McNish confident over reliability

The 38-year-old Scot and co-driver Rinaldo Capello lost their chance of victory in the Sebring 12 Hours last month when they ran into brake problems, then lost the first round of the Le Mans Series to Peugeot after broken alternator belt cost them several laps.

But despite the perceived speed advantage of Peugeot's 908 HDi FAP coupe LMP1s, McNish believes the Audi's improved reliability will help its challenge at the next round at Monza on April 27.

"I've experienced small problems in my first two races this season but everyone at Audi Sport has been working hard in between the races and I'm certain we'll get our famed reliability back," said McNish.

"The competition is so intense in endurance sportscar racing nowadays that any time delays rule you out of contention."

McNish told Autosport recently that he was unconcerned by Audi's recent run of technical issues and pointed to the manufacturer's record in the past as a reason why he expects the team to bounce back quickly in the LMS.

"It's not been one consistent issue," he said. "In Sebring it was a totally different situation to what it was in Barcelona. I'm not too concerned too much about reliability for Le Mans, we've obviously got an endurance test coming up and bits and pieces."

The former F1 driver added that the nature of the Monza circuit may play into the hands of Audi, and that Peugeot cannot assume they have overcome their own reliablity worries.

"I'll be interested to see if they really have it licked," he said. "We've got Monza, which is hard on engine with long periods of wide open throttle. It's hard on gearboxes because we are just going up and down them.

"We've also got Spa, which is quite a high G-loading circuit because of the speeds of the corners, so those two races should give us a good indication of what their true potential is going in to Le Mans."

McNish does think that Monza will provide a much closer contest than that of the LMS opener at Barcelona, where Peugeot clearly held a performance advantage.

"The Peugeot is very quick as is the Aston Martin-engined Lola while the Courage and Pescarolo will be in the mix," he said. "It'll be nip and tuck every lap from start to finish. With around 50 cars on the track that means a lot of overtaking."