Gounon: Even breaking up with my partner didn't hurt as much as quitting 24H at the Nurburgring

Although Jules Gounon seemed to credit himself for several victories in both GT World Challenge, DTM, or NLS, the opposite became reality.

At Paul Ricard was close to victory, while at the Nürburgring even alongside Daniel Juncadella and Max Verstappen won the NLS2, but there came exclusion again. The French seem to be attracted to misfortune.

"I've always believed that happiness must go against. I had a lot of bad luck this year, honestly. My father (Jean-Marc Gounon, ex-F1 pilot) told me to try voodoo to get rid of the bad luck, but I don't believe in such a thing," says the pilot for True Racing.

Gounon can boast about the victories in Spa, Kyalami or Daytona in the big races. The number of positions on the podium of winners may not even be traceable. But at some point, it stopped.

"I think sometimes in life this just comes. Here at Spa, I've won twice, I finished second in 2023.

Until recently, I have won everywhere and quite easily. But at one point, I realized I hadn't won anything in two years. I won NLS2, but unfortunately, we were expelled. Anyway, at least for a while I had that feeling of victory again.

But these things motivate me, I try to work harder. I want to understand what I could do to improve, what went wrong or something. At one point it will break, "the Frenchman will contact.

Although the racer doesn't believe in voodoo, this year he has a special helmet design that could attract happiness. The look is bold, but Gounon is excited about it.

,, My helmets are always a bit braver, but this time I told my designer that I want something that will show a new challenge or a new adventure. I wanted to start a new life after I made some changes in my personal life.

We did research, and we discovered Tiki masks from Fiji Island. This theme just shows the direction of a new adventure that brings happiness, positive things to life, and so on.

I told the designer no matter what he did. As soon as I saw the helmet, I just said, "Wow, that's amazing." Everyone who saw this helmet liked it because it's really original.

I've always been someone who wanted to be different from the rest, so this design represents me perfectly well, "says the racer.

The entire season of the GT World Challenge Endurance Cup is racing Gounon along with Dani Juncadella and Chris Lulham. The second named has the first racing season with Mercedes-AMG this year, so the experience is lacking from factory pilots. But the French judge his actions extremely positively.

"Chris is doing a very good job, he's still very young. I like that Max Verstappen gave him a chance to show up from the virtual world in the real world. Chris drives well and he's very fast, but in Spa it's also about experience. He was able to win the Gold Cup last year, so he knows how it works here in Belgium.

Our car routine is very good, we get along very well. Each of us is completely different as a human being, which I don't think is a bad thing.

We have three pilots at the Endurance race, but everyone has a mission. We have very good ingredients together. But we know this race is hard to win either way. So let's see, we'll do our best. "

Although he is trying to break the bad luck and does not give up, it was not so long ago that he experienced one of the hardest moments of his career when he was in the crew with Max Verstappen led the 24H Nürburgring race. Three hours before the end, but car number three has withdrawn from command.

"The Nurburgring was definitely the hardest. We felt the race was decided. Losing victory with this sense was really, really hard to accept.

Not even breaking up with my partner hurt so much (laughs). You give enough time to be in that position to win that race. It's hard to win every year. But this time, it looked like a fairy tale by Max, Luggi and Dani's side. Everything went well, we were just counting the time to finish the race. We were just watching the lead, but all of a sudden it came, and then you feel like you were robbed. This was really hard, "adds the racer.