How to win a 24-hour race

Most people in the Autosport office have taken in their fair share of 24-hour races over the years, although usually from the relative comfort and warmth of a media centre rather than the cockpit.

But just because we've sat through 24-hour races at Le Mans, Daytona, Spa, or even Silverstone, that doesn't mean we'd know how to go about competing in one of them.

With the Daytona 24 Hours about to kick off the international racing season, who better to ask than last year's Le Mans-winning driver line-up of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello, with 13 victories in the great race between them?

Pre-event training
Dindo Capello: I start in January, to make a schedule of fitness training. We do something different before Le Mans, but just a small, small change. Le Mans, compared to other races, physically is less demanding than some shorter races, but what is more important is the concentration. You are in the car for a long time, then you are out, then back in again.

In the end, what you need is the concentration - especially in the last stint. The first two stints are quite easy, but the last one, not physically but mentally, is more difficult. That is the only change I do in my schedule - something which allows me to concentrate even to the end of the race.

Tom Kristensen cycles around the Le Mans circuit © Allan McNish

Tom Kristensen: It's not too different from normal for me. I do more endurance training obviously, and I try also to make sure very much that my hydration is totally right in the month leading up to the race. I fill myself with a lot of water, and do longer training into the last couple of weeks before the race.

You don't need to make yourself too slim either. You need to be light, but you need to feel strong through the whole race. The last month before, I do a lot of long bike rides, runs, and a lot of exercises without weights.

Allan McNish: Personally, I don't change training schedules or sleep schedules because we do a lot of endurance tests beforehand. That gets you fit. In terms of time in the car, it's a bit longer than usual, but it's not significantly harder than Sebring. So I don't do anything different.

Pre-race preparations
TK: You need to make sure that the seat fits all of you. Look at who is the worst fit and see if you can make it better. You need to agree, and be honest, but you cannot be selfish. You should only be in a team with good teammates who you can trust.

Make sure you have as quiet a dinner as you can the night before, with not too many people. Try to arrive together to the track, because you will feel more as a unit and that's a good start. If somebody arrives later he might not feel so much of the team. There are also logical reasons, such as if you have a teammate who cannot find his way without you. I won't name names...

The start
DC: The start from one side seems to be easy, because you can say its not important because the race is so long. From the other side, it can be like the start of a sprint race. There is no difference. You have no time to play, or to make strategy in the first hour.

The start is very important because like 2007, where we had a fast car and a chance to pull away, you can make your competitors try too hard and make mistakes just to follow you.

In 2008 it was different. We knew our pace was much slower, Peugeot really set unbelievable lap times and we knew that we had to stay as close as possible even though it was impossible. But Allan tried hard to do it, because what he has done, he knew already that it would be easy for them on the next straight. But in the end, the first two hours can give an idea about the speed of the main competitors. You cannot make any kind of strategy at the start, then once you have seen the first two or three hours, everyone can take a look.

AM: The first lap last year, I got past Minassian at the chicane, I wanted to have a go at the Peugeots. First to see what they had, and to suggest that we were going to be in there for the long haul. We went down the straight and he started overtaking on the outside. I got to the braking area where my left front was just behind his right rear. There was a moment where I thought 'get down there on the inside', and thankfully my experienced Le Mans brain took over and told me 'live to fight another day'. There are heights that you reach for, but you've got to live to fight another day, because it's a hell of a long day ahead of you.

Preparing for your first stint
TK: You want to know exactly what is happening before you get in, so you know what to expect. You want to stay close to the race, but still take a little bit of time away. But you won't want to be disturbed by anyone, maybe just an engineer or someone like that, but nobody else.

Traffic during the 24 Hours of Le Mans © LAT

Staying focused throughout the race
TK: If you are very well-prepared physically, it helps you mentally. When you put the helmet on, you can become a bloody maniac, and the focus comes naturally. You need to find the sweet spot.

The mental sweet spot is when you are pushing hard and the laptimes are coming to you. When the laptimes start to go away from you again, maybe when the tyres go off, that's the point where you have to focus on getting on with it, and not letting the small negatives get to you.

You've got to stay calm, and understand that when the tyres are wearing the lap times will get a little bit slower. You then need bring it back from the edge a bit, to be consistent.

AM: If you are in with a chance of victory it's easy. One of the hardest ones was 2006, where by that time we were out of contention and all we were doing was going to the end. We knew that unless someone retired, we were going to finish third. It's hot, then you get in for another stint and you're pushing, but there's nothing at the end of it apart from the personal satisfaction of pushing.

That was quite hard. But if you're fighting for something, then motivation is not a problem, and if it is, then you should be doing something else.

Dealing with traffic
AM: You've got to push. You've got to take risks, the same risks as if you were overtaking them for position. That's the way I look at it. I don't differentiate that at all. If I overtake someone for position and we're going to crash, then I don't do it, so I apply the same rule with traffic. You've got to be very decisive. Sometimes, half commitments, some of these guys aren't aware of what is around them. So its better to be really committed than half committed, because then they can turn in over the nose of the car. At least if you do have a hit, it's better as a side-to-side hit.

TK: It's not about how fast you can pass them, it's about how fast you can get back to square one again and keep your rhythm. You have to always think about the laptime you do, not about how fast you pass him. Passing him as soon as possible is not always going to help you, sometimes it's going to help you to breathe a little bit on the way into the corner, and pass him on the way out.

In terms of risk it's also better. But over the course of the race, you have to learn about the traffic and remember people. You have to deal with everyone differently. Sometimes we don't know who is in the car - I ask quite often who is driving the cars I am catching.

