
LEO PARENTE: Allan, here we are again But I owe you an apology ALLAN MCNISH: What? LEO PARENTE: Well, I don’t know whether you saw it, but on one of the earlier Shakedowns, I told everyone that Allan McNish hated me because I was asking tough questions when we were talking about the debut of the Audi R18 hybrid before ALLAN MCNISH: I remember the questions LEO PARENTE: Yeah, OK And I suggested that you gave a great answer, you were complimentary to my tough questions But you called me a prick And then I typed an told everyone that you didn’t do that, it was all in my head So I apologize ALLAN MCNISH: I would never do anything like that I called you Rick I thought your name was Rick That was what it was LEO PARENTE: See, it’s the ears It’s that ear thing Number two– ALLAN MCNISH: But you do ask difficult questions LEO PARENTE: Isn’t that my job? ALLAN MCNISH: Yeah, I suppose it is I suppose it is LEO PARENTE: And your job is you have the great answers that you did OK Second thing is, you’re kind of indoctrinating yourself into the Drive family I know some work’s going to show up on camera with your experience with Alex Roy, lapping with him And this is maybe our third time chatting ALLAN MCNISH: Yeah, I think Probably third or fourth, anyway That’s for sure LEO PARENTE: OK So I got a host of things to ask you about Obviously Sebring’s coming up And we’re running three Audis Is that true? ALLAN MCNISH: Yep, that’s true LEO PARENTE: OK But there’s no Toyota ALLAN MCNISH: No LEO PARENTE: No hybrid right now, that’s going debut at Spa ALLAN MCNISH: Yes, correct LEO PARENTE: And there’s ALMS competition, and I don’t mean to besmirch all that The HPD cars are going to show up But what’s the strategy going into Audi? Because it feels like three is kind of– ALLAN MCNISH: I think that– you’ve got to go back– that when the planning was done for this year, it started a year ago And so from that point of view, the planning with regard to the buildup to try to look at four cars, to have two hybrid, ideally– e-Tron Quattro and then two ultras as a non-hybrid And then that would leak down to three in Sebring Because basically, Sebring is a preparation for us for Le Mans, and so is Spa And so we’re actually going with three cars to Sebring and we are going with four cars to Spa And then we’ve got Le Mans coming up, as well, with the four And so from that point of view, it was all about that [INAUDIBLE] decision to stop obviously has effects on different things But it didn’t affect our preparation for Le Mans And so therefore, that’s why we’re staying with that LEO PARENTE: And correct me It’s not just running the cars, it’s actually getting the team up to speed in terms of how they do their jobs ALLAN MCNISH: Yeah, yeah No, no, it’s not just necessarily about the technology of the car, is it reliable, what’s it like in race trim, can we develop this, that, or the next Because we do a lot of endurance testing, as well The part of it is the fact that if you– think of it in a football analogy If you’ve got a guy that sits on the side– on the bench as we call it in Europe– all the time, and then suddenly comes out for the Super Bowl at the appropriate moment, he’s going to be rusty He’s not going to be game fit And that’s the thing, is getting everybody up to speed And that’s the engineers getting the drivers all communicating in the one way, getting all the mechanics working So that you’ve actually got four groups that are perfectly in tune with themselves, but also with each other by the time you get to Le Mans Because we saw the competition was so strong last year And with Toyota coming in, they’re a manufacturer that I know extremely well But also we know that Le Mans is a big prize for them that they haven’t won And so there’s a lot of effort that goes into that program But we can’t rest on our laurels And we’ve got to keep on fighting and try to develop for what is going to come, not just necessarily what is here today LEO PARENTE: Last question for Sebring Let’s presume that Audi is in a good position to win the race ALLAN MCNISH: I hope so LEO PARENTE: Of course Would your strategy change, in terms of moving from just winning to testing and developing or trying things during the race, or is that a locked-in game plan? ALLAN MCNISH: No, I think you can’t get into situations of trying things during a race once you’re into it Because just think of it like this If you’re in the car that suddenly gets nominated to try and develop something in a race, then first of all, you’ve got the wrong stuff on the car And second of all, then it’s going to disrupt the harmony And if you think back to some of the races that we’ve had, there have been absolute, flat-out sprints And that’s whether that’s against other manufacturers or teams, or whether it’s even individuals I remember there was a list of some of the great Sebring races And a lot of them are inter-team Audi rivalries, never mind with anyone else And that’s the thing that comes from Dr. Ulrich It’s like, boys, get out there, race, best man wins But don’t crash into each other This is one, lasting comment that always rings in your mind Don’t crash into each other But you mentioned about HPD

