Q & A with Mike Rockenfeller

Mike Rockenfeller: "I come here with half the Le Mans Series season over, we've had good races a lot of time in the car. I feel more part of the team and more confident. It's a different feeling and I'm quite relaxed. I'm pleased that I had the chance to do the LMS to have time in the car. I think all three of us are better prepared than last year.

"We would have liked to have won an LMS race, but I feel confident because we've done what Audi expected of us. It was important to get that confidence and not have any incidents or damage the car because even if an incident isn't your fault it still brings you down, but we finished every race.

"For me, after what happened last year, it's easy to say I'm back and confident but it's actually not easy to overcome a crash like last year. So being back knowing I have been successful in the car since helped a lot. I don't think about last year, it's over. It doesn't help me if every time I go through this corner I think 'this is where I ruined the race'.

Q. How did you feel after crashing last year?

MR: "To be honest, I felt shit. It's hard to describe, I'd never had this before in my career, to be in such a good car, to have such a chance, then to really not succeed. To finish the race third would have been successful, but I completely messed it up.

"Even though people come to you and say 'hey, come on, don't worry about it, there's always next year' or whatever, at that moment you don't care. I felt so bad. It was hard for me to come back and even look my mechanics and Dr Ulrich in the eye because I felt like an idiot. But it happens. Now I can joke about it and I have no problem with it any more, but at the time it was tough. It made me stronger, though.

"The best thing you can do to forget it is to keep going and be successful. Luckily I had a chance, Audi said we'll try it again and I'm here. It could have been that after last year they said 'we don't need you any more'.

Q. What's different this time?

MR: "Last year I was experienced in endurance racing and had been here and even won the GT2 class, but all three of us in the car were really fresh. I hadn't had a lot of time in the car - this isn't an excuse for what happened, just the way it was - I didn't feel so confident when I got in the car. The speed was there and everything but it's just the feeling in the car, and you think about things you shouldn't have to think about. You should know everything and just be able to focus.

"But it's completely different now, and much better. We feel much stronger and we know what to expect. We have much more experience in this car, in traffic, for Alex (Premat) it's the first year he's really doing endurance races. Myself and Lucas (Luhr) did it in slower cars so had some experience in traffic, but not like the other guys in the team. Now we come here having done well.

"Last year was the worst moment to crash. I was new to Audi, we were the young guys, and I made the mistake. So of course everyone said you need to have experience. It's true, yes, you need experience but you have to get that experience. I would really like to have a good result to prove that the young drivers can get a good result."

Q. Can the 'young' car be the lead Audi, or even win the race?

MR: "Definitely we want to win it. The number of wins the other guys have is incredible so I think it's fair that we get one now! Of course every crew wants to win and our goal is first of all to be the best Audi. Then, hopefully, that means to win the race.

"There has always been competition but I think this year is special and it's going to be really, really tough. We want to keep it clean and run trouble free. Of course we want to push but we don't have as much to prove as we did last year. We had a little bit in our minds wanting to show how quick we were and that we could beat the others.

"But now we've been quick in the car, Lucas has won in America, and myself and Alex have had three second places in LMS, so we don't feel we have to prove so much and can just focus on getting the best result.

"Out of the six cars (three Audis and three Peugeots), or however many will be in the fight, the competition will be close, so the one that has no problems will win. The car that spends the least amount of time in the pits will win, and I hope that's our car."