Audi at Le Mans

Beginning of an era

2007 is the first year of a duel between Audi and Peugeot that would continue to fascinate fans for half a decade.

Marco Werner in the Audi R10 TDI in front of Sébastien Bourdais/Pedro Lamy/Stéphane Sarrazin’s Peugeot

The parties have known each other for a while: Audi and Peugeot have been meeting with each other as early as in the World Rally Championship’s Group B from 1984 to 1986, a year later at the Pikes Peak hillclimb in the U.S. and in Super Touring Car racing from 1996 on. Both brands are always among the best, the competitions are always a pleasure, but the manufacturers also repeatedly go separate ways in racing. Announced in June 2005, the French sports car program does not begin until November, after the end of the WRC Rally project. 1 Under Head of Sport Michel Barge and Technical Director Bruno Famin, the concept decision in favor of the closed cockpit is made in March 2006, the engine is up and running in September, and on December 31, the race car is doing its first laps. At Le Mans, Peugeot puts the 908 designated as car number 7 into the hands of Formula One test driver Marc Gené, sports car expert Nicolas Minassian and Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 Formula One World Champion. Long-time GT driver Pedro Lamy, rally and circuit racer Stéphane

Sarrazin

After his DTM crash, Tom Kristensen must fear for his Le Mans start until the last moment, announcing it only at a press conference during the race week

Visitors to the Audi garage include ACO President JeanClaude Plassart, Health and Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, Le Mans Mayor Jean-Claude Boulard and Prime Minister François Fillon

In 2007, Mattias Ekström comes into play as a stand-in for Tom Kristensen. The picture shows him sitting to the left of Lucas Luhr and Mike Rockenfeller (above). To be on the safe side, the fans have ten names printed on their T-shirts (right)

and Champ Car Champion Sébastien Bourdais share car number 8. At the 908 HDi FAP’s debut, Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gené win the Monza 1,000 Kilometers in mid-April 2007 with a one-lap advantage in front of Pescarolo.

The LMP1 field has 16 entrants on the test day on June 3. Besides Audi and Peugeot, three Pescarolo Judd are on the grid – two fielded by Henri Pescarolo and one by the UK Rollcentre Racing team. Also racing with Judd power are a Dome, a Creation and a Lola. Two Courage and a Lola are powered by Aer. A Zytek and the Lola from Swiss Spirit with an Audi V8 TFSI engine complete the field. Pedro Lamy, Stéphane Sarrazin and Sébastien Bourdais at the front of the field are half a second faster than Biela/ Pirro/Werner in the best Audi. The ACO endeavors to enhance the chances of gasoline engines: from 2007 on, diesel sports cars have nine liters less fuel per tank filling available than the year before.

Alternative planning at Audi

Before suspense sets in for Audi in the duel with Peugeot at Le Mans a state of suspense emerges in Ingolstadt for a far less pleasant reason. Audi Sport is continuing to plan with its two driver teams from the previous year and, for the first time since 2002, is fielding a third car, for three juniors this time. Mike Rockenfeller is 23, Alexandre Premat 25 and Lucas Luhr 27 years old when their first season for Audi in the LMP1 sports car as well as in the DTM begins. However, on April 22, all plans have gone awry. On the first lap of the DTM opener at Hockenheim, a serious accident occurs. Tom Kristensen’s Audi spins after a collision, and the Dane’s foot stays on the gas pedal. The spinning rear wheels produce an opaque cloud of smoke. At high speed, Mercedes driver Susie Stoddart, Alexandre Premat and Audi privateer Adam Carroll crash into the car of the Dane, who is exposed to extreme angular momentums. Externally unharmed, but unconscious for several minutes, Kristensen suffers severe whiplash. 2 The idea that he might be able to recover quickly soon evaporates.

