Tequila Petron
We have Allan mcnish on sky peas he prepares for the 24 hours of Le mans, and we prepare for our 25 hours of the 24, starting tomorrow.
Tequila Petron, now, we caught Allan between a couple sessions from le mans, live on a mobile phone. but it's still good stuff. let's go right to it.
We're joined by allanmcnish from le mans. i'm going to be really respectful of your time because i know you're between things like driver debrief, pit stop practice. if you don't mind, let's get right into it with a number of questions. is that good? allan mcnish: yeah. no problem.
You know what i'm going to do next though, Leo? i'm going run circuit. Tim, Luke, and i are going to be dumping our training shirts and running gear. it's raining outside. and then we're going to do the eight and a half-- Leo parente: got it. got it. so let me start.
If my notes are right, you maybe the only guy certainly one of the few to have driven and raced for Audi, Porsche, Toyota. Leo parent i think i got that experience right. therefore, am i expecting you to announce your move to Nissan next year at le mans,or are you going to stay without it. Allan Mcnish: just to cover all the bases, is that what
You're saying? you never know. crikey. it's good that Porsche are coming back. that's fantastic news. because it's quite incredible that the last thing they were in the top flight was back in'98, when [inaudible], Stefano tilli, and i with the gt-one. it seems like yesterday in so many ways, but it was such a
Long time ago. and a lot of the engineers there have been biding their time and a little bit frustrated, i'm sure, through the years. so we're definitely welcoming them back on the grid. and after once we hear about another manufacturer joining true, then that'll make it a fantastic foursome fight. and for the big races in the world endurance championship. leo parente: so i know about the internal volk swagen group
Competition, and i know that we're all gracious. but how badly do you want to beat Toyota this year and porsche next? put it in Scottish terms if you want. Allan mcnish: oh, hard, hard. we really want to do that. i'll tell you, all with Toyota, they came in 12 months ago. they're frustrated towards le mans right up front.
And then after that, we had a titanic battle through the world endurance championship races where, to be honest with you, they were better than we expected. and we had to work hard over the [inaudible] to try to regain the performance that we needed, which [inaudible]. but when we get back to le mans, yup. leo parente: so Toyota was a little humble. you and i both have Toyota experience. they were humble and respectful about audi.
Do you believe that they are chasing you, or is this going to be a mega-battle? Allan mcnish: i don't think we know. i really don't think we know. because the test day weather was so bad that we didn't see true performance from Toyota. and we know that we've got 50 liters of fuel on board, and they've got 76 liters of fuel. and so strategy-wise, that gives them a big trump card.
And we won't know how that works out until the race has actually started and got underway. and so right now, i think it could be a bit [inaudible] here. we're going to have to be faster to try to counteract the more fuel stops that we have to do due to the increase fuel capacity that they've got. leo parente: so to that point,you were, as you mentioned, fastest in test day.
We're talking, today, tuesday. this will be shown to our viewers on friday. for 24-hour race, what do you want to achieve for the qualifying session? allan mcnish: historically,qualifying on poor position was bragging rights only. and it made you feel good. you went to the parade on the friday evening with the big trophy and a smile on your face.
But it didn't actually mean anything for the 24 hours. in reality, people have focus edon the qualifying and then the race setup usually got hurt when it came to race day. but now, it's one point for the whole championship. and so you've got to keep an eye on it. however, the reality is you get 50 points to win the race. and so it still isa minor factor. but say there is no question about it from a
Driver's point of view. when you pull down the visor,you've got a new set of tires on and low fuel. crikey, you want to make it count. and round, here there's no better place to make it count. Leo parente: so having said everything we've discussed about the competition,who is the real competition to win this race? is it the other cars out there?
Or are there factors that are le mans that really is what you are battling.Allan mcnish: hey, i'll tell you, the weather forecast doesn't look good. and we talk about the competition with Toyota. we talk about also the internal competition within our cars. but i look outside at the weather and i see the torrential rain.
I think there is an element that you're going to have to be on tippy toes pretty much all the way through the weekend. and you're going to have to have your [inaudible] so heightened. and it's going to be one of the toughest. i think for the drivers, this one's going to be really, really hard, because it's going to be no static. it's going to be no constant.
