There is nowhere to hide in Formula One, a sport where deficiency is brutally exposed week in, week out. It is an environment where success must be fought for tooth and nail yet one where the former driver and multiple Le Mans winner Allan McNish is in his element, convinced he and his Audi team can deliver where so many others have failed.
Always a gregarious, personable character, McNish could not be more at ease even under the intense pressure in his position as racing director for the team which joined the grid for the first time this year. He is one of the very few personnel in F1 in such a senior position who is a former driver and one who has enjoyed enormous success.
Even as he is aware of the scale of the challenge facing the new entrants he still boasts a broad grin in the Audi motorhome in Hungary. It is a task he is positively embracing not least because he remains a pedaller at heart.
“It’s a lot of fun because at the end I’m a racing person and we’re racing. That’s what it’s all about,” he says. “I look at it very much still through the eyes of a driver and what the driver needs. To some extent I’m living every lap and every corner with both Nico [Hülkenberg] and Gabi [Bortoleto] and I don’t know if I can ever get rid of that. But I’m also not sure I want to get rid of it, because I draw on my experiences in how I do things.”
Indeed, McNish draws similar satisfaction from his new role as he did from being behind the wheel.
“The energy that you get as a racing driver, the focus you get, the sense of being right at the sharp end and delivering a performance, the next thing that I found that did that was being a team principal, where you are in control of a direction. You’re actually having direct impact on the end result in the same way as a driver.”
The 56-year-old Scot from Dumfries may not be well known among some F1 fans but he is a hugely well-respected figure within motor sport and the paddock.
He began his career in karting in 1981 and went on to be a Formula One test driver for McLaren and Benetton and did compete in a full season in F1 for Toyota in 2002, but it was in sports car racing that he found his calling.
He won his first 24 Hours of Le Mans with Porsche in 1998 and then went on to begin what was to be a hugely successful partnership with Audi in 2000. He would win the vingt-quatre twice more with the team in 2008 and 2013 and in that last year of his driving career also took the world endurance championship title. He competed at Le Mans 14 times and alongside the victories was on the podium a further six times.
McNish’s success with Audi would also include multiple wins at some of the most prestigious endurance races in the world, including four victories at the Sebring 12 Hours and Petit Le Mans races and a second place at the Daytona 24 Hours three times. He also won the American Le Mans Series three times in 2000, 2006 and 2007.
During his 13 years with Audi, McNish contested 89 races of which he took 66 podiums including 29 wins and has remained working with the manufacturer ever since. In 2017 he was appointed as team principal of Audi’s Formula E team and went on to secure the constructors’ championship in its inaugural season.
A storied career behind the wheel then, from which he brings a wealth of experience to his role in what is a major step up for the German marque. Audi have enjoyed huge success in rallying and sports cars but this is their first entry in F1. They took over the Sauber team and are manufacturing their own engine – the scale of their task is enormous. Yet for all the largesse of the manufacturer, there is no guarantee of success, as Aston Martin have been painfully reminded this year.
However just as Audi built their way to becoming dominant in sports car racing, so there is an understated determination to the F1 programme. They are currently ninth of 11 in the constructors’ championship and their engine is underpowered, but they do boast a chassis that is very competitive through the corners as should be demonstrated at the Hungaroring this weekend. The team principal Mattia Binotto, formerly of Ferrari, has set 2030 as the target for competing at the sharp end for a title.
after newsletter promotion
This first year would always be a development process for the team with verveful youth in Bortoleto and experience with Hülkenberg as drivers, a good combination as the team works up to speed. Yet Audi’s five-year plan will sound awfully familiar to similar projections from rivals such as Aston Martin and Alpine, all as yet unmet.
So why then does McNish believe his team can break the mould and reach the top table?
“Big races, big events, big programmes are not new, that’s something I’ve seen in my previous life with Audi in the way they approach it,” says McNish. “That principle is to go in with clear targets and to put the resource in and the commitment to be ultimately successful in F1.”
Audi’s entry into F1 has been low key. The team has not made any grand predictions and has kept its expectations within reason as part of a process which McNish understands all too well from his time with the team in sports cars.
“We know the successes but we often forget there were difficult days before,” he says. “But that’s the understanding that you don’t build winning success always overnight. You have to earn your spurs.”
Audi are some way from being bona fide cowpokes as yet but having the smiling Scot at the helm, fighting their corner, cannot hurt at all.
“There’s people that are very much the right people for being at the track, that’s where their home is and that’s definitely the case for me.” he says.
