait until next season to start.
“There’s only so much you can learn testing,” de Ferran said. “Part of the learning comes through the school of hard knocks. You gotta be out there racing to really fully experience everything you need to experience to become a fully competitive team. It will be a year that we will have a lot of learning to do."
De Ferran will be joining what’s becoming a large contingent of former CART, Champ Car and IRL drivers who are racing in the American Le Mans Series. That list includes Adrian Fernandez, Christian Fittipaldi, Luis Diaz, Scott Sharp and Valencia’s Bryan Herta, all drivers for Acura-powered teams.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with some of these guys and it is funny now that most of them are now driving Acuras,” de Ferran said. “We have been talking quite a bit about sports car racing, but mostly about generalities, rather than specifics. All the guys have been very supportive and wishing me the best of luck – probably not too much luck – you’ll have to ask them about that. I am looking forward to racing against some old friends again.”