Q & A with Audi's Wolfgang Ullrich

Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, head of Audi Motorsport:: We had quite a positive conclusion. We have good work on both cars and we think we found some very promising setups. The drivers had a car that was set up very, very close to the optimum set-up that they think they will get for the race, so we could use the day very well.

We also had good tyre testing done so we know how many stints we can go on the tyres and we have all the information we need regarding our fuel consumption so we can build up our strategy. We have seen that we are there from the performance but we have seen, as expected, that the Pescarolos are a little bit faster on the straights. But this is also what we expected. We always said that the diesel car isn't advantaged by rules. We don't think so and I say the result proved it.

It will be a tough and hard competition we are on really on a very similar level with the Pescarolo cars. I'm quite sure that some of the new LMP1 cars will be there at qualifying as well.

Q. So you think it will be a wider battle than just Audi and Pescarolo?

WU:: The big difference for me on the Pescarolo side is that we know that they have a car that was very reliable last year and they just did some fine-tuning on the car. Reliability shouldn't be an issue for them. All the other new cars, I don't say they are not reliable, but at least nobody knows yet how they behave for 24 hours in Le Mans.

They haven't done it before so that makes the difference. We know how Pescarolo are from last year and they are reliable and have a great drivers and great racing team. So this is, for us, a known factor. At present we just do our strategy a little bit dedicated to what we think we are able to do.

Q. Did the pace of Pescarolo last weekend surprise you?

WU:: No, not really. I mean it was for me a little bit surprising that in the test the lap times have been faster than last year's qualifying times but we all know that the racetrack has been changed a little.

I think we had quite an acceptable grip in the afternoon at the test and that we also know in the work we have done with Michelin that the tyre temperatures gave quite an acceptable grip in the afternoon. The tyre manufacturers have improved and with the Pescarolos running on Michelins as well, it was not a big surprise.

My personal feeling is that I expected laptimes to be around 3:31 and at the end it was a little bit below that, but not so much. That's what I expected on Sunday.

We have seen we have done a 3:32 and then maybe we could also a 3:31 if everything would have been fitted together with traffic and so on.

Q. You think you are very even with Pescarolo in terms of pace?

WU:: Yes.

Q. Therefore will the race be decided on other factors?

WU:: We will be very similar I think. We should have the chance to use the better fuel economy of the diesel car and then it is a question of unpredictable pitstop and driver errors and strategy.

Q. How much time are you going to save by having less pitstops?

WU:: I'm not going to tell you how many laps we are going to do! That is part of the strategy! But I think we expect a gain of about eight or nine per cent in fuel economy and that is roughly where we think we will be.

This is what we had already achieved with the R8 because of the FSI technology and if you look at what we could do last year with the FSI car - one to two laps more than the Pescarolo car, which had ten-litres less fuel capacity. This year we will be on a similar level but for sure when you put up the power to the level that the new rules allow we will both be identical in power output roughly.

Q. So you think you can gain an edge by running the race with less pitstops than Pescarolo?

WU:: This is the point - if you can do less pitstops you have at least the advantage of gaining some time. I don't know exactly how much time - we are just calculating how much a pitstop will take but it is for sure more than a minute that we will lose each stop.

This was the point from the beginning with why we have decided to go for a diesel. We wanted to prove what diesel technology can achieve. In principle because of the diesel technology for the same power output, as you can see on your road car, it uses less fuel. So this is something we want to use for the race for sure.

Q. How confident are you in the reliability of the new car?

WU:: We have done the race in Sebring and another 12 hours in Sebring. We have done another 30-hour endurance in Jerez and there have always been some small issues. Not real big things, but then you never know what is going to happen. This is a new engine technology for racing and we have a completely new car and you can't look on so many databases for the knowledge on it.

That is always the risk if you go with a completely new car with new technology in a race. Pescarolo are going to be in a different position because they know their reliability status already from last year and the improvements they have done.

Q. What are your chances of winning?

WU:: If the performance remains how we have seen it in the pre-test, if we have a technical problem then the other car has no technical problem, then we can't win the race. Our target was to go to Le Mans and put us into the position to be able to win the race. We have seen that the performance is there and the rest is in the hands of the team at the weekend and the mechanical reliability. The rest is how good you react on unpredictable things that always happen, like small accidents, like changing whether whatever.

Reliability is something you cannot predict, you just have to train your people so that they are as ready as possible and are prepared to do the things that out of experience that you think could happen. Experience has showed us that we get a new experience every year.

A big field of unpredictable things that can happen to you in Le Mans.

Q. What you say to people who reckon Audi are still going to walk it?

WU:: This is something that it difficult for us to cope with. We have showed that for many years that we have been there and we have been competitive and we can win. But knowing Le Mans and saying that when that somebody goes there with brand new car and brand new technology for the very first time - that we are the only ones that can win - honours me and honours us. We wanted to do everything to be in the position to win but there are so many question marks.

Q. Do you think you can beat Peugeot when they come in next year?

WU:: We welcomed Peugeot immediately when they announced that they would come. It is good to see another big manufacturer is also taking the decision and if they come next year then at least then we have one year of advantage in development because we know they will be a very strong competitor. We welcome strong competitors because that is the idea of Le Mans. They go there for winning and we will go there for winning and it should be a big battle and that's what I foresee.

Q. Will there be more than two Audi R10s at Le Mans next year?

WU:: I can't tell you about next year, but it could happen in the next year or in the year after we build up a programme with importers like we did with the R8. Because the idea is not to go purely to Le Mans. We want to multiply our efforts and bring the message into other championship as well and then it could happen that not only the works entries compete in Le Mans. It could happen that some of the countries that have a programme running could decide that to go there and run with our support and with their teams.

Q. Do you think the perception of Le Mans will be different in the future if many teams start running with a diesel car?

WU:: Good question. That's a good question. All I can tell you at the very present time when we started testing was that I also said it was a little bit strange because it is so silent.

After all the testing we have done when we come to a race where all the other cars are so loud I see it is very positive how silent our car is. It is very positive because it just stresses you less. Noise is always a kind of stress for the human body and we have a race car that sounds nice but is not loud and doesn't hurt from the noise and doesn't stress your body. You are not all the time under the noise stress. They appreciate a lot to have it far more silent in the car.