1 Peugeot press kit 24 Heures du Mans 2007, p. 2 et seq

2 Tom Kristensen, Lars Krone: Tom Kristensen – The Book, no location, no publisher 2015, p. 182

Dindo Capello celebrates his 43rd birthday on race Sunday, June 17. He is leading with three laps to go when a wheel shears off. A year later, when the event ends on June 15, he is still 43 years old when he wins 127

Wolfgang Ullrich changes plans and selects 2004 DTM Champion Mattias Ekström. If Kristensen is unfit for racing, the Swede is supposed to drive together with Lucas Luhr. Alexandre Premat, who is able to recover from a vertebral injury at Hockenheim in time, is the third man. In this context, Mike Rockenfeller is intended to be Dindo Capello and Allan McNish’s teammate. On June 3, the ACO publishes a corresponding entry list, and that is the line-up in which Audi starts the test day at La Sarthe as well.

As a race taxi driver during the DTM round at Brands Hatch on June 9, Tom Kristensen, for the first time, checks if he is fit again. 48 days after his accident, his lap times are good immediately, he feels fine after one hour of driving, and the doctors give him the green light. Hence on June 13 – the Wednesday of the Le Mans week and first practice day – Audi announces that the Dane is going to race. 3 Even a decade and a half later, Mattias Ekström, who will go on to become 2016 World Rallycross Champion and contests the Dakar Rally with Audi from 2022 on, has no regrets about never having gotten to race at La Sarthe: “I liked the LMP1 models but

Mike Rockenfeller and Lucas Luhr switch from Porsche to Audi. Long-time Porsche engineer Roland Kussmaul stays in touch with his former protegés after their departure

Lucas Luhr together with Mike Rockenfeller and Alexandre Premat races in the LMP1 class for the first time with Audi

driving in traffic with the four different classes never appealed to me.” 4

Close fight in qualifying

Two red flags and rain showers on Wednesday mean that the Circuit des 24 Heures only dries off slowly. Driving on slicks does not make sense until the last minutes. When the checkered flag falls at midnight Allan McNish in the number 2 Audi is the front runner. However, at the very last moment, Stéphane Sarrazin beats him by 0.572 seconds. A day later, all hopes for better lap times dissolve in heavy rain. As a result, Sarrazin & company are in the top spot in front of McNish’s car. Villeneuve and his partners are third in front of the two Audi cars of Biela and Luhr.

Early disappointment

Right in turn one, Dindo Capello takes the lead and pulls clear of his rivals. Frank Biela and Lucas Luhr overtake the Peugeot cars that started in front of them as well so that the three sports cars from Germany are running in front half an hour into the race. When rain showers set in in the second hour, track conditions are difficult. 5 The race is 23 laps old when Reinhold Joest and his team have to accept an experience they have never had with Audi at Le Mans before: a DNF. Mike Rockenfeller loses control of the 650-hp sports car, crashing with the rear end into the guard rails in the Tertre Rouge section. The onboard emergeny repair kit with tools and cable ties is truly of no help anymore in this case: when the TV cameras focus on the destroyed rear end it soon becomes obvious that the weekend is over for race engineer Brad Kettler and his crew. Rockenfeller, who is only driving his third lap, is inconsolable and apologizes to all team members with red eyes. What might be a reason for a pink slip somewhere else does not count for Audi’s Head of Sport. 15 years

3 Audi MediaInfo: Audi driver Tom Kristensen to start at Le Mans, June 13, 2007

4 Information provided by Mattias Ekström on September 1, 2022

5 Audi MediaInfo: Le Mans starts with mixed fortunes for Audi, June 16, 2007

Audi DTM driver Vanina Ickx works for the TV channel Canal+ at Le Mans and talks to Alexandre Premat

Thorough preparation includes onboard tools with an emergency cell phone in case the driver needs to help himself on the track

later, he explains, “Well, I never had any doubts about Rocky’s abilities, not one second. Of course, I wasn’t happy about it. But I immediately saw that he admitted his mistake himself. He said, I made a mistake and I’m terribly sorry about that. For me, it was clear that in a case like that, when you believe in the driver, you need to give him a chance again as soon as possible.” 6 In fact, Rockenfeller goes on to win Le Mans for Audi three years later and the DTM another three years after that.