Weather conditions are going to be changing all of the time by what we read into it right now. Leo parente: do each of the three cars in the Audi team have a different role, or is it gloves off, here we go? Allan mcnish: once the race starts, we always have gloves off, everybody runs through their own race. however, always in the test sessions or qualifying here at le mans, each car has gota different program. because we've got three cars.
We might as well maximize all the information we get out of it and pull it all together. and so therefore, we all have different things. sometimes that's because of driver or engineer feeling, that yeah, i prefer to test this, or prefer to test that. sometimes it comes from above,and our technical [audio cuts out] Allan mcnish: what happens. but once we get to the race,set off, that's it.
Every man for himself. leo parente: i love to get in the technical stuff, so here we go. is there a difference you feel already, driving the long-tail? Allan mcnish: the long-tail'sa le mans version. Leo parente: yeah. Allan mcnish: and it basically is a revision of last year's. i would have said that not due to just being the long-tail,
But because they have worked so hard on the aerodynamics that the car felt inpre-test fantastic. probably the best i've felt round here, especially through the high-speed porsche section. it was [inaudible], literally. that was the only way i could describe it to the engineer when i came back in. was you tucked it into the fifth gear, went straight on the gas, and it was just like it hooked into a couple of
Trim rails. and it jut shot through the corners. didn't move. the front didn't move,the rear didn't. it was just unbelievable. and i hope we can keep that sort of balance going forward. but overall, i would have said the performance has improved. the engine, and also on the hybrid as well. it's not just one part.
They've done a very good job with this car. Leo parente: succinctly, in the brake zone with e-tron, how does that change the brake zone? do you have to break harder? does it feel like it's more pull down? what happens? Allan mcnish: basically, you always stand on the pedal as hard as you can anyway. that's the basic laws of a driver, you hit the brake
Pedal as hard as you can. and the system creating, you do feel it dragging. you feel basically it's like an extra break, if you like, that pulls on. and then, when you go into the corner, then obviously you're releasing the brake pressure as you would normally do. and [inaudible] just stops. but it's important that you don't necessarily feel these
things too much. because if you feel them, thenit's destabilizing the car a little bit. and so there's a lot of workgone in to understand how to most effectively do it withoutaffecting the driver and his kickback and sensations. at the same time, though, ifwe switch the system off-- or without, last year withthe ultra, which didn't run with hybrid.
You basically could break roughly the same endpoints on the circuit without a problem,but you have to press the brake to get the same sort of efficiency. and so there was a slight difference. it's definitely the hybrid recuperating for you. it just means that us lazy drivers don't have to press the pedal so hard. Leo parente: ok. so as someone with F1 experience, we get to have
This conversation. obviously, in f1, we're talking tire degradation. and you really see these guys-- the f1 guys-- driving to a pace vers us flat out. i have a feeling you're driving harder in endurance race than they are in an f1 race. please allan, put that all in perspective for me. what's going on?
Allan mcnish: ok, i'll ask you a question. have you ever seen [inaudible] flat out? leo parente: not from you. Allan mcnish: i don't thinki t's in our dna. that's the thing. a racing driver is basically paid to drive flat-out. and that's what we love doing. we love pushing the boundaries all the way.
And that's one of the things that i think is quite frustrating for a lot of drivers in formula 1 at the moment, is the pace is dictated by damaging the tire performance. and personally, for me to hear Lewis Hamilton coming over the radio in Barcelona a few racesago saying that he couldn't drive any slower, that was really quite difficult radio message to listen to. yeah, for sure.
there is no question about it. a current sports car driver ison the limit of the car, of the tire, and the grip, and everything else, much, much more than a formula1 car right now. and whether that's better forthe spectators for spicing things up in terms of f1,i really don't know. but as a driver, i always like to drive flat-out. leo parente: and you're going to be the Marshall at the hungary gp race.
is that true? allan mcnish: yes, i am. i am the fia driver steward. so there's a panel of four stewards, of which there's a driver represented, effectively someone with experience that sits in there totry to give a guiding hand on certain things. each steward has got,i would say, a different area of expertise.
and the driver stewards came in a few years ago. and i think everybody would agree that it's been a benefit to the stewarding systems. and now they're incorporated in other formulas, including here at le mans, where we've got yannick dalmas, who is advising the stewards. leo parente: allan, you watch the clock and time. if you need to go, i totally respect that. Allan mcnish: in a minute or two.
