Allan McNish

Allan McNish dabbled with Formula One on and off for 13 years, but only ever
received one full season of racing as his talent found a home elsewhere.

Like Johnny Herbert before him and David Coulthard after, McNish was rated
as the hottest property to come out of Britain in his time, and the three
drivers all followed similar routes towards the top flight.

McNish began racing in karts when he was eleven years old, and quickly
proved his ability - aided by his diminutive stature - by landing Scottish
and British titles over a six-year period.

He then took the decision to move up to car racing in 1987, opting for the
proven Formula Ford category, where he finished second overall with Ecurie
Ecosse and attracted the attention of cigarette brand Marlboro, which had a
heavy presence right through the motorsport ladder.

Having earned a place on Marlboro's driver development programme, McNish was
teamed with future F1 world champion Mika Hakkinen to contest both the
British Formula Vauxhall and European Formula Opel championships. The pair
proved the drivers to beat in 1988, taking race wins in both categories, and
sealing the two titles between them, McNish winning the British crown and
finishing as runner-up in Europe.

Both graduated to Formula Three with Marlboro the following year, and it
appeared that McNish had got the better career break after being placed with
the crack West Surrey Racing squad that had taken Ayrton Senna, amongst
others, to the British title. The Scot was almost immediately a frontrunner
and ended up battling for the title with Australia's David Brabham, only
losing out at the final round.

His performances earned him an early taste of F1 feeder series F3000, where

he contested the final round of 1999 with Marlboro-backed Pacific Racing. A
solid showing there persuaded Marlboro to farm him out to the champion DAMS
team, where he ran alongside Frenchman Erik Comas. Despite a difficult start
to the year, where parts of his car killed a spectator following an accident
at Donington Park, McNish bounced back to win at Silverstone next time out,
and went on to clinch a second victory on his way to fourth place overall

Despite having got his first taste of Formula One courtesy of a three-year
testing contract with Marlboro-backed McLaren, McNish stayed in F3000 for a
second season… when things started to go downhill. DAMS had a rare off year
and the Scot managed only 16th in the final standings, and 1992 was little
better as he was only able to take eleventh in the reckoning.

Once his McLaren contract had ended, McNish switched camps to test for
Benetton in 1994, where his morale received a boost as he helped to develop
the car that eventually took Michael Schumacher to his first world title.
That success saw the Scot kept on for another couple of seasons, again in a
testing role.

He continued to dabble in F3000, appearing in occasional races in both 1994
and 1995 but, apart from the odd pole and podium, he was never in a position
to make his mark, particularly after a mysterious virus left him feeling out
of sorts.

After a brief dalliance with the ill-fated Lola F1 team, McNish decided that
he wanted to get back to racing, and opted to pursue rides in sportscar
racing. Having guested with Porsche in the F1-supporting Supercup, he became
a target for the Weissach marque, and eventually raced in both the FIA GT
and US Sportscar series.

Then, for 1998, he got his big break, winning the Le Mans 24 Hours in a
Porsche 911 GT1 alongside Stephane Ortelli and Laurent Aiello. He also
finished second overall and first in class at the Daytona 24 Hours and
further success marked him out as a true sportscar talent.

Following Porsche's withdrawal from frontline competition, other than taking
second again at Daytona, McNish was snapped up by Toyota to lead its GT-One
assault in 1999, but the bid failed and the Scot moved on to join Audi.

Again, his timing was near perfect, as the German manufacturer was honing
its R8 prototype to be the class of the field for many years to come. Racing
in the USA, McNish claimed the American Le Mans title on the back of six
wins alongside Rinaldo Capello, finished second at Sebring and added a
similar runner-up position at Le Mans for good measure.

The Scot continued to race sportscars for Audi, but was again denied a
second Le Mans win in 2001. Toyota, however, had not forgotten his efforts
and, when its new F1 project needed a test driver, McNish and Mika Salo were
drafted in.

The pair's development work then earned them the marque's first two race
seats for 2002, with McNish making a belated F1 debut after several years of
being involved in the category. The dream was not to be a particularly
memorable one, however, with several start-line failures amid just eight
finishes. None of those was high enough to make it into the points, and
McNish ended up sitting out the Suzuka finale following a massive crash that
took his TF102 over the crash barrier at 130R.

Both McNish and Salo were dropped by the team at the end of the year,
although the Scot had obviously done enough to be offered a test and
development role by Renault in F1, which saw him able to run for the team on
Friday mornings at each grand prix.

When that role was handed to Frenchman Franck Montagny for 2004, McNish,
still with a hankering to race, turned his attentions back towards sports
cars. He was welcomed back by Audi, which placed him with the Veloqx squad
for the season's endurance classics as well as the inaugural Le Mans
Endurance Series, and repaid the German marque with second place at Sebring
and runners-up spot, to team mates Herbert and Jamie Davies after four
hard-fought rounds in the LMES. Le Mans, however, continued to prove elusive
after an oil slick caught him and several others out, but left McNish with
concussion and unable to continue.

Returning to the Audi fold has since provided an unexpected opening in the
German DTM touring car series for 2005, a role that McNish combined with
continued sports car outings. The highlight of Allan's season was
undoubtedly his Le Mans Endurance Series win at Silverstone, where he drove
his Audi R8 to victory in appallingly wet conditions. At the beginning of
2006 he partnered Kristensen and Capello to take an historic victory for
Audi's turbo-diesel powered R10 on its debut in the Sebring 12-hours.