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Le Mans / ALMS
IN THE COCKPIT: Allan McNish, Sao Paulo WEC
All in all, the weekend promised quite a bit. But we just missed out in some ways...
Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Lucas Di Grassi recorded a third place finish in Sao Paulo. (Photo: John Dagys)
There was a lot of Brazilian flare at the weekend. And I just don't just mean off the circuit with the grid walks and the fans. There were quite a lot of fans, I have to say, around the circuit, especially on this bowl-type track, where you can see a tremendous amount.
Certainly in our car gained a fair bit of attention too, because we had Lucas Di Grassi joining Tom and I for this particular event.
Lucas being a local hero but also the local expert certainly brought a positive performance to the car, without any question. It was nice to see the driver changes down to under 20 seconds and things like that.
All in all, the weekend promised quite a bit. But we just missed out in some ways.
In reality, Toyota were much, much stronger than us here. We saw that both in qualifying and the race. We didn't have anything else to give them.
With us in the Audi R18 ultra, we worked very hard to get a setup for the race and try to improve on the negative balance we had in Silverstone towards the end of the double stints.
That was one of the main focuses because this place was quite hard on the rear tire. You have a lot of hairpins in the infield section and you have a lot of long left-handers. So the right-rear has a hard, hard time.
I think we achieved that. We were in a position to be in the front row of the grid and a great lap from Lucas.
At the start of the race, I was able to maintain that, which was a bit of a fight in the first corner against two hybrids.
From then on in, it was a case of tire management. I let Ben go in the first stint, and then through the course of the end of the first stint and second stint, I pulled him back in.
He pitted 15 laps early and we were able to run on until the end of the stint, which proved that we had done a good job with our setup.
Our pace from then to the end of the race was what the R18 ultra would do around Interlagos. That was it. We got the best out of it; we pushed hard all the time. I have to say that I was very pleased with the job that we did as a whole.
Unfortunately, it just quite wasn't enough against the two other hybrid cars. But Toyota was in a different league this weekend. They were one step ahead.
We have to take our hats off and congratulate them. They showed performance when we got to Le Mans. And they definitely showed a lot of performance at Silverstone, leading the race.
Here, they got everything right.
The fight is on for us for all of the next races. We've got to go home and try and improve because that's what motor racing is about.
When you get knocked down, you have to get back up and get back in there fighting. That's what the next race in Bahrain is going to be about.
~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.
Certainly in our car gained a fair bit of attention too, because we had Lucas Di Grassi joining Tom and I for this particular event.
Lucas being a local hero but also the local expert certainly brought a positive performance to the car, without any question. It was nice to see the driver changes down to under 20 seconds and things like that.
All in all, the weekend promised quite a bit. But we just missed out in some ways.
In reality, Toyota were much, much stronger than us here. We saw that both in qualifying and the race. We didn't have anything else to give them.
With us in the Audi R18 ultra, we worked very hard to get a setup for the race and try to improve on the negative balance we had in Silverstone towards the end of the double stints.
That was one of the main focuses because this place was quite hard on the rear tire. You have a lot of hairpins in the infield section and you have a lot of long left-handers. So the right-rear has a hard, hard time.
I think we achieved that. We were in a position to be in the front row of the grid and a great lap from Lucas.
At the start of the race, I was able to maintain that, which was a bit of a fight in the first corner against two hybrids.
From then on in, it was a case of tire management. I let Ben go in the first stint, and then through the course of the end of the first stint and second stint, I pulled him back in.
He pitted 15 laps early and we were able to run on until the end of the stint, which proved that we had done a good job with our setup.
Our pace from then to the end of the race was what the R18 ultra would do around Interlagos. That was it. We got the best out of it; we pushed hard all the time. I have to say that I was very pleased with the job that we did as a whole.
Unfortunately, it just quite wasn't enough against the two other hybrid cars. But Toyota was in a different league this weekend. They were one step ahead.
We have to take our hats off and congratulate them. They showed performance when we got to Le Mans. And they definitely showed a lot of performance at Silverstone, leading the race.
Here, they got everything right.
The fight is on for us for all of the next races. We've got to go home and try and improve because that's what motor racing is about.
When you get knocked down, you have to get back up and get back in there fighting. That's what the next race in Bahrain is going to be about.
~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.
Monterey
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