Conversations with Champions Past, Present - And Future?

It would take a brave soul to bet against one of the four Audi R18s winning the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours – It’s therefore a pretty sure thing that if you managed to talk to at least one of each crew you’ll have had a conversation with at least one of the 2012 race winners.

More than that you’ll certainly have spoken to several previous race winners, at least one current champion and possibly a future winner too.

First up in the DSC Ed’s trot around the Audi Champions Parade was twice winner, and famously averagely tall, Allan McNish.

We started by talking about the R18 e-tron Quattro and it’s relative lack of pace in dry conditions at Spa against its all diesel, R18 ultra, sisters, but as Allan explained, and as would be shown pretty graphically when the cars hit the track later, the issue was not in any way a problem of relative performance, it was a problem of set-up and balance.

“Remember this is still a very new car and whilst we have had quite a lot of testing there’s still a long way to go to unlocking the true potential.  I think though that you’ll see that there has been plenty of progress since Spa.

McNish was though happy to acknowledge that in changeable conditions there was something of an advantage to the hybridised car:

“It looks that way doesn’t it?   

Marc Gene has of course won the great race before, not for Audi, but for their late lamented rivals Peugeot Sport, the Spaniard though now sits ready to potentially add a very significant line in the record books, the first man to win in a diesel for two different factory teams.

He has got that chance though courtesy of Timo Bernhard’s misfortune, whose withdrawal from the #3 car line-up whilst he continues to recover from injuries sustained in a shunt in testing after the 12 Hours of Sebring.

“Of course it isn’t the way you want to get this chance, it happened in F1 of course too for me when I replaced Ralf Schumacher for several races.

“As a professional driver though you have to take the opportunities as they arise and this one is, aside from the injury to Timo, a very welcome one.

“The win at Spa was way beyond my expectations and the chance to come here with the team, is, well amazing.  I should say too that it is not what I expected after Peugeot, the whole team is very open, very welcoming, and very helpful, perhaps not what I have always been used to!

2010 winner Romain Dumas meanwhile observed that “There are a lot of differences from last year, not only Timo but Rocky too are not with me this year, the car is different and there are a lot of new faces around too.

“That year we were delighted to win but we were the best of the rest.  In 2011 we were on top of the pile but then Mike had an accident that was not his fault, I know some disagree but that is my opinion.  If Mike had made a mistake for sure I would have been p***ed but it was a different sort of unhappy after, of course we found he was basically okay.

“Now we have Loic and Marc of course and we are here to win.  The group works well and it is a team of French guys who are not trying to beat each other!

And what for the future for Romain Dumas?

“I have an idea but no answer I can give just now.  I want to stay focused and it is very correct to do so.  Audi gave me a chance to win here and I want to show them that we can do it again for them.

Mike Rockenfeller was a late addition to the squad too, and that meant that he was placed not with his regular line-up in recent years, but instead in the #4 R18 ultra:

“Yes it was a relatively late call but my main focus this year is DTM and with the calendars the way they are it was all but impossible to run an Endurance programme too.

“I haven’t had a chance to race alongside Oliver and Marco but of course we have tested together an the feeling there is very good.  We worked well together and all three of us seem to have the pace that is needed.

“It is certainly very different coming back here on the back of a dnf than as a Champion but I’ve been in this position before, it is a little disappointing that so many people only want to talk about the accident. I am here to race and to help Audi to win.

“The new car is more stable but there is very little difference in visibility compared to the original R18.  It looks like a good race car and, I hope, we might see some real competition from Toyota, they ran very well at the Test Day.

For Oliver Jarvis the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours is a rather different affair from his first appearance at the great race.

“I was here in 2008 as a spectator – the race had always fascinated me. When I made the decision to switch from single-seaters to join Audi in DTM, I hoped that one day I’d be part of the legendary race with the ‘factory’ Audi Sport squad.”
 
“In 2010 though I was back here and in the race with a privately run Audi R10 TDI and the car ran without problems throughout practice and for the first 21 hours of the race. Unfortunately a mechanical problem in the 22nd hour sidelined me and we were classified 32nd but essentially did not finish.”

“As for this place I absolutely love it. There’s such a variety of corners that makes it extremely challenging. Long, fast straights that lead in to slow chicanes which require you to be very late on the brakes. The most exciting part of the track for me is the Porsche Curves that are extremely challenging and push both car and drivers to the limit.

“Nowadays though if you want to win, you have to push hard every single lap of the race – remember just 13.854secs was the winning margin last year. With over 50 cars on-track, you’re constantly overtaking. But it’s in traffic where a driver can win or lose the race. However there’s a fine line between being aggressive and crashing out so it’s important to take measured risks. There is such a variety of cars in other classes piloted by drivers with varying levels of experience and ability. Add this to the fact that I could be in the Audi for up to four hours at any one time, the demands on the driver are extremely high.

“This is a race that I have been working towards for the last six months. I am, however, very fortunate to be running another programme in the FIA GT1 World Championship for the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT alongside my Le Mans preparations so it’s already been a busy 2012 for me.”

Loic Duval is another of the team’s newcomers for 2012 and he comes, as did Gene, with Peugeot diesel experience, in Duval’s case from the Oreca squad.

“I couldn’t have imagined this a year ago, Audi is something very special here and it is a dream to be a part of this effort.

“We all come here expecting to do well and with a hope to win but the hybrid is new technology of course and that might just give us in the (#3) ultra a chance.

“Whatever happens though at the end we all want an Audi win.  I’m here, in fact we are all here, to continue a fine Audi tradition here.  For me in particular here though I hope to extend my record.  I have won in everything that I have done in my career so far and I would, of course, love to add a win at Le Mans to that record.

Of the 12 Audi drivers nine are previous winners and whilst Tom Kristensen tops the winning total, Dindo Capello is another multiple winner with three wins behind him, two of them for Ingolstadt.

“This will be my 14th Le mans 24 Hours, it is always great fun but there are long days to fill in this week!

“This year though is very different, we have not only Audi vs Toyota but the hybrid vs the ultra, there are a lot of questions that we will know the answer to by Sunday afternoon.

“There is no doubt that Toyota will want to challenge us but we have yet to see whether they can challenge us for the whole race.

“I hope they can, we all want a big fight, that would be terrific for them, for us and for the fans too.

Finally for now we caught up with 2011 Champions Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer, both men experiencing a return to Le mans as winning drivers for the first time, and neither in any way overawed.

“This race isn’t easy,” said Lotterer, “but if you are going to race here it’s good to be with the best!

“Last year showed us that it can be a dangerous race too, and what happened to the two other cars last year could just as easily have happened to us at any point, whether we were pushing hard or not.

“Yes there was pressure as the final car running, but the whole team pulled behind us and all three of us performed very well I think.

Marcel Fassler was impressed that: “despite the accidents, both of them pretty big, the team kept so focused.  Our focus then, as it is now, was on our ultimate performance and the relative performance against the competition.  It worked pretty well last year I think!”

Andre Lotterer: “One of the very good things at Audi is that there is a real team spirit across the squad as well as a very healthy level of competition between the crews.  That’s a difficult thing to manage but Audi have always seemed to do it very well.

“It feels like a really big family and that helps in very many ways, it helps with information between the cars and with the enthusiasm across the whole team.”

Truth in 24, and the new film, have given a new window on the race to a new audience, is it a good reflection of the event from an insiders perspective?

Marcel Fassler: “They are great films and whilst they can’t explain and capture everything they do a very good job of giving a good impression of the pressure and the emotion involved – I really like them, particularly the ending last year!”

GG