Le Mans 24 Hours - Press Conference Notes

André Lotterer

Respect is the most important thing. The sport must come first.

Marcel Fässler

I arrived at Mulsanne Corner and just didn’t see the Corvette spinning in front of me. I lost control of the car and went into the gravel trap, hit the wall, and damaged the wing. We lost time in the pits, and again at the next stop.

Tom Kristensen

I think it was a fantastic race. We gave the best we could, and we were free to race at the end. I particularly enjoyed the night. We were able to go for three stints, 12 laps each stint, and with this strategy we were able to come out in the lead. I was psyching myself to go up against André at the end, but Le Mans can be cruel. We win together, and second is still a great result, but if you have time to think you can win, well, I don’t want to take anything away from what these guys in the middle have achieved. They have achieved a great deal. Thanks also to the young guys at the other end who will, no doubt, be seeing their first grey hairs very soon.

Dindo Capello

Looking across towards the young guns in the #4 Audi; “This team is not only the present and the future, they are also the past as well. They won together two years ago, and they can win again. You can see in them the strength in the Audi team. The drivers in the #3 have also been there throughout the race. They all deserve to be in this press conference with us.

Le Mans is Le Mans and this race is never easy for anyone. The team that makes the fewest mistakes and have the fewest problems, they have the success.

Allan McNish

About his accident:

I was fighting with Ben (Benoit Treluyer) and we were running very close on the circuit, even though we were separated by different strategies. We needed to keep to our strategy. There was a GT car and I moved to a position where I could run round him on the right. I came up behind him and he didn’t move across as I’d expected him to. I lifted, and the car swapped ends. I hit the barrier on the left, and then nudged the barrier on the right.

Mike Rockenfeller

We tried to press as hard as we could from the beginning, but we didn’t have the pace to compete against these guys. We tried to stay on track, and didn’t make any mistakes. I had the honour to be sitting in the middle two years ago, but it’s a great achievement to be here on the podium again.

Toyota has been very strong, especially in the beginning, and they made an impressive performance.

Thanks to my guys, to my engineers, and to my team mates.

Oliver Jarvis

Our plan was simple – to have a trouble-free race. We needed to push, and make up time through the traffic. We struggled at times, on pace, but we should be very happy with what we’ve achieved. Our goal was to achieve a podium, and we’ve done that. I’d just like to congratulate car number one on a fantastic result.

We’re new to the works Audi squad, and to secure a podium at the first attempt is not a bad result.

Marco Bonanomi

My longest race before this was Spa, the six hours. This was great. It was a long, tough race, and I don’t remember everything. We had some issues at the start – grip and gearbox issues – but the crew worked very hard to ensure that we finished the race. Thanks to my crew and my team-mates. I’ve learned a lot from this race. I can see I need to grow up more in traffic, and be free. That’s what I need to do for the future.

Dr Ulrich

I would like to thank the whole team, who did a great job. We had some problems, not just technical ones.

We are the first to win here with a hybrid car. It should come as no surprise that Audi has decided to use the hybrid with a diesel engine, and to be the first to win with the new technology. Thanks to everyone who has worked so hard to deliver this result. It is really superb.

Why two hybrid, two normal?

It was all a question of timing. We took the decision to go to Le Mans with a certain number of cars, and whether we’d be ready to use the new technology. You could not come here with just two hybrid cars, with the new technology, and no conventional cars. We had to come with four cars and a mix of technologies.

Toyota?

Toyota showed you can do a great job with very limited time for the project. They came here, to the Le Mans 24 Hours, without ever having raced before, and they gave us an intense fight for many hours. I would like to congratulate them.

Dindo, will you come back next year?

He has asked me (referring to Dr Ulrich), but I won’t come.

Starworks

Ryan Dalziel

It’s unbelievable. We decided to go racing in October last year. We were talking over dinner, and we said, let’s do WEC, and get the Le Mans entry. To win at Sebring, and then this at Le Mans, is a dream come true. I have to thank my team-mates for this achievement, It’s amazing to be here, and to be part of this event.

I had a long career in amateur racing, and then two or three years at this level. We’ve improved a lot, and I knew I needed to maintain the pace, and not ruin the race for the others.

To be here is quite unbelievable.

Enzo Potolicchio

A clean car is the one that ends up in victory lane, but ours does have a few battle scars. HPD builds a very strong car. The only things that went wrong were small things, and the crew fixed them as we went along.

First and foremost, we wanted to give a good representation of the American team./ Grand Am is not often given credit in Europe, but this proves that we can compete in the WEC.

There’s still a lot of work to be done, and we’ve only just scratched the surface on this car. It has lots of potential. We may not have had the outright pace, but we had consistency.

Our goal is to win the WEC title. We made a mistake at Spa, and put the car into the gravel. This result puts us back in the championship, and Ryan and I have the drive and commitment to win it. 

Tom Kimber-Smith

It’s great to win again. A few weeks ago I didn’t have a drive for this year’s race, so I must thank Enzo and Ryan, and Peter Baron, for this great opportunity.

Greaves Zytek or HPD?

It’s hard to tell, really. Both cars are winning cars, and any car that wins is great. Honda has done a tremendous job with the car, and the aero package in particular is great.

AF Corse

Giancarlo Fisichella

It was an amazing race. It didn’t start well, by crashing the car on Wednesday, but the mechanics did a fantastic job to rebuild the car in about 10 hours. It was good to get out again in the final minutes of Q2. I’d like to thank them all, and Ferrari. Without them we would never have won this race.

I won a few races in F1, but winning this race has been my dream. Thanks to my team-mates – they are fantastic drivers and great professionals.

Toni Vilander

We had some issues in practice, but we never lost faith that the team would get the car together and that we’d have the speed. We always believed we could win, but the last few hours were nerve racking. What the team achieved was tremendous.

I really enjoyed the race. There were drivers going for position from the start, and it was good that it stayed dry. We all had a very good Saturday and Sunday.

Gianmaria Bruni

It’s a great feeling. Even after what happened in free practice, and we were a bit down, we knew that if we stuck together we could still win.

This race means everything to me. I’m very happy for my team mates, for Ferrari, and for all the team. I’m pleased to take this trophy back to Maranello.

World champion at the end of the year?

It’s really difficult to understand how the points work. Today we are here for Le Mans, and the rest does not matter.

Toni Vilander

I promised Mika Salo that I would only come here to Le Mans to win my watch . . . so where is my watch?

Giancarlo Fisichella

I would like to see a Ferrari prototype programme . . .

Larbre Competition

Julien Canal (Class Winner with Larbre for three consecutive years)

When you take part at Le Mans, it’s the victory you’re after. We were lucky enough to have  tight battle through the night. We were lucky to win by just a few seconds – the best fight of all the race, and it last for hours.

Pedro Lamy

It is always a possibility to win if I race with Jacques Leconte (Larbre). I won in the past with Jacques, and I felt sure we could win again with Jacques, Patrick and Julian.

After last year’s with Peugeot, I am just happy to win this year, but where is my watch . . .

The track is much improved this year, but maybe with more water it couldn’t have been very different. I am, not sure it would drain well, but the grip was nice.

Three victories is a great achievement.

This would not have been possible with Jacques and I’ve be happy to be part of any team that gives Jacques victory at Le Mans.