Motor Sports August 2009

GREAT SCOT

Philip Moore meets Allan McNish, doyen of the 24-hour
French classic

Allan McNish is the man of the hour – well, 24 hours, that is. In motor racing there’s fast, furious, frightening, exhausting … then there’s Le Mans. Diminutive McNish has won it twice and been on the podium half a dozen times.

While the seriously quick Scot acknowledges the race is ultra-debilitating McNish insists he – and all drivers he knows – don’t think about dangers, although such racing for a few minutes, let alone a day, seems terrifying to the layman.

“If you start thinking ‘this is dangerous’ it’s not for you,” McNish tells me. “Then you go and become a chess player or get a nine-to-five office job. Certainly there are risks but there are risks getting up in the morning and tripping at the top of the stairs and falling down. You never know what’s around the corner and what you have to do is enjoy what you’re doing at the time.

“I don’t think amateur drivers can think like that either because if you’re thinking about the danger then you’re not going to be focusing on doing your job right.

I sort of quantify everything. You know that there is an element of danger, no question, but I’m in a safer environment in terms of car safety, helmet safety, the medical facilities and the circuit than I would be driving down the highway in the middle of the night.

“Le Mans is all about going 24 hours and going the longest distance possible.To do that you’ve got to be fast but you’ve got to be reliable and you’ve got to stay out of the pits. There’s also fuel economy and car economy to be taken into consideration.”

However, Le Mans is literally a day out of your life, and arguably the ultimate scrutiny of your skills and temperament in motor racing. No way McNish would say F1 drivers have it easy or are pussies – everyone who pulls on a helmet in competition has the respect of the popular 39-year-old – but he does make the point that it takes a lot of grands prix to comprise one Le Mans.

Jeff Mannering, Managing Director of Audi Middle East

Indeed, roll up an entire season of F1 and you get 24 hours of Le Mans.

“If you think about a Formula One grand prix year, every single mile put together, that’s Le Mans. It’s 5,500 kilometres. Mentally and physically it’s very tiring. Three-hour stints is the most efficient way to do it - that’s two grands prix.

McNish is a family man through and through and although he lives in Monaco he’s very much a Scot on the road. Petrol flows through his veins and he just wants that R10 TDI to go even faster.

The Scot is never more at home than in the in the Audi R10 TDI cockpit. He is one of the fastest in the sportscar scene and loves the casual atmosphere in the American Le Mans Series and had a tremendous time at Audi’s 100th anniversary celebrations in Germany where he drove the old models and spent an entire day meeting fans galore, particularly holding youngsters enthrall.

Audi sent nearly every racecar used in the course of the brand’s history for demonstration runs. Cars that travelled the roughly 1.7-kilometer circuit through the centre of Ingolstadt include the Auto Union Type A and Type D double-compressor racecars as well as the legendary Pikes Peak and racers from Le Mans and the German Touring Car Masters (DTM).

At the wheel were racing legends such as world rally champions Walter Röhrl and Hannu Mikkola, and Le Mans winners Marco Werner, Lucas Luhr and McNish.

Audi regional chief Jeff Mannering brought 50 members of the media to the celebrations. Mannering has a spring in his step as the Middle East market is stable for Audi. The auto maker has lost roughly 17 per cent sales year on year but the region’s market is down 40 per cent.

“The anniversary celebrations are great. We have the wonderful old cars here It’s not often you get to see the history of motorsport in one place.And there are legendary drivers everywhere you look.”

McNish relishes the Audi birthday bash as it gives him plenty of time to interact with the fans and check out some of the old precious metal.

“This 100 years celebration is a tremendous experience for anyone involved in motorsport. Goodwood is another one. You get to see the old cars you grew up watching on TV or maybe peeking through a fence and also the original drivers driving them. That’s a major part of the enjoyment never mind the chance to have a blast in something that has gone down in the history books.

“I was a little boy once, believe it or not, running around trying to get autographs. I don’t think you can really tell how important that is, that inspiration to get into a sport or follow it. It has to come from somewhere.

“If a little boy gets an autograph, gets his picture taken, sees the car, smells it warming up, it’s all a very, very important part of it. If we distance ourselves too much from reality – the youngsters are reality – it’s going to be difficult to maintain the success, not just in racing but in the engineering side of it. We have to maintain all the mechanics and engineers and have a new breed coming through.”

Last year McNish won the LeMans 24 Hours for the second time and he stresses that winning the French classic driving a diesel-engined car has salutary spin-offs for the driver on the road..

McNish, along with co-drivers Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen, gave Audi their eighth victory in the race in 10 years they’d been competing.Their R10 TDI finished four minutes ahead of the Jacques Villeneuve’s Peugeot after completing the 381-lap, 3,227-mile marathon at an average speed of 149.34mph.

