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Le Mans / ALMS
IN THE COCKPIT: Allan McNish, Shanghai WEC
For us, it was quite clear in our car, that we had to try and win the race...
Allan McNish concluded the FIA WEC season with a runner-up finish in Shanghai and the championship. (Photo: LAT)
It was the last round of the FIA World Endurance Championship and also a very important one from our team's point of view. One of our car crews was going to be signed off as World Champions at the end of it.
For us, it was quite clear in our car, that we had to try and win the race. Then we'd then see how the points racked up at the end of it. We could control that part of it, but we couldn't control the sister car's performance or if they had anything tricky happen to them over the course of it.
So it was a clear strategy from that respect. It was also quite a different strategy in the way we worked with the car. This was the second race that our engineer (Kyle Wilson-Clarke) had actually worked with the R18 e-tron quattro. We definitely found that experience was a big effect.
From the beginning of first practice to the end of the race, we had the upper hand in terms of performance over the sister car. But in terms of balance and feel, I have to say it was much more like a racing car that Tom and I like to drive.
Especially on this track. The track was such a tricky one. It was a demanding little circuit in its own way. Even though there were five first-gear corners, the first corner was the longest corner I've ever seen in the world! It's 300 degrees from start to finish and just tightens. In fact, the apex of Turn 2, I only saw twice, and that was in the run that Tom and I did before we even started practice and the second was when we did a track walk with the engineers!
After that, I have to say that I probably took 100 different lines into that corner, just because of the fact that it's so tight and line critical. To get the feel and the grip through there... Also, with it being a right-hander that dips down the hill, you don't exactly see very much either.
Turn 13 is the exact opposite. It's a really tight entry and then leads onto a banked camber right-hander onto the back straight. So it was a circuit that was about balance in a lot of ways. It probably means it was more balanced for car as well as anything else.
The race itself was going to be tricky because what we saw straight away was that there was going to be a lot of (rubber) pickup. I remember watching the Formula One Grand Prix there and there was a tremendous amount. After half a session in Free Practice 1 on Friday, if you pulled out from the standard racing line on the back straight, you just got so much pickup, where it was like driving on square tires.
So that was definitely going to be a factor. We worked with our setup to try and take that into account. It was something we found a big issue with on our car in Fuji, so we basically reversed all of the philosophy we had taken for that and had gone back to something that was maybe a little more that Tom and I got on with.
I qualified on the front row, a tenth behind Alex Wurz. That was probably one of my best qualifying laps in the last two or three years. I was absolutely on it. I got it in the first timed lap, when the tires were fresh. It was probably half a tenth of a loss into Turn 14, where I just overshot the apex very, very slightly. But in reality, it was a really, really good qually lap.
Something to take away from it, I ended up as the best Audi qualifier at the end of the season. So there's still a little bit of speed in the right foot.
Unfortunately, though, I spoke to Alex Wurz that night and he said he made a mistake and lost six-tenths in the final sector. So we came out of qualifying that we nearly had a run on them and found that out. That was a little bit of a disappointment.
But we saw that at the beginning of the race when the Toyota pulled off into the distance a little bit. I had to try and stretch the gap to Ben, who was starting the sister car, while also trying to keep as much pressure on the Toyota as possible.
Traffic was an issue. I had a 10 second gap over Ben, and within two laps, I had just caught gaggles of cars fighting over each other, which was fine, but I lost 9.5 seconds of that 10 second gap. So it was something that we really had to be a bit careful of. That was part of the race.
At the end, we finished second, quite a bit behind the Toyota but also 40 odd seconds ahead of the sister car. That put us second in the championship.
I have to say it was a good final race from us and the maximum we could do. I don't think there was anything more that could come out of it. It just proves that we've got a big fight on our hands for 2013.
But as we come to the end of the championship in China, I have to say that I think the series was a big success. Especially when we consider where we were back in January when Peugeot was pulling out at the last minute. The general opinion was that it was going to be a dominant season by Audi.
The competition we've seen from Toyota and also the battles we've seen in the LMP1 Privateer or LMP2, where Starworks came out on top... Or in GT, which has also been really, really good all the way through. I think it bodes very well for 2013 and also '14 when they also have the 'might' of Porsche joining again.
From our point of view, the championship is not won or lost in one race; it's over the course of a season. I think we had too many problems, some self-induced, some not self-induced, when we were running in pretty good positions. And you can't give those points away.
Ben, Andre and Marcel had a very good season. They drove very well and we have to tip the hats to them for their championship victory. But also for the whole No. 1 car crew. As much as we work on the other side of the garage and focus on your own job, and you want to win, I've won a lot of races and championships, including the ALMS, with some of those guys as well.
