‘The race is going to be epic this year’ – Tom Kristensen previews 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 24 Hours of Le Mans weekend is underway with Free Practices having taken place, meaning the drivers and teams will have a feel for the circuit.

Tom Kristensen, Eurosport motorsport expert and record nine-time 24 Hours of Le Mans champion previews the 100th edition of the race in 2023

Who are your 24 hours of Le Mans race favourites this year?

The race is going to be epic this year. There’s no doubt so many teams are heading up and have been already for years now, having talked around the boardrooms of coming to Le Mans. And all the teams have experience at Le Mans, they have just been competing at an earlier time. Or they have been competing in a GT class or let’s say a lower class, slower cars. But they are all coming in with great expectations.

The favourite, I mean I’m not trying to be boring at all, but Toyota have won the first three races of the championship. The tough circuit in Sebring, my favourite race in many ways. And they won in Portimao. And then in Spa. So the favourite, yes.

There has been an adjustment in balance of performance – BOP. That means that the Toyota has to carry a bit more weight. So, it’s like 37 kilos more. I don’t want to be too detailed, but a bit more weight to Toyota and minimal more weight to Ferrari, and nearly nothing for Porsche. But the status quo with the other teams including Peugeot, Cadillac too who should not be underestimated. So that means that there is no doubt going into Le Mans that the speed is going to be more even.

Probably it will not be Toyota which is the fastest car but I would still call them the favourites due to the initial experience of being in the running the last 11 or 12 years in the highest category at Le Mans and obviously having five victories lately.

Porsche have been lobbying very much the BOP and they’re coming in with the greatest heritage of Le Mans. A great team there as well, as does Toyota, with great drivers.

Interesting that Ferrari seems to be the fastest car let’s say over one lap, maybe even over a stint. But maybe not over three stints. So that is now what it will be. Le Mans is such a very different circuit to the other three I mentioned already. It was probably what you put up on the high on the top of the line.

So, Le Mans is special. Le Mans is only Le Mans and the 13.62 km long, average speed way over let’s say now with new cars, nearly 240 kilometres an hour in lap time. And that’s going to epic.

Peugeot, they’re avant-garde. The car will kind of, let’s say has a philosophy of no rear wing and, like improvement with the down force. I would call it an avant-garde car. We will see, it would surprise me if they win, but nevertheless they have the experience. They have the know-how and they have the history of being very fast at Le Mans. And they have only been focusing on Le Mans not the other races.

How good is it to see Ferrari back in elite-level Endurance racing?

Ferrari, everyone loves them. The Italian flair of the of the red cars and they look stunning. They made a line-up of youngsters coming out. And some of the let’s say older experienced, obviously from Formula 1, or older experienced within their camp of Ferrari, of course the team running the Ferrari. It’s good to see them back again. They have been there you know, like 10 years ago 20 years ago, but in reality, they haven’t won since 50 years ago.

So, in that sense, it’s fantastic to see them with a real shot at winning again. They are have an Italian way of trying to keep it down and the expectations down. But they’re very passionate and one of the cars has my former engineer, as a head engineer of one of the cars and it’s not No. 50, it’s the other one. And the other one has a Danish driver in Nicklas Nielsen. So a lot of the things look good from their side. They can really cause a surprise and they will be fast. I think it is the fastest car but it’s not always the fastest car winning at Le Mans.

Why do you think the hybrid classes have attracted so many big manufacturers and what do you think the WEC can become in the next few years thanks to the hybrid classes?

Yeah, more teams are even coming next year. That’s true. Lamborghini, BMW, Honda… But it’s due to the regulation and the bridge between North American championships and in the USA, with Rolex 24, the Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring, and a lot of other shorter races around the continent in America. Combined with the WEC – World Endurance Championship. The bridge between the governing bodies of both sides of the Atlantic.

Then secondly and not to be underestimated is the centenary of Le Mans. And now I’m obviously a proud ambassador or grand marshal of this year’s edition. So, in that sense, I know how much the history and heritage plays in as well. These are the decisions from five, four years ago and certainly from three years ago, the boardrooms around the world of car manufacturers. They were having very good and private and open discussions about how great it’s going to be that our car is going to win this unique trophy, this infinity trophy I call it, which is just that for the taking this year.

To win Le Mans, it’s always fantastic, but to win it exactly on the point where you can call it the centennial Le Mans. I know everything is developing in the future, but I guess not many are expecting to hang around for the next centenary.

