Tom Kristensen, LeMans Marathon Man

May 27, 2012
Story By
John Brooks

To be a great Champion requires skill, fortitude and determination, maintained over a prolonged period. Tom Kristensen is truly a great Champion. His record at the world's greatest endurance race, Les Vingt-Quatre Heures du Mans, is unbeaten with eight victories and counting. Recently I caught up with him and here are his recollections of his time at La Sarthe in June.

You've won the Le Mans 24 Hours EIGHT times. You've won the 12 Hours of Sebring FIVE times. However, your career has become intertwined with the Le Mans 24 Hours... was that planned, or did it just happen? You were running in single seaters in F3000 and were destined to drive in Formula One - or so it seemed to outsiders. What happened to change your direction? My first appearance at Le Mans came after a phone call from Ralf Jüttner, Team Manager of Joest Racing. He called on a Wednesday evening, the week before the race; so it was less than 4 days before the car scrutineering. So I went down to the Joest workshop on the Friday and signed the contract. I did not tell them that I had an official F3000 test at the A1-Ring the same week.

Tom Kristensen Le Mans John Brooks Photo

At very short notice, I was joining Michele (Alboreto) and Stefan (Johansson). I managed to rent Joest’s private plane and his pilot, and I completed my ten laps around Le Mans on Wednesday. At 5:00am on Thursday, we took off from Le Mans; we then flew to the F3000 test in Austria. I drove my F3000 car and then flew back to Le Mans, arriving at around 8:00pm, just in time to see the Gulf McLaren of Chris Goodwin go up in flames. He had an oil leak and the car was out of the race. I drove my three night laps to qualify... and that meant that I completed a total of just seventeen laps before I made my debut at Le Mans, as I had not been at the test day.

Regarding the race, the thing that stands out is driving four stints in a row during the middle of the night. I remember Ralf Jüttner coming on the radio, saying, "Tom, you are matching the pace of the leaders (the two factory Porsche GT1s) with good lap time." Then, 20 minutes later, he came on again to say that I had broken the lap record; so he told me to calm down and just keep this pace going. Then he asked me to do the fourth stint, and of course, I said yes. When I got out of the car I was completely knackered; I had used too much energy and was in a state of nervous exhaustion. I was really concentrating very hard, trying to match the pace of Michele and Stefan during those four stints.

Well, my lap record stood and the two Porsches retired - that is another story - and we won. Victory on my debut race! That laid the foundation for my Le Mans career. We won with this small one-car team! I had a lot of people to thank for helping me to get into that situation - especially Michele, who gave me a lot of advice and confidence. Stefan was great too, but Michele had the experience with the car from 1996. I just grabbed the opportunity that was offered to me.

Tom Kristensen Le Mans BMW John Brooks Photo

Then came a drive for the BMW factory during the next two years. It was great - I matured as an endurance driver, I took on the test programme and became one of the lead drivers. The winning year, 1999, had everyone there at Le Mans (factory efforts from Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Toyota). It was a good year for me; during the winter I was developing the car, and I really enjoyed working with Williams and John Russell as well as the BMW Motorsport crew.

The car was much improved from the previous year. In 1998, it was very light at the front, and I came close to flipping at one point. The team re-engineered the whole thing for 1999, and after that, it was much better to drive. We won at Sebring with the new car on its debut, and then we came to Le Mans.

BMW Tom Kristensen Le Mans John Brooks Photo

We were leading by several laps early on Sunday morning, and then we had the problem. That taught me that Le Mans is never won, even if you have an advantage of four laps. JJ (Lehto) crashed due to a broken front damper, which then damaged the roll bar and the throttle linkage for the right side of the V12. This meant that the throttle was jammed open, and there was no chance to avoid the accident. The accident took place at the Porsche Curves, which is flat out. If it had happened at a lower speed, then maybe the 14 minute lead we had would have been enough for repairs to be made. But that is Le Mans.

It really taught me how Le Mans can bite; even the smallest issue can turn out to have major consequences. We have seen this many times over the years. 1999 is certainly my biggest disappointment at Le Mans. I had won before, but this time it was with a manufacturer and I had to wait another year to get a win as part of a factory team.

