Quesnel and Lotus

My sources are telling me that Olivier Quesnel is definitely going to be named as the new Team Principal of the Lotus F1 Team.

The 63-year-old Frenchman currently works as head of competition for Jacques Nicolet’s JN Holding, an organisation which owns the OAK Racing sports car operation and is also involved in manufacturing with its Onroak Automotive division, which was formerly the Pescarolo sport car operation. He joined the business in the middle of 2012 after retiring from PSA Peugeot Citroen, where he was head of competition from 2008 onwards. He was originally recruited to replace the retiring Guy Frequelin at Citroen Sport, but soon took over Peugeot Sport as well and under his management Peugeot won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2009 and Citröen won a string of World Rally Championship titles with Sebastian Loeb.

Quesnel’s career in motorsport began in 1966 when he helped out a friend in the French national rally championship. In 1972, as a driver, he was a semi-finalist in the Volant Elf competition and went on to manage the career of the young Patrick Tambay, who was climbing through the ranks at the time. From 1978 to 1980 he was in charge of the Simca Racing Team, which was rolled into Peugeot Talbot Sport under Jean Todt in 1980. he continued to manage Tambay until 1982. He stayed with Peugeot until 1984 although started a business marketing car care products in 1982. This company, known as Metal 5, would become very successful with Metal 5-sponsored cars entered in the French Production Car Championship in the mid-1980s notably with Jean-Pierre Malcher and Bruno Saby. In 1984 he became the MD of the Groupe de Presse Michel Hommell, a French leisure magazine publishing group specialising in the automobile, cycling, music and television in 1984. Nine years later he established Automobiles Michel Hommell which produced 300 roadgoing sports cars in the next few years, while also building up a celebrated automobile museum at Loheac in Brittany.