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'In this interview, Pierre Fillon, president of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, explains how the club is going about softening the blow of the Covid-19 pandemic. Read on for details of the cancellation of the Test Day usually held prior to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the other alterations to the events calendar and find out how the ACO is coping with the crisis.
Each new day brings a swathe of announcements of postponements and cancellations in the sporting world. Your calendars have been turned upside down and inside out! Today you announced there will be no Le Mans 24 Hours test day this year. Why is that?

Pierre Fillon: That’s right, we decided not to hold the 24 Hours of Le Mans Test Day this year. The reason is that competitors would have been overtaxed. As you know, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is now scheduled for 19–20 September. Test Day is usually a fortnight before the race. However, the test is not as old as the race itself and has been skipped on several occasions. Two weeks before the race would have meant holding Test Day a week after the 24 Hours Motos, now scheduled for 29–30 August. Holding two major events within three weeks of each other is already a challenge and we had to rethink our priorities. The outcome was to sacrifice the Test Day. We shall be holding free practice sessions during race week to allow time to test machines and for inexperienced drivers to familiarise themselves with the circuit. We’ll announce the details in April.'