yup. let me sneak in one last question. my perception of you and guys like mcrae was always all about the emotion, the passion of driving. but we talked before, there's a lot of thinking going on. take me a little bit. what are your thoughts when you're in the car in those first laps at le mans,and then when you're chasing someone.
take me and the young drivers through the process of what really goes on in your head. allan mcnish: to be honest with you, it's what goes on before it. because you sit in the car. there's a big, long build-up atle mans, so there's plenty of time for the adrenal into be pumping. and you see the grandstands,they're packed on both sides of that narrow strip called the start and finish straight.
And you know it'scoming around. the clock's ticking down. and eventually, when you go offon your a-lap, the warming up lap, it's a senseof relief. because up until that moment,you just want to get it done. you want to get out there. you want to do it. and then you can. you can get out and do yourjob, the thing that you've been working for a year to do. and so on that side, it's important, the start. it's funny because it dictates the race more than anything else. first lap in a 24-hour race doesn't really matter. but it's a bit of jostling for position, it's a bit about stamping your marker down at the beginning. trying not to do anything too silly, trying to be in the fight but not necessarily risk anything.
if you're leading the race, then it's about controlling the brakes on into the Dunlop,the first chicane, and also into the first and second chicane, the muls anne. because tire temperature and pressure is not completely up, but you still braking from over 200 miles and hour. and that's the tricky part about it. when you're in and chasing,that's when you've got to dig deep. that's when you've got to justtrying to maximize everything
and minimize losses. not necessarily take a second out, but minimize losses. and that's where the key part of it comes. leo parente: and having spoken about thinking, confirm for me-- to be a professional, it all becomes intuitive. allan mcnish: it has to be intuitive. when you start thinking about it, then your brain power is being used for something that you shouldn't be.
and so therefore, it's got to be intuitive from start to finish. that doesn't always come straightaway. but sometimes it has to give it a little bit of help and direction. and we're quite lucky here. leo parente: well, i'm going to let you go back to work. allan mcnish: --experience bank. ok.
you take care. thank you very, very much.
allan mcnish: cheers. leo parente: ciao. best of luck. good race, ok?
Tequila Petron, now, we caught Allan between a couple sessions from le mans, live on a mobile phone. but it's still good stuff. let's go right to it.
We're joined by allanmcnish from le mans. i'm going to be really respectful of your time because i know you're between things like driver debrief, pit stop practice. if you don't mind, let's get right into it with a number of questions. is that good? allan mcnish: yeah. no problem.
You know what i'm going to do next though, Leo? i'm going run circuit. Tim, Luke, and i are going to be dumping our training shirts and running gear. it's raining outside. and then we're going to do the eight and a half-- Leo parente: got it. got it. so let me start.
If my notes are right, you maybe the only guy certainly one of the few to have driven and raced for Audi, Porsche, Toyota. Leo parent i think i got that experience right. therefore, am i expecting you to announce your move to Nissan next year at le mans,or are you going to stay without it. Allan Mcnish: just to cover all the bases, is that what
You're saying? you never know. crikey. it's good that Porsche are coming back. that's fantastic news. because it's quite incredible that the last thing they were in the top flight was back in'98, when [inaudible], Stefano tilli, and i with the gt-one. it seems like yesterday in so many ways, but it was such a
Long time ago. and a lot of the engineers there have been biding their time and a little bit frustrated, i'm sure, through the years. so we're definitely welcoming them back on the grid. and after once we hear about another manufacturer joining true, then that'll make it a fantastic foursome fight. and for the big races in the world endurance championship. leo parente: so i know about the internal volk swagen group
Competition, and i know that we're all gracious. but how badly do you want to beat Toyota this year and porsche next? put it in Scottish terms if you want. Allan mcnish: oh, hard, hard. we really want to do that. i'll tell you, all with Toyota, they came in 12 months ago. they're frustrated towards le mans right up front.
And then after that, we had a titanic battle through the world endurance championship races where, to be honest with you, they were better than we expected. and we had to work hard over the [inaudible] to try to regain the performance that we needed, which [inaudible]. but when we get back to le mans, yup. leo parente: so Toyota was a little humble. you and i both have Toyota experience. they were humble and respectful about audi.