Tom Kristensen Le Mans Audi John Brooks photo

That opportunity came in 2000 with Audi. Audi was destined to become my home. After Le Mans, I met with Dr. Ullrich from Audi in late 1999. There were several possibilities for me at that time; I was looking in different directions, even looking towards Formula One, which was then still a possibility.

Formula One was just not to be, and now I can say honestly that I made the right choice to stay with Audi for all these years. Of course it is easy to say now with hindsight, but even back then, it was quite obvious that they were a group of people that I would like to be with. In 2000, I was teamed up with Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro for Le Mans, and we won. The original R8 had quite a wild engine - a twin-turbo V8. It was quite aggressive.

Audi Le Mans Tom Kristensen John Brooks photo

In 2001, Audi introduced the FSI technology to the car, and this changed the engine characteristics. It was just as well, as the race was a nightmare with the heavy rain that fell through most of the race. The team had lost the greatest bloke of them all, Michele (Alboreto) just before the race, while testing at Lausitzring. We thought he had his say by putting water on us for 19 hours of the race...

It was mentally the hardest race I have run - the conditions, the circumstances, and the pressure to win were enormous. The FSI system made a huge contribution to our victory. We were better than the others on fuel economy, and the dynamics of the car were improved by the better control of the power.

Tom Kristensen Audi Le Mans John Brooks Photo

The original R8 had some turbo lag and throttle delay issues, but the introduction of FSI completely cured this. There were also aerodynamic changes that made a significant contribution. We also had to change the rear end of the car during the Sunday morning, but the designers at Audi had anticipated this, with the modular design of the rear suspension and transmission.

The complete rear was changed, and together with fuel and new tyres, the whole pit stop was around five minutes. Victories at Le Mans are really won by the whole team.

Tom Kristensen Audi Le Mans win John Brooks Photo

The following year we won again, with the same crew - Biela, Pirro, and myself, so it was a hat trick for us and for Audi. There were several things I recall about this race...

At around midnight, I had a puncture on my right front going into the Porsche Curves. I missed the barriers by nothing. I managed to get the car to the pits and the team did a fantastic job of getting the car fixed in a few minutes.

After the race, I went back to see the guys on Monday morning around 8:00am. You always get up early after good races. I saw that there was about half a metre of carbon fibre missing behind the front wheel. I asked the Chief Mechanic about this, and he said if they had repaired it during the race, we would have lost. You have to trust the decisions of these guys who work really hard for us. We rely on their judgment completely.

Bentley Le Mans Tom Kristensen john Brooks photo

2003 was the year with Bentley. It was great to come out from the big factory and see things from a different perspective. It was a very British year. The car was built, designed and developed in Britain by the British... there was also a little bit of help at the races from the Joest team, and some influence from the Audi team, just to get some of the details right.

Tom Kristensen Bentley Le Mans John Brooks Photo

It was, however, very much a British programme, but optimised by using others within the Volkswagen Group. I feel that those who say that it was just a green Audi R8 with a roof are completely wrong. Certainly there were benefits that came from being within the VW Group, but it was thoroughly British. During the winter of 2002-2003, there were several decisions made that completely changed the programme... the biggest of which was the switch to a different type of tyres.

One other thing I remember is that during both Qualifying and the Test Day, I had a completely clear lap. I have never had that before or since, and I got pole position by 2.25 seconds and was also fastest at the test. The pole lap was as near to a perfect lap as I have ever driven at Le Mans. I think also we spent less time in the pits during the race than any other car has ever done - 28 minutes or so for the whole 24 hours.

We had pole position - we were fast and had no issues. Actually, we did have a small problem right at the start of the race with the rear ride height. The torsion springs were really tight around the engine and gearbox; they got too hot at the start, so the bar dropped a little and the ride height at the rear was too high. The car was bouncing around a lot in the corners - on the front splitter - for the first hours of the race. Then the splitter wore down a bit, and the cooler temperatures ended up helping the torsion springs, so everything went back to normal. We were very fast and we won the race.