Number 2 delivers strong driving

After three hours, Capello, Kristensen and McNish are already one lap ahead of Bourdais’ number 8 Peugeot and their own sister car driven by Biela/ Pirro/Werner. Pescarolo with Jean-Christophe Boullion/Emmanuel Collard/Romain Dumas maintains fourth position in front of the number 7 Peugeot. This early trend continues throughout the night. When Marco Werner overtakes a GT1 sports car that car touches the body of the R10 TDI and destroys parts of it. At 6 in the morning, the team discovers a piece of concrete in a radiator shaft that must have come off a destroyed curb. 7 Consequently,

6 Transcript of interview with Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich on December 7, 2022

7 Gary Watkins: And then there was one, in Autosport, June 21, 2007, p. 62

Vaillante vs. Audi

How will a race car become unforgettable? Due to a string of success? An exceptional marketing campaign? A Hollywood movie? It, no doubt, will by appearing in Michel Vaillant’s comics. After starting out as a locksmith, Jean Graton, who hails from France and emigrates to Belgium after the Second World War, evolves into a comic book illustrator. Franco-Belgian comics experience a heyday at the beginning of the second half of the century. Tintin and Snowy created by Hergé are still some of the most popular heroes today. 8 Another popular publication in Belgium at that time is Spirou, a comic book in which Graton applies his skills as a cartoonist for the first time. In 1957, he finds his calling on creating a character of his own, that of race driver Michel Vaillant. 9

The comic book hero is unique because it is embedded in reality. Graton is not only a good scriptwriter but also an attentive observer. Vaillant’s ambience

Young Jacky Ickx with Jean Graton, the inventor of the racing comic book series Michel Vaillant

Marco Werner and Frank Biela during a driver change

is by no means fictitious but takes cues from the motorsport landscape of the respective era for its characters, competitions, teams or race cars. Jean Graton attends car races, dedicates his attention to all details and delves into the world of the teams in their pit garages. He even befriends race drivers such as Belgian ace Jacky Ickx, who is at home initially in Formula One, then in sports cars and ultimately in desert rallying. His daughter, Vanina, is an Audi factory driver in the DTM in 2006 and 2007.

Jean Graton witnesses his comic book characters surviving even the turn to the 21st century. He is 97 years old when he dies in 2021. His youngest son, Philippe, continues his father’s work for a long time. In 2007, a cooperation with Audi develops.

Following 20 million albums sold, the comic book titled “24 Heures Sous Influence” is published in French, Dutch, English and German. Of course, the comic book car brand Vaillante is pitted against the Audi R10 TDI at Le Mans in that issue. The German diesel sports cars and Audi Sport Team Joest

are illustrated with great attention to detail. Jacky Ickx, a friend of the Graton family, presents Volume Number 70 at a press conference at Le Mans in 2007 together with Tom Kristensen. Philippe Graton even takes his three-member team of illustrators to the 24-hour race. To the guests’ delight, Christian Papazoglakis, Robert Paquet and Nedzad Kamenica not only autograph the volumes but draw small individual scenes on the front endpapers of the 48-page book for anyone interested in such personalization.

Le Mans fans know that race cars sporting Vaillante wrap appear in real-world racing as well, for instance, whenever a new movie about the immortal comic book hero is in the making. The race at La Sarthe provides the backdrop for movies more than once. In 2002, for example, Luc Besson scripts the movie “Michel Vaillant.” 10 The relevant race cars featuring a Vaillante livery are entrants of the 24-hour race. In 2017, the comic book hero returns to La Sarthe with the Vaillante Rebellion. 11

8 www.goethe.de/ins/be/de/kul/prj/com/20579059.html, last retrieved on January 22, 2023

9 www.michel-vaillant.de/seiten/themen/werk_graton/_jean_ graton.html, last retrieved on January 22, 2023

10 www.lemans.org/fr/actualites/aco/fete-de-l-aco-michel-vaillantune-exposition-et-un-film-video-21364, last retrieved on January 22, 2023

11 www.speedweek.com/24hlemans/news/105150/Michel-Vaillantund-sein-groc39fes-Comeback-in-Le-Mans.html, last retrieved on January 22, 2023

Philippe Graton with Jacky Ickx and Tom Kristensen at Le Mans in 2007

The 70th volume of the comic book series portrays the Audi R10 TDI with great attention to detail