Do you believe that they are chasing you, or is this going to be a mega-battle? Allan mcnish: i don't think we know. i really don't think we know. because the test day weather was so bad that we didn't see true performance from Toyota. and we know that we've got 50 liters of fuel on board, and they've got 76 liters of fuel. and so strategy-wise, that gives them a big trump card.
And we won't know how that works out until the race has actually started and got underway. and so right now, i think it could be a bit [inaudible] here. we're going to have to be faster to try to counteract the more fuel stops that we have to do due to the increase fuel capacity that they've got. leo parente: so to that point,you were, as you mentioned, fastest in test day.
We're talking, today, tuesday. this will be shown to our viewers on friday. for 24-hour race, what do you want to achieve for the qualifying session? allan mcnish: historically,qualifying on poor position was bragging rights only. and it made you feel good. you went to the parade on the friday evening with the big trophy and a smile on your face.
But it didn't actually mean anything for the 24 hours. in reality, people have focus edon the qualifying and then the race setup usually got hurt when it came to race day. but now, it's one point for the whole championship. and so you've got to keep an eye on it. however, the reality is you get 50 points to win the race. and so it still isa minor factor. but say there is no question about it from a
Driver's point of view. when you pull down the visor,you've got a new set of tires on and low fuel. crikey, you want to make it count. and round, here there's no better place to make it count. Leo parente: so having said everything we've discussed about the competition,who is the real competition to win this race? is it the other cars out there?
Or are there factors that are le mans that really is what you are battling.Allan mcnish: hey, i'll tell you, the weather forecast doesn't look good. and we talk about the competition with Toyota. we talk about also the internal competition within our cars. but i look outside at the weather and i see the torrential rain.
I think there is an element that you're going to have to be on tippy toes pretty much all the way through the weekend. and you're going to have to have your [inaudible] so heightened. and it's going to be one of the toughest. i think for the drivers, this one's going to be really, really hard, because it's going to be no static. it's going to be no constant.
Weather conditions are going to be changing all of the time by what we read into it right now. Leo parente: do each of the three cars in the Audi team have a different role, or is it gloves off, here we go? Allan mcnish: once the race starts, we always have gloves off, everybody runs through their own race. however, always in the test sessions or qualifying here at le mans, each car has gota different program. because we've got three cars.
We might as well maximize all the information we get out of it and pull it all together. and so therefore, we all have different things. sometimes that's because of driver or engineer feeling, that yeah, i prefer to test this, or prefer to test that. sometimes it comes from above,and our technical [audio cuts out] Allan mcnish: what happens. but once we get to the race,set off, that's it.
Every man for himself. leo parente: i love to get in the technical stuff, so here we go. is there a difference you feel already, driving the long-tail? Allan mcnish: the long-tail'sa le mans version. Leo parente: yeah. Allan mcnish: and it basically is a revision of last year's. i would have said that not due to just being the long-tail,
But because they have worked so hard on the aerodynamics that the car felt inpre-test fantastic. probably the best i've felt round here, especially through the high-speed porsche section. it was [inaudible], literally. that was the only way i could describe it to the engineer when i came back in. was you tucked it into the fifth gear, went straight on the gas, and it was just like it hooked into a couple of
Trim rails. and it jut shot through the corners. didn't move. the front didn't move,the rear didn't. it was just unbelievable. and i hope we can keep that sort of balance going forward. but overall, i would have said the performance has improved. the engine, and also on the hybrid as well. it's not just one part.
They've done a very good job with this car. Leo parente: succinctly, in the brake zone with e-tron, how does that change the brake zone? do you have to break harder? does it feel like it's more pull down? what happens? Allan mcnish: basically, you always stand on the pedal as hard as you can anyway. that's the basic laws of a driver, you hit the brake
Pedal as hard as you can. and the system creating, you do feel it dragging. you feel basically it's like an extra break, if you like, that pulls on. and then, when you go into the corner, then obviously you're releasing the brake pressure as you would normally do. and [inaudible] just stops. but it's important that you don't necessarily feel these
things too much. because if you feel them, thenit's destabilizing the car a little bit. and so there's a lot of workgone in to understand how to most effectively do it withoutaffecting the driver and his kickback and sensations. at the same time, though, ifwe switch the system off-- or without, last year withthe ultra, which didn't run with hybrid.
