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Le Mans / ALMS
IN THE COCKPIT: Allan McNish, Fuji WEC
With the sister Audi car finishing second and us a pretty disappointed third, then it was not the happiest of afternoons for us...
Allan McNish and Tom Kristesen recorded a third place finish in Sunday's Six Hours of Fuji. (Photo: LAT)
Going to Fuji, we always knew that the local, 'home grown' support was probably going to be cheering a little bit more on Toyota than it necessarily was with us. But there were a lot of Audi fans and even a few Scottish flags flying in the grandstands as well!
We certainly had our fair share of Japanese fan support, which I have to say is very much unlike anything else. They come in the droves from Friday onwards and they were always there through the weekend and very politely waiting for autographs.
From my point of view, it was very nice to be back in Japan. It was a place that I had been to so many times. When I was testing with McLaren, I was there nearly every month through the end of 1990 and 91 and the beginning of 92.
Funny enough, I never had much to do with the Fuji Circuit, it was mostly at Suzuka. So the test day on Wednesday was the first time that I really got onto the track and had a feel for it.
Fuji has changed very much over the years. It used to be very fast. Now the first and second sectors are still very quick. You’ve got the long straight into a hairpin first corner, then a very quick left and a long 100R right, which is a wee bit like the carousel at Road America.
But it’s got a bit of a dip in the middle of it and a compression that builds the front grip and you pop over it and immediately afterwards, you go into a left-hand hairpin. It’s a really nice corner and still the best corner on track without doubt.
The last sector is all first and second gear corners. They’re tricky because they’re adverse camber up over the top of rises. Therefore, you really need to work with the car setup to try to maximize it there.
I have to be honest, I was never absolutely satisfied. I wouldn’t say I ever came out onto the start/finish straight thinking, ‘Yeah, that was a good lap.’ You come out thinking, ‘OK, right..’ and off you go down towards Turn 1.
We knew from the get-go that the track was going to favor the Toyota quite well, just because their car has been historically quite good on those tight and twisty bits. Where I think the Audi R18 e-tron quattro in the faster sections tends to be the dominant factor.
But when we worked with our car, Tom and I looked really at long runs. On Wednesday, we just did long runs in the afternoon, the same in the two sessions on Friday. Tom did the first one and I did the second one. We did long runs to work with the tires, to see if we could get a race setup, not necessarily focusing on qualifying.
When we qualified third, I was quite comfortable with that because Tom and I felt that we had a pretty good car for the race.
At the beginning, I have to say I got up to second in the first corner, got around Andre, who started the sister car. I dropped back very slightly to the Toyota of Alex Wurz through traffic, I would say three seconds or something, so I wasn’t too unhappy with the performance.
Andre got passed me when I got caught a little bit in traffic and basically after 30 minutes, I got pickup on the tires and then struggled from then to the end of the stint to clean it. It got to a point where I couldn’t see going into the first corner because of the vibrations.
It was very, very difficult, so we dropped back, but 9 seconds from Andre at the first pit stop. Then Tom got the same problem through the second and third stint, which dropped us back quite far at that point.
I have to say that from then to the end of the race, we improved on it. But our speed and performance wasn’t consistently quick enough to do anything about the two cars ahead.
A Toyota home victory, it was a superb race for them. With the sister Audi car finishing second and us a pretty disappointed third, then it was not the happiest of afternoons for us, especially the way we had gone into it and the thoughts we had for the race.
But looking at it now, from a championship perspective as well, it will be a big uphill task heading into China. However, I think we have a bit of a feel and idea of where our problems lay and we’ll be able to revert back to that.
One last thing. I want to say a huge congratulations to Starworks, a team I drove for at the Rolex 24 at Daytona this year. We finished second, five seconds behind. They’ve won Sebring, they’ve won Le Mans and they’ve now won the World Championship in LMP2.
That’s just a superb effort. And can you believe this. I understand it’s the first American team to win an FIA World Championship for 44 years, since Ford did it! Now that’s absolutely stunning.
So Peter [Baron], all the boys and girls, and everybody that’s worked in that, just huge, huge congratulations. I tip my hat to you. I’m very, very impressed and congrats to you.