I keep coming back that they finished second last year First time out of the box They had a week of testing as in, literally, race week They rolled it out, did the race week And then they finished second, 13, 15 or whatever it was seconds behind the winning [INAUDIBLE] So I think in that side of things, we can’t discount them The two teams that are running them, one as won Le Mans in LMP2 and the other one has won the FIA GT1 World Championship So on that side of things, they’re not new teams to the game of motor sport, they’re good [INAUDIBLE] teams So I think with that, it does create the opportunity for a bit of an upset But, bluntly, they’ll have to be good to win LEO PARENTE: So let’s technology And I’m giving secrets Describe some of the things you’re feeling with the new R18 ultra versus last year’s car ALLAN MCNISH: Well with the R18 2011 spec, which we’ll race at Sebring in a slightly, I would say, new-regulations format Because we have to run with about 7 or 8% less horsepower because of the regulations Less fuel– LEO PARENTE: On a diesel side, 7% less ALLAN MCNISH: Yeah And then we’ve got 15 kilograms of extra weight, as well And so on that side of things, we’re running the spec of car we run, say at Petit Le Mans, but with the new regulations LEO PARENTE: And I didn’t realize No offense to the carry-over car for Sebring, but you’ll run the new 2012 R8 ultra at Spa? ALLAN MCNISH: Yes, that’s correct Everything starts from Spa LEO PARENTE: But you’ve tested the new one ALLAN MCNISH: But we did that last year We ran the R15 plus in Sebring and then went to the R18 Yeah, we’ve been out testing from early November last year OK So coming back to your point, the differences between them Obviously, it’s been slightly moved towards the new regulations for the horsepower And so on that side of things, straight-line speed efficiency for Le Mans is still key And there’s been quite a lot of work there From a driving point of view, I’ve got to say that the front end of the car is nice It is more responsive, better feedback, better consistency, and we’ve been able to work there And that’s something that helps us as drivers to, I would say, be more consistent through the course of the race LEO PARENTE: Do you think that happened mechanically, aerodynamically? Don’t say all combination ALLAN MCNISH: It’s a bit of both, but I’d say a little more mechanically than aero LEO PARENTE: OK You talk about the driving I want to get into this Our fans seem to love the Shakedown University, talking about the technique And I’d rather they learn from people that really know what they’re doing So let’s cover it this way ALLAN MCNISH: So is [INAUDIBLE] coming? LEO PARENTE: No We’re talking to McNish So let’s do it this way To me, there are various inputs that a driver needs to take advantage of And they’re kind of physical It goes from head, your hands, how you use your feet, your ass in terms of feeling, your eyes So how do we talk about those? And how do you use each one? Let’s start with the head How do you approach a race? ALLAN MCNISH: I think approaching a race, for me, is about preparation And that’s not the physical preparation of the car There is a little bit of physical preparation of the driver’s side, as in making sure you’ve got your boots, your gloves, your overalls, your helmet, the correct visors, all of these things But I think the most important thing of getting that prepared, as a driver, means that you’re getting your mind prepared that you’re leaving home, you’re going to a circuit to do a job And focus in on what’s coming up For me, I do quite a lot of visualization And I think about the circuit that I’m coming to You know, we’re here at Infineon Think about, for example, what it’s like coming up to turn one, the compression as you go through there underneath the bridge, the fact when you press the pedal you can’t hit it hard because the cars are loaded up and still turning so you’ve got to then feed it off over the crest of the rise You can’t accelerate– laws of physics– until you’re after the crest of the rise And get that going in my head So when I arrive at the track, there’s a lot of that re-learning process that’s already taken place, subconsciously But the other thing is that mentally I’m in the zone to say, right, I’m here to do that job LEO PARENTE: So let’s take that example when you talked about on track You’re coming up the hill here at Infineon How are you thinking? Are you thinking like a pool player, a move ahead? Or are you thinking just in that moment? ALLAN MCNISH: I think when you’re really feeling the car, when you’re in it, when you are at one, you’re actually one step ahead of the car Because you’re telling the car what to do, not it telling you what to do The worst thing I feel in a car is when I’m not sure what the car’s going to do When I get into the middle of a corner and it’s nervous, or something’s happening, or you are waiting for it to snap When you’re ahead of the car, then you’re saying, hey, I’m

