Adrien Closmenil x Julien Neveu: Inside the Driver-Engineer Duo Behind CLX Motorsport's ELMS LMP3 Title

2025 ELMS LMP3 European Champions with CLX Motorsport, driver Adrien Closmenil and race engineer Julien Neveu let Live4Racing into their garage. Calm radio calls, total trust, and one shared goal: win. Here's the inside story of a driver-engineer bond built on more than just lap times — before you head over to watch the full video.

A Duo Inside a Team That Wins at Le Mans

For this interview, Live4Racing set up shop inside the workshop of CLX Motorsport, the team formerly known as Cool Racing, founded by two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 champion Nicolas Lapierre and Alexandre Coigny. It's now one of the reference outfits across the European Le Mans Series, Michelin Le Mans Cup and Asian Le Mans Series paddocks.

For the occasion, David teamed up with Alwena, a content creator focused on F1. Rather than run two separate interviews, the duo decided to dig into what really makes a race car go fast: the relationship between a driver and his engineer, both on track and off it.

Julien Neveu: The Engineer Who Chose to Set Up Cars Rather Than Drive Them

From Karting at Age 4 to a Race Engineer's Headset

Julien Neveu's story starts, unsurprisingly, in karting at age 4. A driving career that reached international level, followed by a clear-eyed realisation: talent alone wasn't going to pay the bills. The real spark came from somewhere else — the sheer enjoyment of setting up a car rather than driving it. Engineering studies followed, then a path that took him through Clio Cup, Alpine Cup and GT3 programmes before landing in LMP3, where he's now spent eight seasons.

His move to CLX (then Cool Racing) came down to a single phone call from Nicolas Lapierre, a driver he'd long admired. One conversation was enough to realise they were aligned on the same ambition: not just competing in a championship, but going out to win it.

A Demand for "Top-Level" Standards

What drew Julien to top-tier endurance racing was its rigour: timing everything to the second, flawless radio communication, tightly controlled processes — a world away from the more amateur image some championships still carry. Alongside his role as LMP3 programme manager and race engineer on car #17, he's also a driver coach at the Winfield Racing School and has built his own coaching structure for young engineers, active engineers and drivers alike — a deliberate effort to share knowledge in a sport that often guards its secrets closely.

Adrien Closmenil: From Karting for Fun to an ELMS Title

Born 19 January 2007 in Bayeux, Adrien Closmenil first sat in a kart at age 4, but his real competitive debut came at 10 years old — in Argentina. After moving through the Minime, Cadet and international karting ranks, a Christmas gift changed everything: a stint at the Winfield Racing School in late 2022, where he first crossed paths with Julien Neveu and discovered the world of data and car setup.

2023 marked his French F4 debut — a season he describes as more of a learning curve than a performance showcase. Then came 2024 and the move to endurance racing with CLX in the Michelin Le Mans Cup LMP3, finishing 5th in the championship. Confirmation arrived in 2025: behind the wheel of the CLX Motorsport #17 in ELMS LMP3, Adrien Closmenil and his co-drivers secured the European title, with an impressive record across six races — 5 wins, 5 podiums, 3 pole positions, and just a single retirement, caused by a power-steering failure unrelated to any driving error.

The Radio: A Mirror of Total Trust

On the airwaves, the philosophy between Julien and Adrien comes down to two words: short and clear. They deliberately speak French with Adrien and Paul, and English with Théodore, their Danish teammate — partly to prepare Adrien for the step up, where English will be the radio language regardless of who's engineering. What stands out most: Adrien's voice stays strikingly calm even an hour into a stint. It's a deliberate approach from Julien, who avoids raising his voice on purpose, refusing to add unnecessary stress inside the cockpit.

Trust doesn't mean the absence of disagreement, though. The pair look back on a wet session at Silverstone, where Adrien — closer to the real track conditions — held back from pushing his read on the weather against the call to keep pushing. A minute of hesitation over a four-hour race: barely anything on paper, but a real lesson in speaking up more on the radio. The division of roles stays crystal clear: on driving, Julien trusts Adrien completely; on strategy, it's the other way around.

Photo Album Time: The Behind-the-Scenes Moments That Bond a Team

Between the serious questions, the pair played along with a photo-album game, and the memories say as much as the results: an improbable "back to your roots" kart race where the engineer, back in a kart after years away, ends up in the grass on the first start; an impromptu photoshoot in the Spa forest with cheese and sausage in full race suits; winter outings on an ice circuit to blow off steam between drivers and engineers. Not forgetting the traditional group photo before every start, which reveals just how many people — mechanics, team manager, car chief, data engineer — it takes to run a single LMP3 on a race weekend.

And of course, having Nicolas Lapierre in the org chart changes things. For both Adrien and Julien, working under a boss who's lived through a top-level professional endurance driving career brings real legitimacy — and valuable input — on the toughest strategic and technical calls.

Next Stop: LMP2 and the 2026 Season

Fresh off his European title, Adrien Closmenil steps up to LMP2 in 2026 alongside two other 19-year-olds: Théodore, his former Danish teammate who will meanwhile gain experience in the Asian Le Mans Series, and Yann Aguilera, his rival on track throughout the 2025 LMP3 season. A trio of rookies, all ranked among the top Silver-rated drivers of the 2025 ELMS season — the promise of a strong collective challenge, with no pressure on results but a clear ambition to prove they belong alongside seasoned professional drivers.

The Takeaway

Passion, personal sacrifice, managing stress and emotions on the radio, a constant hunger to keep learning: according to Julien Neveu, these are the essential qualities to perform at the highest level of motorsport. A demanding mindset that, paired with Adrien Closmenil's unmistakable enjoyment behind the wheel, clearly paid off in 2025.

Want the full interview, with all the games, extra anecdotes and the closing quiz? Watch the full video on our Live4Racing YouTube channel — and subscribe so you never miss an exclusive endurance paddock interview.

For behind-the-scenes shots from this shoot at CLX Motorsport, garage photos and same-day stories, head to our Live4Racing Instagram — that's where it all happens in real time.

Tags: ELMS, European Le Mans Series, LMP3, LMP2, CLX Motorsport, Adrien Closmenil, Julien Neveu, Nicolas Lapierre, endurance racing, Le Mans Cup, Michelin Le Mans Cup, Winfield Racing School, race engineer, motorsport