“When you win it at your second attempt – or your first attempt as some have done, like Alex Wurz, for example – then you think it's reasonably easy because it has gone reasonably easily for you that time, but then over the course of years afterwards it reminds you that 'bloody hell, this is some race', and it is a hard one. More often things go wrong than go right, but you've got to pick yourself up, dust yourself down and keep on fighting, and to some extent that's Le Mans. Whether it be through the race itself or before or whatever, things will happen and you've just got to keep your head down and keep on fighting away.”

Keeping his head down and fighting away is something that McNish can always be counted upon to do, and in company with Tom Kristensen – nicknamed 'Mr Le Mans' for his seven successes at La Sarthe since 1997 – and five-time winner Emanuele Pirro, he is assuredly entering the 2008 edition in fine form.

Though Audi have not triumphed in either the Sebring 12 Hours or any of the first three Le Mans Series outings of the current campaign, the principal objective for the celebrated Ingolstadt marque has always been the fabled '24 Heures'. Indeed, the man from Dumfries even goes so far as to claim that it is arch-rivals Peugeot who are feeling the heat far more than Audi, suggesting that Marc Gené's spectacular accident on the pre-event test day – from which the Spaniard was extremely luck to emerge heavily shaken but largely unscathed – was in part symptomatic of the French manufacturer being pushed absolutely to the ragged edge.

“I would say that the thing that gives us confidence is that we are making moves forwards,” the 38-year-old underlined. “We're making the car faster; we've reacted to the fact that Peugeot were quite a bit quicker at the beginning of the year. Also we've got under control I would have said the reliability problems that afflicted us – we had a brake disc failure at Sebring, which was unheard of.

“A lot of people were saying 'oh, this is going to be a problem for Audi, they're now under real pressure and they're cracking and failing and so on', but as we've seen in the LMS races, we've got those things sorted out, we're producing consistent, very, very fast performances and improving the car at the same time. Our pit-stops are excellent, and I think our strategy is very, very good, so all-in-all we are in I would say quite a secure position. If anything, the cracks are starting to appear at Peugeot. I'm not really sure why, but that seems to be the case right now.

“We knew what they were capable of last year at Le Mans – remember they were on pole, and their fastest lap at Le Mans last year was just three or four tenths slower than mine; it wasn't that much. Where they were down last year was that in race trim they were very inconsistent and couldn't keep the pace, whereas we could do it wet, dry, intermediates, day, night – didn't matter. They've learned from that and they've come back stronger.

“I don't think there's anything we saw at Sebring that was a surprise, though, except – and they did it again at Le Mans on the test day – I have to say I was surprised at how quickly they could put in a lap time. They did it within ten laps I think at Sebring, and then at Le Mans their first lap time was a 3m22.7s and their second was a 3m22.2s. That was pretty impressive, and you can't get away from it. I tip my hat a little bit to that – I didn't like it when I saw the times, but I tip my hat to it! That was really the thing that surprised us – not their ultimate pace and not some of the problems they had either, because they were some of the problems they'd had in 2007.

“They know very clearly that we don't give up; they know very clearly that we want to win; they know very clearly that if they have anything apart from a perfect race we'll be there. That's one of the best things I think about this year's Le Mans, that you've got two different circumstances, two – to some extent – slightly different strategies and also two big, mighty manufacturers with some excellent driving line-ups going head-to-head in one of the biggest races in the world. As I go into it now I'm starting to get shivers – I think this is great!”

Though he admitted the test day had been something of a non-entity due to the rain, McNish argued that the lack of running in early June could actually play in Audi's favour as 'we've got much more information on Le Mans and how to go about it all – especially in changeable and tricky conditions as we've seen this time – than probably anybody else on the grid'.

As to how he was feeling ahead of the race, he stated that it was a blend of 'nervous anticipation', underlined by a quiet confidence that whilst he may not be in the fastest car out there, he is in the one that's most likely to take the chequered flag first.