Audi's amazing 2011 Le Mans. Two great escapes and one history making woman

Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): “2011 was no doubt the most difficult Le Mans race we’ve ever contested – but in the end with the sweetest result we’ve ever had as well. From such a difficult situation we managed to recover again on our own power and in the end to defeat – albeit with a narrow margin – our really strong competitors from Peugeot. After eight hours we’d lost two of our three cars and knew that it would be extremely difficult with just one car. The entire squad gave everything to do the best for this car. Of course the drivers had to drive it. And they did a really fantastic job – although it was the squad with the least experience at Le Mans. Of course it’s extremely important that Allan (McNish) and Mike (Rockenfeller) came out of both accidents, which were really severe, without any injuries.”

I think the quote above from Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich says it all. 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours have to be most dramatic of all in Audi's 13 year history with Le Mans. The folks from Ingolstadt ought to keep in mind how dangerously close they were from a public relations disaster. Allan McNish's #3 Audi was involved in a horrific crash in just less than an hour after the start. Debris and even tires were flying everywhere and it's a miracle that not only Allan McNish was unhurt, but none of the media crew and marshals were hurt. The photographer that ran away with a tire chasing after him should count himself as the luckiest man alive. And notice how close the spectators were. The fencing did their job.

Imagine the public relations nightmare for Audi if the next day's news headline reads "Audi's star driver killed in Le Mans" or "AP photographer killed by flying debris in fatal Audi crash." It was no wonder that Michael Dick, Audi's Board Member for Technical Development gave a huge sigh of relieve and rubbed his brows when it was confirmed that everyone is fine, while Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich gave an applause. It was a positive surprise to see an Audi board member present in the pits together with the rest of the crew. It's extremely rare to find the boss of a mainstream car company on the ground, not with a suit, but in a racing overall just like everyone else. That alone speaks a lot.

Michael Dick (left) and Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (right)

From what could be very nearly a PR disaster, the event quickly took a positive turn as the whole world was amazed by the strength of the Audi. Not only was Allan McNish unharmed, the structure of the Audi R18 remained intact and its doors were opened by Allan himself, allowing him to climb out unassisted. He got out, paused for a moment to regained his composure, and just at the right moment two Audi rescue vehicles arrived; a Q5 Fire Safety Car and S4 Avant Medical Car. It was almost as if their arrival have been preplanned for maximum exposure. The 3 Audi vehicles, now associated with speedy response, safety and sturdy vehicle construction immediately gave Audi's image a triple boost.

Audi's star driver walking out unhurt, R18's door opened like normal. The timing of the Audi medical and fire safety car's arrival was spot on. You can't buy these sort of spontaneous exposure.

Allan McNish would later post on his Facebook page "Ps, went a gave a big hug & kiss to my Audi chassis designers who once again built a safe & strong car, thanks lads."

Allan McNish and the #3 Audi R18, prior to the crash.

Imagine the other possibility, had Audi not sponsor the race support vehicles, if Allan was hurt, the Audi mangled and he had to be rescued with a medical car from another manufacturer, say a Mercedes or BMW or even Lexus!

Their luck would be tested again when at the 16th hour mark, the #1 Audi, at that time driven by Mike Rockenfeller was involved in another very serious crash, again with a Ferrari 458 Italia. This time it was at night and the TV cameras could not zoom in clearly so nobody knows the fate of Rockenfeller. Once again, the Audi medical cars came and it was later revealed that Mike Rockenfeller was not only unhurt, he got out of the car himself and climbed over the guard rail and waited for help to arrive.

Audi sponsored 22 support vehicles for the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours race, with its flagship R8 V10 supercar, as well as RS 5 serving as safety car. Other vehicles include :
S4 Avant (Medical Car)
Q5 (Fire Safety)
Q7 (Track, Extraction)

With 8 hours to go and 2 out of 3 cars out of the race, all of Audi's hope lies on car #2, and one women. More on the women later. Audi is the defending Le Mans title winner but had only 1 car running while arch rival Peugeot had all 3 of their fast (but not as fast as the R18) and very fuel efficient Peugeot 908 HDi FAP still running. Team Peugeot couldn't close the gap with Audi and started playing dirty. It became pretty obvious the French race controllers were biased against their home team. Being a French team racing in its home ground La Sarthe circuit, Peugeot is desperate for a Le Mans title. Watch the video below.


The #7 Peugeot is not even in the same lap as the #2 Audi and thus not even vying for the same position. Peugeot knows that it still has 3 cars running while Audi is down to only 1 car. Peugeot had its last two cars, running in 3rd and 4th place, but are too far behind to chase for the lead, to go just a tad slower every time the Audi comes up behind to lap them. This allowed the 2nd place Peugeot to close the gap with 1st place #2 Audi. On a couple of occasions the Peugeot even tried to ran the Audi off the read. The commentators' disgust is shared universally, except in France I guess. But the Audi team maintained their high driving standards and conduct, eventually passed the Peugeot fair and square to take the win. The Peugeot team who can't compete fairly can go Casse-toi!

While all this was happening, in the background was a woman keeping Audi's lead and the team's sole running car together; Leena Gade, a British race engineer for the winning #2 Audi. Le Mans is a very different type of race, stretching 24 hours with the driving duties split across 3 drivers. The race engineer plays a crucial role in monitoring the vehicle and track conditions and advice the driver accordingly on driving strategies to adopt, pit stops, fuel and tire allocation. The driver can only drive as good as his race engineer leads him. As the #2 Audi driven by André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler, Benoît Tréluyer won the 10th Le Mans title for Audi, Leena Gade just went down in history as the first female race engineer for a winning Le Mans car.

Have a feeling she is going to be some cool geek chic Internet celebrity very soon

With the 10th Le Mans title, Audi is now ranked behind Porsche (16 Le Mans title) as the manufacturer with most Le Mans win. Porsche has quit Le Mans and will not return to the sport in the near future. The Zuffenhausen based outfit has nothing left to prove in Le Mans.

Before we end, below is a video by Allan McNish, made before the start of this year's Le Mans. They are some of fittest athletes on the planet!


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