Straight away on April 26, the crew took advantage of the Prologue to get their bearings with ‘Roxy’, the team’s #1 Oreca-Gibson, and adjust to rule changes made during the off-season. Thanks to the unfailing reliability of their car, the three drivers completed a total of 196 laps over the four sessions.
 

On April 28, the crew focused on studying data collected with the Signatech technical team. Then preparations continued. The Richard Mille Racing Team put in almost 2,000 kilometres ahead of qualifying, a ten-minute sprint where tyre and traffic management must be perfect and Tatiana Calderón did well, clocking the 12th fastest lap in LMP2.

The honour of starting the Total 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps fell to Beitske Visser who immediately moved up a spot maintaining contact with the top ten. After her solid double stint, the Dutch native handed over to Sophia Flörsch, who quickly got on with the business at hand by accelerating the trio’s march forward during her first two stints.
 

At the halfway mark, the Richard Mille Racing Team was in eighth place. Tatiana Calderón took over to consolidate the efforts of her teammates, demonstrating the singular consistency of the #1’s crew as the three women turned in their respective best times within one second.

Oscillating between eighth and tenth place after an early stop during a full course yellow, Tatiana Calderón handed back the steering wheel to Sophia Flörsch for the final 90-minute sprint. Strategically speaking, the team made smart choices, allowing the German driver to move up and secure eighth place in LMP2, just over a minute outside the overall top ten.
 

With four championship points, the Richard Mille Racing Team is turning its attention to the next leg of the championship, the 8 Hours of Portimão (13 June). The team will return to a circuit it knows well, as the Portuguese track was the venue for last year's European Le Mans Series season finale.

Tatiana Calderón: ‘It was a long week with the Prologue plus the race, but I think we maximised our potential and we can be quite happy to finish eighth. We need to keep working, as I believe we can display a better race pace, but the team did a great job with the strategy and pit-stops. We have to understand how to extract a bit more performance from these new LMP2 rules and the Goodyear tyres to come back much stronger at Portimão in a few weeks!’
 

Sophia Flörsch: ‘First of all, it was good to be back racing as it was my first race of the year. Generally speaking, this week at Spa was a bit difficult for our team as we somewhat started from zero in contrast to our rivals. We made significant steps forward and we can be pleased with the result even though we are not yet where we want to be. It was the best result we could have expected, we scored four points in the championship and we will keep on working from there. We can only do better as we go forward, and I look forward to the rest of the season!’

Beitske Visser: ‘I am delighted we could finally start the season. It wasn't easy for us as we have a bit of catching up to do on how to figure out the new regulations, mainly in terms of the tyres and downforce. We improved a lot during the week, and in the end, the race went rather well. Our eighth place is a good way to start the season, and now we will continue to work hard and improve for the next race.’
 

Philippe Sinault, Team Principal

‘A top ten finish in the first race of the season is a positive result. The conditions were anything but easy as the health crisis deprived us of a lot of testing time over the winter. We wanted to prepare our drivers as best as we could since the car is quite different compared to last year, with a very different aerodynamic kit and tyres. We used the week to get them to explore the package they have at their disposal this year in a little more detail. They improved as the days went by and were able to fully engage with the event by showing themselves comfortable in the race. Yet again, they made no mistakes, and this eighth place is consistent with our target for this field, which combined numbers with quality. It’s a positive start for the championship. We will keep working and putting in more kilometres before the next round in Portimão, where the eight-hour format could be more to our advantage.’