Audi 2006 Annual Report Download - page 91

The rare sight of rain in
a blazing summer. The
drivers had to be pre-
pared for everything dur-
ing practice – and got
it. The weather remained
dry for the race itself.
Left: the final step in a
perfectly choreographed
pit stop and handover.
Frank Biela jumps out,
having strapped Marco
Werner into his seat.
Off duty, but not a hint of
easing up: Dindo Capello
(No. 7) and Emanuele Pirro
(No. 8) following events
on screen in the pit.
SPORT: THE AUDI R10 TDI AT LE MANS
89AUDI 2006 ANNUAL REPORT
Le Mans is also a motor racing event that
possesses one overriding quality: its enduring
ability to reinvent itself, while remaining a rock
of stability throughout. Amid all the various
directions that motor racing has taken, from the
pioneering to the misguided, the Le Mans 24
Hours stands out as a beacon of consistency.
Then there is its sheer length – that dinosaur
format of the 24-hour race. 24 hours – a notion
that used to be more reminiscent of the long,
measured pace of the marathon, the endurance
of clocking up lap after lap on the same circuit
and the rigours of extreme distance and inces-
sant driving. Today, the endurance race in effect
consists of a large number of individual sprint
races adding up to almost 5,000 kilometres, the
combined distance of over 15 Grand Prix races,
7,000 hard brake applications, 17,000 gear
changes and eight million crankshaft revolu-
tions – or thereabouts.
This is deadly serious motor sport, but it has
taken the superstructure of the irrational to
make this such a glorious occasion. It is sheer
madness, fuelled by the legends of the early
years, readily available in all its modern guises.
Le Mans is also about entertainment, an accre-
tion of show and rituals.
Now that other endurance races have gradual-
ly faded away, the Le Mans night comes across
as a rare, precious reminder of bygone years in
the modern world of motor sport. The two Audi
R10 TDI cars were manned by the absolute elite
among “endurance drivers with the hearts of
sprinters”, and all had previously driven for Audi:
Number 7 with the Italian Dindo Capello, the
seven-times Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen from
Denmark, and the Scot Allan McNish. Number 8
was manned by the two Germans Frank Biela and
Marco Werner, and the Italian Emanuele Pirro.
Even if Tom Kristensen is the one dubbed “Mr Le
Mans”, there is so little to distinguish between
all six of them in terms of speed that the roles al-
located to each individual were easily carved up.
In other words, who drives in qualifying, who the
starting lap, and who crosses the finishing line?
Of the team that emerged as the eventual
winners, Werner opted for the thrill of the >>