~Allan
Allan McNish, a two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, is a factory driver for Audi Sport, competing in this year's FIA World Endurance Championship. A three-time ALMS champion, McNish has also racked up multiple wins at Sebring and Petit Le Mans. For more information, visit allanmcnish.com and follow him on Twitter @AllanMcNish.
We certainly had our fair share of Japanese fan support, which I have to say is very much unlike anything else. They come in the droves from Friday onwards and they were always there through the weekend and very politely waiting for autographs.
From my point of view, it was very nice to be back in Japan. It was a place that I had been to so many times. When I was testing with McLaren, I was there nearly every month through the end of 1990 and 91 and the beginning of 92.
Funny enough, I never had much to do with the Fuji Circuit, it was mostly at Suzuka. So the test day on Wednesday was the first time that I really got onto the track and had a feel for it.
Fuji has changed very much over the years. It used to be very fast. Now the first and second sectors are still very quick. You’ve got the long straight into a hairpin first corner, then a very quick left and a long 100R right, which is a wee bit like the carousel at Road America.
But it’s got a bit of a dip in the middle of it and a compression that builds the front grip and you pop over it and immediately afterwards, you go into a left-hand hairpin. It’s a really nice corner and still the best corner on track without doubt.
The last sector is all first and second gear corners. They’re tricky because they’re adverse camber up over the top of rises. Therefore, you really need to work with the car setup to try to maximize it there.
I have to be honest, I was never absolutely satisfied. I wouldn’t say I ever came out onto the start/finish straight thinking, ‘Yeah, that was a good lap.’ You come out thinking, ‘OK, right..’ and off you go down towards Turn 1.
We knew from the get-go that the track was going to favor the Toyota quite well, just because their car has been historically quite good on those tight and twisty bits. Where I think the Audi R18 e-tron quattro in the faster sections tends to be the dominant factor.
But when we worked with our car, Tom and I looked really at long runs. On Wednesday, we just did long runs in the afternoon, the same in the two sessions on Friday. Tom did the first one and I did the second one. We did long runs to work with the tires, to see if we could get a race setup, not necessarily focusing on qualifying.
When we qualified third, I was quite comfortable with that because Tom and I felt that we had a pretty good car for the race.
At the beginning, I have to say I got up to second in the first corner, got around Andre, who started the sister car. I dropped back very slightly to the Toyota of Alex Wurz through traffic, I would say three seconds or something, so I wasn’t too unhappy with the performance.
Andre got passed me when I got caught a little bit in traffic and basically after 30 minutes, I got pickup on the tires and then struggled from then to the end of the stint to clean it. It got to a point where I couldn’t see going into the first corner because of the vibrations.
It was very, very difficult, so we dropped back, but 9 seconds from Andre at the first pit stop. Then Tom got the same problem through the second and third stint, which dropped us back quite far at that point.
I have to say that from then to the end of the race, we improved on it. But our speed and performance wasn’t consistently quick enough to do anything about the two cars ahead.
A Toyota home victory, it was a superb race for them. With the sister Audi car finishing second and us a pretty disappointed third, then it was not the happiest of afternoons for us, especially the way we had gone into it and the thoughts we had for the race.
But looking at it now, from a championship perspective as well, it will be a big uphill task heading into China. However, I think we have a bit of a feel and idea of where our problems lay and we’ll be able to revert back to that.
One last thing. I want to say a huge congratulations to Starworks, a team I drove for at the Rolex 24 at Daytona this year. We finished second, five seconds behind. They’ve won Sebring, they’ve won Le Mans and they’ve now won the World Championship in LMP2.
That’s just a superb effort. And can you believe this. I understand it’s the first American team to win an FIA World Championship for 44 years, since Ford did it! Now that’s absolutely stunning.
So Peter [Baron], all the boys and girls, and everybody that’s worked in that, just huge, huge congratulations. I tip my hat to you. I’m very, very impressed and congrats to you.
~Allan
Allan McNish, a two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, is a factory driver for Audi Sport, competing in this year's FIA World Endurance Championship. A three-time ALMS champion, McNish has also racked up multiple wins at Sebring and Petit Le Mans. For more information, visit allanmcnish.com and follow him on Twitter @AllanMcNish.
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