Recently there have been a few fairly major crashes this season – Marc Gené, most obviously, on the Le Mans test day, as well as your team-mate 'Dindo' Capello and then Stéphane Ortelli in the Oreca at Monza – is that a cause for concern at all in the run-up to the race?
AM:
Yes, it's cause for concern, because you never like to hear about or see big accidents. When I saw Marc's accident on video afterwards, I was shocked, I have to say, and I was very, very pleased that he was okay. It just proves that the cars are very strong, as we also saw with Stéphane with four cracks in a bone, and Dindo being able to drive back to the pits and us going on to finish fifth or sixth or whatever it was. The cars are extremely tough, but we don't like to ever see them in that situation.
The common thread is they were all going very, very fast at the time, and for whatever reason they went sideways. In Stéph's case it was because of a rear wing problem, in Dindo's case it was because he had a small touch and got a puncture on the right rear and in Marc's case I think it was because he was just basically going too fast round the left-hander and half-spun the car.
What do you do about it? I don't really know – I'm not a designer, I'm not an aerodynamicist – but what I do know is that there are people who are aware of the circumstances, and they will make not a knee-jerk reaction but a very logical analysis to it if that is deemed the best way to go forward.
Looking at Le Mans, you can't do anything now – there's no question about it – and we'll not change our driving style; we'll not change anything we do. I think it's more of a case of some incidents happening in quick succession, whereas they haven't happened in the previous six months before it. It just appears we've been on very fast circuits and they've happened in very quick succession in the last month.
Q:
Do you think Marc Gene's crash is perhaps symptomatic of Peugeot being pushed absolutely to the limit by Audi?
AM:
I think that there is definitely an element of that, yes. I think it also probably assisted in the incidents in previous races as well, because 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!
Q:
Looking at the driving line-ups finally, you've got the same team-mates as for the last two years – with Dindo Capello and 'Mr Le Mans', Tom Kristensen, who has won the race seven times – so obviously you've got the experience and the solidarity there. Given that, how good are the chances of a second victory for Allan McNish at Le Mans in 2008?
AM:
Did you say 'Mrs Le Mans'?! I thought there was something there I didn't know about! [We won't spread that rumour – ed]. At seven o'clock in the morning last year, when we had a three-and-a-half lap lead, what would you have said? I think there were a lot of people writing headlines already at that point saying things like 'Audi win', 'McNish wins again'. It didn't come around, which was just a very good demonstration of how hard Le Mans is.
We've got a very good driving line-up, we know each other very well, we know how to win big races – we've won big sportscar championships together and also on our own, and we've won Le Mans together and on our own – so from that point-of-view, the capability is there and the knowledge is there, but it's not an easy one to win. I know the desire is very, very clear, because after last year I think in our group – and I include our engineers and mechanics – we've all got a little bit of a job to finish.
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