McNish’s previous victory was for Porsche and he said at the time: “I’m overjoyed to have finally won Le Mans for Audi. I’ve come very close on numerous occasions in the past but despite fierce opposition from start to finish, some of the most demanding and difficult track conditions I’ve ever raced in, and totally unpredictable weather, I’ve finally done it.”

Peugeot recently fended off Audi’s bid for a ninth victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and scored a big win in the 77th running of the esteemed sports car endurance race.

McNish still feels this year’s race was there to be won and is totally revved about lining up next time for what should be another beauty.

“On the day we were beaten by a better team. We just have to accept that and we go home and we think about it. We don’t point fingers, we work out where we could improve ourselves and go back for round two. You can’t win every single race but in the last 12 months, from Le Mans to Le Mans we’ve won four out of the six races so we’re certainly on the right side of that average.”

McNish’s name is synonymous with Le Mans and he loves those few fuel-soaked acres.

“Your first victory at Le Mans is a special one, no question. My first pole position there was really good. You get pole around Le Mans you’ve earned it. There’s some pretty quick corners there.

“Last year’s victory was wonderful because it was such a hard fight and it was 23 hours 45 minutes before they submitted, basically. We had to do everything perfectly. It was a job well done.

“I said to the mechanics about four hours from the end of that race, ‘ boys if we don’t win this we shouldn’t be sad, we should be very pleased and proud of what we’ve done to get to this point’. In reality we shouldn’t have been anywhere near where we were because we hadn’t been quick enough and should have been further behind.’ On the other side, this year I think we should have been further ahead. We basically missed it.”

So which is the special one?

“Let’s say 2010.”

McNish says: “Le Mans is still one off the big three with Monaco F1 and Indy 500, the triple crown if you like. There’s a tremendous amount of emotion to it. I don’t think it’s easy for anyone to appreciate how tough it is unless they’ve been through it.”

To illustrate the point McNish grabs my left wrist. “Look at your watch, it’s 3.30pm; now think 3.30pm tomorrow afternoon - that’s when Le Mans starts and then stops. Think about all the thing you do in 24 hours. You’re sat there and your heart beat’s at about 150 beats per minute.

“Obviously you’ve got the steering weight, the G-force on your neck so it means you’re going through a pretty rigorous workout, plus you’re moving at an average of about 150 miles an hour. You’re definitely working. “But there’s a chance of winning one of the biggest races in the world, that’ll keep you focused, no question.”

“I think it’s the most technically challenging race for a team. I think the most punishing for a driver the Petit Le Mans in Atlanta as it’s nine and a half hours and the circuit is just high-speed, high G-force and hard, hard work. We won last year by six seconds and we won the year before by half a second. The chequered flag is the only time you can relax. I think it’s the hardest one physically. “

At the time of writing F1 is in turmoil again. Fears of a breakaway troupe are being mentioned again. McNish harbours deep concerns for the sport due to “public bickering let alone the costs” and urges caution.

“Ultimately if Toyota are pulling out of the Japanese Grand Prix with them unable to afford whatever it cots to put on that, then how could they afford to put on Formula One. They’re obviously quite a large car manufacturer, it’s very expensive for what they get out of it. From that side of things everyone has to be very careful.”.

“I’ve no idea what will happen as it changes every day. There are so many strong leaders and strong opinions that I really don’t know. I’d be surprised if it all fell apart but I would not be surprised if it was a very different animal to what it is today.

“At the moment F1 is going through a lot of turmoil off the track which takes from the on-track action. It’s amazing that the prominent teams of the last few years can be so far away from the pace this year. In that area the status quo will resume quite quickly.”

He heaps praise on turf, however, feeling it has kept the credit crunch at bay better than some other areas of the sport.

“Motor sport is not immune and sports car racing isn’t immune either but I think it has survived a lot better than a lot of other places within the sport. On the privateer level in some off the championships there are people who have a tremendous amount of passion from youth for sports cars. They also have the financial wherewithal to withstand this kind of situation. From the manufacturers’ point of view, at the absolute top level it is a very relevant type of racing.

“The technology that we developed with the TDI technology is in road cars now. Two years down the line that philosophy and technology is in some vehicles being delivered and that’s a very important thing. It’s not just marketing and PR as Formula One is. It’s a relevant technological challenge, not just for the financial crisis but in the search for more efficient technology for the road cars.”

And nearly two decades of racing hasn’t dulled McNish’s love of the sport and climbing into the cockpit. A happy driver is a safer driver, he says.

“The day that you stop enjoying being a racing driver is the day you should look to doing something else. I’m firmly of the belief that if you get up in the morning you’ve got a purpose and you’ve got to enjoy it.

“It’s a hobby for me in reality and every day is fun. Sure, every day is not always as I want it but when it’s not flowing in your car, when you’re having to work it and you have to push that little bit extra to get the lap time then that’s when you take risks that might be calculated but on the other side off the percentage line.”