To see them smiling on Sunday night was quite a nice position. Ultimately we would have liked to be smiling a little bit more ourselves, but as we'd come out of it, I think we'll look towards 2013 with quite a strong determination to tip the tables in our favor.
~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.
For us, it was quite clear in our car, that we had to try and win the race. Then we'd then see how the points racked up at the end of it. We could control that part of it, but we couldn't control the sister car's performance or if they had anything tricky happen to them over the course of it.
So it was a clear strategy from that respect. It was also quite a different strategy in the way we worked with the car. This was the second race that our engineer (Kyle Wilson-Clarke) had actually worked with the R18 e-tron quattro. We definitely found that experience was a big effect.
From the beginning of first practice to the end of the race, we had the upper hand in terms of performance over the sister car. But in terms of balance and feel, I have to say it was much more like a racing car that Tom and I like to drive.
Especially on this track. The track was such a tricky one. It was a demanding little circuit in its own way. Even though there were five first-gear corners, the first corner was the longest corner I've ever seen in the world! It's 300 degrees from start to finish and just tightens. In fact, the apex of Turn 2, I only saw twice, and that was in the run that Tom and I did before we even started practice and the second was when we did a track walk with the engineers!
After that, I have to say that I probably took 100 different lines into that corner, just because of the fact that it's so tight and line critical. To get the feel and the grip through there... Also, with it being a right-hander that dips down the hill, you don't exactly see very much either.
Turn 13 is the exact opposite. It's a really tight entry and then leads onto a banked camber right-hander onto the back straight. So it was a circuit that was about balance in a lot of ways. It probably means it was more balanced for car as well as anything else.
The race itself was going to be tricky because what we saw straight away was that there was going to be a lot of (rubber) pickup. I remember watching the Formula One Grand Prix there and there was a tremendous amount. After half a session in Free Practice 1 on Friday, if you pulled out from the standard racing line on the back straight, you just got so much pickup, where it was like driving on square tires.
So that was definitely going to be a factor. We worked with our setup to try and take that into account. It was something we found a big issue with on our car in Fuji, so we basically reversed all of the philosophy we had taken for that and had gone back to something that was maybe a little more that Tom and I got on with.
I qualified on the front row, a tenth behind Alex Wurz. That was probably one of my best qualifying laps in the last two or three years. I was absolutely on it. I got it in the first timed lap, when the tires were fresh. It was probably half a tenth of a loss into Turn 14, where I just overshot the apex very, very slightly. But in reality, it was a really, really good qually lap.
Something to take away from it, I ended up as the best Audi qualifier at the end of the season. So there's still a little bit of speed in the right foot.
Unfortunately, though, I spoke to Alex Wurz that night and he said he made a mistake and lost six-tenths in the final sector. So we came out of qualifying that we nearly had a run on them and found that out. That was a little bit of a disappointment.
But we saw that at the beginning of the race when the Toyota pulled off into the distance a little bit. I had to try and stretch the gap to Ben, who was starting the sister car, while also trying to keep as much pressure on the Toyota as possible.
Traffic was an issue. I had a 10 second gap over Ben, and within two laps, I had just caught gaggles of cars fighting over each other, which was fine, but I lost 9.5 seconds of that 10 second gap. So it was something that we really had to be a bit careful of. That was part of the race.
At the end, we finished second, quite a bit behind the Toyota but also 40 odd seconds ahead of the sister car. That put us second in the championship.
I have to say it was a good final race from us and the maximum we could do. I don't think there was anything more that could come out of it. It just proves that we've got a big fight on our hands for 2013.
But as we come to the end of the championship in China, I have to say that I think the series was a big success. Especially when we consider where we were back in January when Peugeot was pulling out at the last minute. The general opinion was that it was going to be a dominant season by Audi.
The competition we've seen from Toyota and also the battles we've seen in the LMP1 Privateer or LMP2, where Starworks came out on top... Or in GT, which has also been really, really good all the way through. I think it bodes very well for 2013 and also '14 when they also have the 'might' of Porsche joining again.
From our point of view, the championship is not won or lost in one race; it's over the course of a season. I think we had too many problems, some self-induced, some not self-induced, when we were running in pretty good positions. And you can't give those points away.
Ben, Andre and Marcel had a very good season. They drove very well and we have to tip the hats to them for their championship victory. But also for the whole No. 1 car crew. As much as we work on the other side of the garage and focus on your own job, and you want to win, I've won a lot of races and championships, including the ALMS, with some of those guys as well.
To see them smiling on Sunday night was quite a nice position. Ultimately we would have liked to be smiling a little bit more ourselves, but as we'd come out of it, I think we'll look towards 2013 with quite a strong determination to tip the tables in our favor.
~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.
ALMS Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
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