Allan McNish: Going the Distance

The way Le Mans turned out this year reminded me a lot of 1998, when I won it for the first time. We had the perfect race, the perfect strategy, and everything went to plan. Then at the next race, at the Hockenheimring, we got trounced!

Last weekend at the Nurburgring, it was the same thing.

In this one there was no chance for us to fight with Peugeot. We were a lap a down within two hours, and that is certainly not what we expected.

It has been quite a hard pill to swallow after the jubilation of Le Mans.

We had a new chassis for last weekend, because the car that won Le Mans went to the Audi museum, and the Nurburgring was the first time we had run it. From the word go it wasn't right and didn't react the way we expected.

It was locking the fronts all the way through practice and qualifying. We resolved that but that then caused other issues all the way through the race. Audi are looking into the exact reasons why at the moment.

But it was a very difficult weekend because all the time we were chasing our tails to find the root of our problems, and ultimately we didn't get to them. Once you are in the race you just have to do the best with what you've got. And the Audi myself and Dindo Capello [my teammate] had on Sunday was definitely the worst-balanced R10 TDi I've driven in the last three years.

It's been a bittersweet season in so many ways, but I'm not happy about last weekend for two main reasons. Firstly because of the result, where we would have finished third under normal circumstances. But secondly, because myself and Audi Sport don't go to the races to finish third or to be satisfied with anything like that.

From the beginning of the year at Sebring we've known we faced an uphill struggle in terms of sheer pace. We've had to give everything just to be in the fight and, up until this weekend, we've been able to do that. It's given me a lot of personal satisfaction.

But when I look back on this season in ten years time I'll think Le Mans was the biggest pick out of it.

I expected us to be closer to the Peugeots this year. You'd never go into a season expecting to be 1.5s off the pace, not if you're driving an Audi, but that is the reality of where we have been this year - certainly in qualifying.

But, as I've said, we had at least been able to take the fight to them, and give ourselves the chance to race for first, second or third. In the last three LMS events, something has happened to take that away, and in this particular one we had a suspected puncture with a couple of laps to go.

And I have to say that was particularly disappointing, having pulled back over 30s gap deficit over my teammates. However the problem, having dropped us off the podium, did at least give the sister car of Mike Rockenfeller and Alex Premat some help in their championship battle with Peugeot drivers Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gene.

You have got to hand it to Peugeot, though, they have got better again since Le Mans.

They have actually accelerated development much more than I thought. They had a good jump on us at the beginning of the year and they've kept that gap.

We too have made improvements to the car and there is no question that now it's certainly better than it was in Barcelona. There is a big performance improvement.

But Peugeot have been able to do the same, if not a little bit more than us. In some respects they have extended the gap and they have been very fast to react to areas that let them down in Le Mans.

Next comes the Autosport 1000kms at Silverstone, and hopefully we will be able to get closer again. It might be a little easier than the Nurburgring, but not a lot. It's down to us to make sure that we don't have the same problems as last weekend and then we will be in the mix anyway.

But it's by no means certain that it will be just us and Peugeot, there will be others in the fight. The circuit has a lot of fast changes of direction, which suits the LMP2 cars, and there are not many slow corners with acceleration on to long straights afterwards, so you can expect them to be quick there.

After that, the next big mark on the sportscar calendar is Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, and again the circuit will definitely be good for the LMP2 cars.

If you remember last year, we came close to being beaten by the Porsches, and Peugeot are sending two cars across, so I can't imagine they will be slow.

From my point of view it's not guaranteed that I will be going to Petit, because the Audi driver line-up hasn't even been discussed as far as I'm aware. I like the race, I like the challenge of it. It's a nice event to do and I've won it most times I've been there, so it would be a nice way to round off my year, but having said that I'm looking at the Autosport 1000kms at Silverstone first of all.

People have asked me if I miss racing in the American Le Mans Series, which of course Petit Le Mans is part of. And I must admit, there are some aspects about racing in America that I miss. I miss the racing. The average level of professionalism is a bit higher than it is in Europe. But the very top level is higher over here.

Allan McNish at speed in the Audi R10 at the Nurburgring 1000km © Audi Sport

There are fewer cars in the ALMS, but there are only about two inexperienced crews out there that can distort a race result. The officials are very clear and straight-forward too, but that's also becoming better in Europe.

The reason to do the LMS, for me, was always because of the championship and to challenge Peugeot, and that hasn't changed at all. So when I look to next year I know that my desire is to still to stay in Europe. But whether I'll be racing here or whether it's in an R10 TDi, right now, I can't tell you.

Looking at next year, Dr Ullrich has already said that for Audi to come back they would have to make a very big step forward and I would expect that to be in every area of the car. They have made a commitment to sportscar racing, but they haven't defined whether it will be in Europe or America.

I do know that they are very aware of our situation with Peugeot, and they will have to react to it if they want to be in with a chance of victory.

Since my last column, my old friend David Coulthard announced his retirement from Formula One, and I'd just like to say... About time too!

A lot of people called for him to retire when he left McLaren. But he went to Red Bull and had a new lease of life, and that is when I think you saw the real DC, not what you saw at McLaren where he was maybe not able to express himself in his own way.

He has got out on his own terms, and I think that is very important for a racing driver to be able to do - walk out of a paddock with your head held high.

I'm sure he will still bring a lot to Red Bull with his experience of the category and the intelligence that he has. In terms of driving in the future though, it will probably be restricted to testing. I don't think he will jump in something else in a couple of years time, like Mika Hakkinen did. He is a different animal in that respect.

Would I like to race alongside him one day? What would be more fun is to race a kart against him again. That's how it started in 1982, and maybe when I've retired that's what we should do.

I've always thought that retirement is a very personal thing, and there are two aspects that should decide when a driver does it. One of them is his commitment to get up and go for that run at seven in the morning. The other thing is the stopwatch. That doesn't lie. And the two are related because if you don't have the commitment then you don't have the performance on the track.

David I wish you the best of luck, and I hope it's a very long time before I'm sitting on a deck chair next to you!

Until next time,