You basically could break roughly the same endpoints on the circuit without a problem,but you have to press the brake to get the same sort of efficiency. and so there was a slight difference. it's definitely the hybrid recuperating for you. it just means that us lazy drivers don't have to press the pedal so hard. Leo parente: ok. so as someone with F1 experience, we get to have
This conversation. obviously, in f1, we're talking tire degradation. and you really see these guys-- the f1 guys-- driving to a pace vers us flat out. i have a feeling you're driving harder in endurance race than they are in an f1 race. please allan, put that all in perspective for me. what's going on?
Allan mcnish: ok, i'll ask you a question. have you ever seen [inaudible] flat out? leo parente: not from you. Allan mcnish: i don't thinki t's in our dna. that's the thing. a racing driver is basically paid to drive flat-out. and that's what we love doing. we love pushing the boundaries all the way.
And that's one of the things that i think is quite frustrating for a lot of drivers in formula 1 at the moment, is the pace is dictated by damaging the tire performance. and personally, for me to hear Lewis Hamilton coming over the radio in Barcelona a few racesago saying that he couldn't drive any slower, that was really quite difficult radio message to listen to. yeah, for sure.
there is no question about it. a current sports car driver ison the limit of the car, of the tire, and the grip, and everything else, much, much more than a formula1 car right now. and whether that's better forthe spectators for spicing things up in terms of f1,i really don't know. but as a driver, i always like to drive flat-out. leo parente: and you're going to be the Marshall at the hungary gp race.
is that true? allan mcnish: yes, i am. i am the fia driver steward. so there's a panel of four stewards, of which there's a driver represented, effectively someone with experience that sits in there totry to give a guiding hand on certain things. each steward has got,i would say, a different area of expertise.
and the driver stewards came in a few years ago. and i think everybody would agree that it's been a benefit to the stewarding systems. and now they're incorporated in other formulas, including here at le mans, where we've got yannick dalmas, who is advising the stewards. leo parente: allan, you watch the clock and time. if you need to go, i totally respect that. Allan mcnish: in a minute or two.
yup. let me sneak in one last question. my perception of you and guys like mcrae was always all about the emotion, the passion of driving. but we talked before, there's a lot of thinking going on. take me a little bit. what are your thoughts when you're in the car in those first laps at le mans,and then when you're chasing someone.
take me and the young drivers through the process of what really goes on in your head. allan mcnish: to be honest with you, it's what goes on before it. because you sit in the car. there's a big, long build-up atle mans, so there's plenty of time for the adrenal into be pumping. and you see the grandstands,they're packed on both sides of that narrow strip called the start and finish straight.
And you know it'scoming around. the clock's ticking down. and eventually, when you go offon your a-lap, the warming up lap, it's a senseof relief. because up until that moment,you just want to get it done. you want to get out there. you want to do it. and then you can. you can get out and do yourjob, the thing that you've been working for a year to do. and so on that side, it's important, the start. it's funny because it dictates the race more than anything else. first lap in a 24-hour race doesn't really matter. but it's a bit of jostling for position, it's a bit about stamping your marker down at the beginning. trying not to do anything too silly, trying to be in the fight but not necessarily risk anything.
if you're leading the race, then it's about controlling the brakes on into the Dunlop,the first chicane, and also into the first and second chicane, the muls anne. because tire temperature and pressure is not completely up, but you still braking from over 200 miles and hour. and that's the tricky part about it. when you're in and chasing,that's when you've got to dig deep. that's when you've got to justtrying to maximize everything
and minimize losses. not necessarily take a second out, but minimize losses. and that's where the key part of it comes. leo parente: and having spoken about thinking, confirm for me-- to be a professional, it all becomes intuitive. allan mcnish: it has to be intuitive. when you start thinking about it, then your brain power is being used for something that you shouldn't be.
and so therefore, it's got to be intuitive from start to finish. that doesn't always come straightaway. but sometimes it has to give it a little bit of help and direction. and we're quite lucky here. leo parente: well, i'm going to let you go back to work. allan mcnish: --experience bank. ok.
you take care. thank you very, very much.
allan mcnish: cheers. leo parente: ciao. best of luck. good race, ok?
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