Reaction to Christian Horner’s comments that he would’ve liked to have seen Tom Kristensen driving an F1 car.

My secretary actually asked me to repost it. I said “Yeah, repost it but being okay, so I tried to be most modest.” So, on my LinkedIn I reposted it and I said Christian you have my phone number. Yeah, but he told me this privately at a different time. I tested for his team, I had one test before he was promoted into Red Bull. He was running a Formula 2 team, which was called Formula 3000 back in the day. Yeah, it’s cool, but I think if you look at my LinkedIn you will see the right answer.

What have you made of the practice session so far?

The practices they were touching the holy ground yesterday [Wednesday], running a bit close and you can see it’s close. So, there’s no doubt that coming into Le Mans, it’s going to be very close, but it still isn’t going to change my answer to the first one.

All the teams have been racing and have done three races before they go into Le Mans and that’s normally on par with what you do. Sometimes it’s even one race more because some did Daytona when you count them clearly.

What are the main challenges as a driver and a team competing at Le Mans?

The challenge is to always to be alert. Don’t let your mind wander because it’s a long race. So, the magnitude of the race, you very much feel it when you’re there.

Don’t get overly excited. It’s always to find that zone where you are fast, you’re comfortable and you’re pushing. You have to always take risks, but calculated risks. Then it’s being motivated in a team. You want to do well, you want to do to your team proud. So, it’s always a balance of that. Never finding to be under pressure but never on the other hand, never be so cocky and over-confident.

As someone that was so successful in this race, do you have any special secret as to why you achieved so much at Le Mans?

For me personally, the biggest, let’s say defeat, was when we retired with nearly a four-lap lead in 1999. That suddenly made me hard to be around at Le Mans. I didn’t want to accept anything else and we should know that sometimes when I feel that we lose a little concentration. I was many times pushing extra hard.

I’m just looking back now to win six in a row right after that defeat, there’s probably a little bit about that. But in general, I would just say you need to create that atmosphere from all angles within the team and everyone is responsible for that. That you have a hunger to do well together. The passion has to be there together. Never put anyone under the bus, always win together, lose together.

And I feel that’s something which over the years I have been better at and also the older you get it’s a little bit natural with life, that you care a little bit more about that. When you win, everyone is happy but when you lose and it’s a small mistake from somebody, many times you can say you saw it coming even though the unexpected always happens. Sometimes you can solve it and other times you can’t.

I mean the biggest defeat from Toyota was three minutes before the finish in 2016 They had it won. But no, they hadn’t. I mean I had 14 podiums from 18 races, but four of them we didn’t finish. Every time I finished, we were on the podium. The four times we didn’t finish, three of these times we were actually in the lead, even though one of them was just for 50 metres. But I can also tell you the reasons why they didn’t happen. In that sense, sometimes you learn more from your defeats. I think that’s the same for everything. If you lose to your favourite opponent in tennis, that’s going to hurt and you’re going to work harder and harder. And if you can beat them again one day, the victories becomes better too.

Is there a particular driver you’re looking forward to seeing competing this year?

There are a lot of strong drivers. Suddenly I’m looking at the drivers who are creeping in to getting overall wins at Le Mans. At Toyota you see Sebastien Buemi, you see Brendon Hartley. These are the guys who are being teamed with a very strong team with Toyota.

But nevertheless, you also see guys coming back with the others, you see new drivers like Antonio Giovinazzi with Ferrari, you see Andre Lotterer with Porsche. Jean Eric Vergne and Paul di Resta with Peugeot. And personally I am very proud to say we have three Danish drivers for three teams, I will also keep an eye on.

Is it still great to be involved in this historic race with Eurosport?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s a great team and great teamwork. And you know, what’s happening behind the scenes to prepare and try to do the best for the audience. It’s a pleasure to be in this team and I get a lot of adrenaline from that. And it gives me a way to see the race like when I was racing, but having to sort of the challenge of explaining it. So, trying to make the best coverage possible. So, I feel very happy and very privileged to work with Eurosport.

100 years of Le Mans – what makes this race so special and so iconic within motorsport, especially this year?

It’s the most prestigious race. I mean, one thing is that it’s happening only once a year. It’s not something you can go and be told about. You can’t come to it the next weekend, or you call somebody up next Monday and say let’s do another one. It just happens once a year, and it’s the same place and that place has evolved very slowly. It’s fast and it’s during the night and day and with any weather, you just get on with it.

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