Performing well at night
TK: There are always parts of the track that are very dark, and other parts that are floodlit. With the speed you are doing, the eyes adjust a little slower than the car is travelling these days. So you have to trust yourself and believe that the apexes are still where they were before.

They don't move the apex around at night, but sometimes you hardly see the apex before you are past it. You have to tell yourself that it is there, stick it in there, and then the next lap it is there again, and then you can start to push a little bit more.

You need to give yourself a little bit of time to build up to it, so that the next lap you can push harder, but you don't have 10 laps to do that. You should always work up a little bit and you have to trust yourself. You need to be a little bit worried every lap, otherwise you are not pushing.

Night racing during the 24 Hours of Daytona © LAT

AM: Having good eyes is crucial. You see some people, that are pretty quick in the day and putting on glasses at night, and if you look, they are not as fast. Eyesight is critical. You're still doing the same speeds, braking in the same places, it's not as if you've got any margin for error.

You need really, really good eyes, now more than ever because of the speed differential with the traffic. It sounds stupid and obvious, but I don't think glasses can make up for perfect eyesight. When you catch cars in the dark you don't know who it is which can cause problems.

DC: The traffic is more difficult to judge. You just see a light in front of you, but you can't really judge how far away it is from you. You can't see any details, things are just not as clear as in the day. Sometimes there are recovery vehicles around the track, but from a distance it's difficult to judge if it is a racing car or not. You are driving at high speed, there are many cars around, and you can get confused because you don't know who is around you or what is going on.

Dealing with tiredness
AM: The first time you go, you tend to spend so much energy just living, breathing, and watching the race, and understanding it all. Once you've done it once or twice, you tend to know when you should be resting and when you shouldn't be.

Energy conservation is a big thing, but it's purely and simply an experience thing. The concentration, it's a case of when to concentrate. Bob Wollek taught me that. He's done about 300 Le Mans and he just ambled out of the car, walked off, and showed zero interest in what was going on, and I was stuck in the pits watching every piece of data and every laptime. After about an hour, my head was full of something that I had no control over because I wasn't in the car.

DC: You get more tired in a race like we had in 2006 when you have no chance to compete because of problems. The last stint, you know you are not fighting, then you get really tired. Le Mans is more than 30 hours. The warm-up is very early, then the race starts at 4, then 24 hours. Altogether, it is a long day. So at the end you are very tired.

If you are fighting for something you don't feel fatigue. But when you have just to run to the end of the race and you have no target to reach then it gets really tiring. We have been lucky that we have always been in good cars overall.

TK: When you do your first 24 hour race, you are much more awake. You want to know everything, you are wired into the race. At Le Mans it is a tough week, and you have to be determined to get away and relax. That's how you perform best in the car.

Getting some sleep
AM: Only if the car's broken down, then I can sleep a lot. The important thing for me is knowing when to get away, but also having somewhere to sleep. We've got these cabins, but they are still a bit noisy, so personally I tend to go up to the physio's room because it's a bit quieter. You've got the headset on all the time just in case you get shouted at, so it's a sleep, but not a real sleep. It's just more a case of trying to shut off so the brain's not going as fast as normal.

I don't think you regenerate very much, you just stop using energy as much. But it's simple. Take earplugs and make sure you've got plenty of clothes. The worst thing is getting into clothes before you go out, and they are damp. Then through the night you've got sweaty clothes. Fresh clothes make you feel so much more alive. Well, it makes me feel alive anyway.

Aston Martin mechanics catch up on their sleep © LAT

DC: For me it's strange. When I won Le Mans with Bentley in 2003, the race went so quickly. It was the same last year, which is why I was quite confident. There were times when I could sleep easily. After my run I could sleep easily for two hours. The race went really, really fast. The car was so good, the race was just flying by, and it was easy to sleep. I did not expect any problems.

TK: You take it whenever you can. If you have good teammates and you respect them, then it's easier to get away. When it's your first one it's hard though, and it was the same for me in the first years. But the more years I did, the more faith I got, and the more I was able to stay away when I am not on. If you can get three hours, you have done a very good job.

The right food to eat
TK: Snickers and chips are not preferable. But to be honest, I have taken a Snickers at one stage. But I have been around long enough to know that it is more important than you think to get the right things. When you eat, eat light. Don't mix a lot of things, but do eat what makes you happy. Don't eat in the hour before you get in, it needs to be before that. An hour is not enough time for a proper meal.

Fruit is good, I like pineapple, and bananas are good for cramps. Salad and pasta are good. I know Allan always eats that bloody minestrone during the whole event, but probably he is just a bit jealous of the Italians.

AM: If you ask us, and you ask our doctor, you'll get two completely different answers. He wishes us to eat, fruits, veg, pasta pasta pasta, but we're there for a week, and after four days you're sick of pasta and you've got another three days to go. I'm sure it's different if you're Italian.

DC: For me, I don't change my diet. I like pasta anyway, and I eat enough carbohydrates. Not because I think it is the right diet, it's just what I eat normally.

Drinking
AM: You have to drink a lot. You will get dehydrated, you'd be amazed, even if you're not driving, you're just sitting around and you can get dehydrated. Then when you get in the car, you'll sweat so much more even if it's not a hot day. You'll sweat more than you expect, then after 12 or 14 hours you'll get headaches, and when you get dehydrated you lose a lot of power in your muscles.

It's something like four per cent of water loss is 15-20 per cent of muscle power. It's a small percentage for a huge negative, and the other thing is once you get those headaches you can't get rid of them. I know this because I'm not exactly fat, so I don't have much water storage, so I have to drink a lot.

TK: Water is the most important part. I always need a coffee in the morning, double espresso. During the race you always have adrenaline, but there's nothing wrong with having it a little bit higher.