Tom Kristensen expects Alpine to ‘put a lot of pressure’ on Toyota in bid for 24 Hours of Le Mans victory

Tom Kristensen believes Alpine will put a “lot of pressure” on Toyota at 24 Hours of Le Mans – but thinks last year’s winners are still the “favourites”.

Alpine won the opening race of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship as Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere secured victory at the 1000 Miles of Sebring.

Toyota were the defending champions but crashed heavily.

“For outright victory there is no doubt Alpine is putting a lot of pressure on the two Toyotas,” he said.

“They beat them already in Sebring and are leading the championship going into Le Mans. Alpine are outsiders and Toyota still have to be favourites but they are complex cars. They had some issues in Sebring and it was not luck that Alpine won, it was due to very good execution of their cars and in that sense it could happen again at Le Mans.

“But Toyota are favourites and they will also try to gain even more experience of Le Mans to be ready when everyone joins next year.”

Kristensen holds the record for most wins at Le Mans, including six in a row from 2000 to 2005.

He says he is expecting a “festival” atmosphere this year as the circuit will again be packed with fans after being held behind closed doors in 2020 and then with restrictions last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Le Mans is a festival,” he said.

“We had Le Mans last year with limits on spectators due to protocols, this year we are back full and people want to go out and enjoy it.

“The myth of Le Mans, it goes back a long time, everything has evolved. There are a lot of stories. The history and heritage is enormous. There is a lot of shared emotion, everyone has experienced something different. I know you can say everybody talks about the Olympics, but that happens every four years, Le Mans is every year with 200,000 spectators from around the world.”

Kristensen won on his Le Mans debut in 1997 and says that remains one of his fondest memories of the event.

He said: “There are a lot of great memories from 18 years. I don’t want to mention all of them but being able to win on my debut.

“To be there the very first time, I arrived on Monday, not having been to Le Mans before or even met the team. That whole week has to be the best memory because that laid the foundation for the rest. That was the beginning of my Le Mans career.”

Reflecting on the technological changes that have happened since his time driving in Le Mans, Kristensen added: “The cars are incredibly complex these days.

“The areas where the teams can improve and optimise the cars like the aerodynamic concept and the engine become really key and detailed. Technology is important, in the 90s the cars were quite simple, I didn’t have many buttons on the wheel and a few buttons on the panel. The technology has evolved a lot.

“That is what it’s like, all four categories at Le Mans have different technologies, which relate to the car industry behind it, so at the end of the day it goes back to what the fans are driving at home and what the whole world is driving, it has a lot of relevance to the technology developed over Le Mans – brake discs, wipers, seat belts, more or less most things have been developed by smart engineers going into Le Mans.”

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