"Audi's up for the fight," says McNish 11 | 06 | 2015
THIS WEEKEND'S 83RD RUNNING of the world's most gruelling and demanding endurance race, the Le Mans 24-Hours, promises to be a thrilling battle between motorsport heavyweights Audi and Porsche. And Scot Allan McNish (pictured), who has won with both marques, is relishing the battle.
The 45-year-old from Dumfries, who now helps mastermind Audi's huge sportscar programme, won with Porsche in 1998, the last time the iconic brand conquered Le Mans. More recently, he won twice with Audi in 2008 and 2013, the year he also won the world championship before announcing his retirement.
Understandably, the iconic race, fought over the famous 8.46-mile circuit — which utilises French country roads used by plodding tractors, HGVs, cars and caravanners for most of the year — still holds a special place in McNish's life.
"This place still gives me a massive buzz," he admitted as he sheltered from the rain which swept across circuit ahead of opening free practice.
"The place still has that magic: it's special. It doesn't matter whether you're in the cockpit or not, the feeling of uniqueness of the place, the circuit and the whole atmosphere brings the heart rate up a bit for me.
"I'm certainly looking forward to the weekend. I think this year's race, is going to be a bloody hard one for all the leading teams and drivers."
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In the opening two rounds of the World Endurance Championship at Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps, Audi has prevailed. But the stakes inevitably rise when the world's 56-fastest sportscars arrive in France for the Blue Riband event.
"I genuinely think we're going to have one of the closest and fastest Le Mans in recent years," McNish continued. "All the big names are here, and the way it's shaping up, it's too close to call who'll come out on top."
In addition to the three diesel hybrid Audi R18 e-tron quattros, Porsche — with its three petrol 919 Hybrids and led by former F1 grand prix winner, Aussie Mark Webber — is back stronger and bigger than it was last year when it pushed its German rival all the way to the chequered flag. Toyota too is fielding two cars capable of winning.
Audi though has been the dominant force in recent years, winning 13 of the last 15 races, including the last five in succession. McNish though was quick to emphasise Audi is certainly not taking anything for granted.
"On the evidence of the WEC and official testing here, when Porsche was fastest, it looks like being a dogfight between the two of us," McNish said.
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"Porsche has clearly made a big step forward from last year, on reliability as well as performance, and there's no doubt they've come here to take the fight to us.
"But we're feeling strong. There are times recently when we've come here with a car we didn't think was capable of winning, but Audi has that knack of knowing what to do to win at Le Mans. We have that mentality to overcome whatever's thrown at us."
Not surprisingly, McNish won't even contemplate Audi not winning.
"Of course it'll be tough when our winning run comes to an end, but that's not even in our thoughts this weekend," he smiled.
"We've had such a blinding run of wins that we just want that to continue. Are we complacent? Far from it. Our second half of last year wasn't good, and as a result we let Toyota in to win the world championship.
"But we went away, analysed what we'd done wrong, identified what we needed to do to become stronger, implemented those changes, and now we have a car we believe is capable of winning this weekend.
"Everyone knows Le Mans is the most brutally demanding, gruelling endurance race in the world. But believe me, we haven't come here to finish second."
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Jim McGill