Tom Kristensen Audi Le Mans Team Goh Japan John Brooks Photo

Then came two years with privateer teams running the Audi R8. In 2004, I was with Audi Team Goh from Japan, a single car effort... the first since 1997 and Joest. I had driven in Japan for five years, so I was able to fit with a Japanese team easily. Joining the Japanese crew was Jo Hausner of Audi, who helped with the logistical challenge of Le Mans. For me, it was a circle completed, as I had been racing in Japan when I was noticed by Joest, and now I was racing for a small team from Japan trying to win Le Mans. It was a big fight throughout the whole race with the Champion and Velox teams also running the Audi R8.

I don’t believe in good fortune or luck at Le Mans, but we were nearly a lap down at the first hour of the race. This was due to a problem with the brake balance that caused Dindo (Capello) to struggle, but we got that fixed and came back to win one of the closest Le Mans wins ever - just 41 seconds in from of the #88 Velox R8. I do remember that our car caught fire in the pit lane on Sunday morning, with Dindo on board, but we managed to keep just ahead.

The following year with Team Champion, the Audi R8 was heavily penalised with a lot of weight and smaller restrictors on the engine - very small. We were about 4 or 5 seconds down on the Pescarolo entries, running to the latest regulations, in qualifying.

Regardless, we stuck to our task and drove the hell out of the car and kept pushing like crazy. We just concentrated on our car and forgot about the others in the race. It seemed to work, as our rivals had some issues, and we were there to capitalise on that. We picked up positions until we were in the lead.

My team mates JJ Lehto and Marco Werner did a brilliant job, and we won the race! We had already driven together earlier in the season at Sebring, and we had finished first there too. It was a really strong year for us.

It was at Sebring in 2005 that Allan (McNish) agreed that we should not be racing against each other, and that we should join forces. It would make life a little bit easier for everyone, even me. So in 2006, we were together in the Audi R10 TDI diesel, but despite starting from pole position, courtesy of Dindo, we had a lot of problems. We were out of contention after about four hours, due to problems with the fuel injectors. We struggled on to finish but only got Third, 13 laps down on our sister car.

In 2007, we were leading on Sunday morning and it was the biggest lead I have ever had at Le Mans - 4 laps - then Dindo lost the left rear wheel at the Indianapolis section of the circuit. He hit the barrier and we were out of the race.

It felt similar to 1999, but it did not bite me as hard as when JJ crashed in the BMW.

2008? Well after the movie Truth in 24, everyone knows the story - it was quite incredible. We had the perfect race, team, drivers and car.

I hope that there will be another victory, perhaps this year. It will be Dindo’s final year with Audi, and we had a strong start at Sebring with a win. I think we can do it. It would be good to give the old Italian a pension - he deserves it!

What would you say was the major change between Le Mans in 1997 and 2012? For you personally and also for the race itself? Well, change happens at Le Mans slowly; it evolves. We are having the 80th Anniversary race this year, but all the basics are the same as when I first came to La Sarthe... that is what is really interesting. Every year the effort and energy that goes in is the same, but for me being part of a manufacturer’s team is very different from a small outfit like Joest Racing. There is something romantic about a small, one car team, because all the team's efforts that go into that one car.

The technology has changed out of all recognition as well; the amount of development is fantastic these days. The lap times are faster now, even though we are slower on the straights than we were back then. In the late 1090s, we were approaching top speeds of 350kph. Now the top speeds are slower by 20-25kph, but the overall lap time is faster by a significant amount. That means that braking distances are shorter and cornering speeds are higher.

Some people tell me that my hair might be getting a little bit grey, but the determination to win still burns inside. When that stops, then I will have to change and do something else.

Either way, I still enjoy the event. I enjoy the crowds, because everyone is coming to have a good time. There is a great atmosphere; the traditions; the spectacle; you just can not find this energy anywhere else. Long may it go on! - Tom Kristensen, as told to John Brooks

Tom Kristensen, LeMans Marathon Man

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