in control, I’m doing what it’s got to do, and I’m telling you how I want you to run through the corner That is partly driver But it’s also partly setup It’s partly making sure you get the car to what you need LEO PARENTE: And I don’t want to drift from where we are, but you’re absolutely right That communication, probably coming from the head, with your team allows you to give you the car– ALLAN MCNISH: Well, it’s two things You communicate As a driver, I communicate with the car That is my real close communication And then I take those feelings or senses you said about the hands, the loading on the steering as you go through the corner, the G on your body, your backside sensor that’s telling you whether it’s actually going to over-steer or under-steer or whatever it’s going to do, the pressure on the pedal I’m taking all of those senses and those thoughts and trying to put them into a language my engineer understands But he understands a different language, because he hasn’t felt those He understands the numbers He understands tire pressures, he understands spring rates, which are pure numbers And between us, we’ve got to have that conversion language And I think that communication aspect of it is critical between you and the car, which is a feeling, and you and the engineer, which I would say is a communication battle sometimes LEO PARENTE: I understand So another one of our Shakedown-er comments noticed that we both talk with our hands So let’s talk about the hands OK We’re doing that corner up there Talk to me about how you use your hands, in terms of being ahead of the car, controlling What goes through? ALLAN MCNISH: I think the first thing is to relax in the car, and relax in your driving position The driving position is key Because if you’re in the wrong driving position, there will be a point where you’ll start to think about that, and not think about what you’re meant to be doing So you’ve got to have a comfortable seat You’ve not got to be rolling around If you put padding into the back of your– to be honest, I’ve done it before and you will as well, because we’re not the tallest people in the world So sometimes you get into something, and you’re not ideally sitting And you’re stretched maybe too much And then you get this movement with the foam And that disconnects that communication with the car So therefore, there’s like a damper in between you and the car’s senses And so you have to make sure you get in, make sure you’re comfortable, make sure you’re solidly set into the car So when the car moves, you move One-to-one ratio Then the next thing, for me, is always have your hands in the one position Never change your hand place, ever Because then if you do get a snap over-steer when the rear kicks out, if your hands are over here and you’ve moved them around, you don’t know where straight is So you don’t know how much to pull back And that’s why, if you see it in rally drivers where they have got sometimes a lot to put on, they’ve got a little bit of tape so they know that is dead-center top And we don’t have that, because we don’t have a top on our steering wheel But you’ve got to relax on the wheel If you tense up, again, you then have not got that fluid motion that you can put into the car LEO PARENTE: I’m going to take it a step further Where do you feel the wheel? Is it your fingertips? Where are you feeling the wheel? ALLAN MCNISH: Actually, across there Because what I tend to do is put my hands on like that and then run this way And through a corner I’ll find– like for example, Sebring is hard on the hands because you’ve got that long turn at 17, you’ve got a lot of bumps in the middle of it And there’s the kick back And so the steering’s always kicking, even though we’ve got power steering We’ve got big, fat Michelins And they put a lot of load back as it kicks And after the race, this part of my hand here can actually get a little bit numb And so for a couple of days, those two fingers are not ideal You feel a little bit of pins and needles, just purely because of the pressure and the kickback that’s on the hands And so I have to say that that area there, and then the pressure to feed it Never on the grip, never to the point where your forearms are tensing because that just tires you out That is pure tiring out And, sorry, the last thing is maybe a bit of a thing for you guys If you’re out there and you’re finding that everything’s getting a bit tense, just do that in the straight Stretch it all out Let the blood flow breathe And that helps It also can help your mind, as well LEO PARENTE: Just to relax, to let it go ALLAN MCNISH: Just to relax Because you’ve got to be in there, relaxed, and then you can be one step ahead If you’re tense, you’ll be maybe one step behind LEO PARENTE: I want to get the feet But you just brought up a point Do you ever let the car go and run where it is? Like sometimes do you feel like you’re forcing the car to do something it wants to do and you can let it free up? Do you do that? ALLAN MCNISH: You tell the car what you want it to do I suppose if anyone’s ridden a horse, it’s a bit like riding a horse It has got its natural feel and way of doing things Everybody’s got their natural rhythm and you’ve got to go with that And if you change the setup in a car, or if we go from, for example, the R18 ultra to the R18 e-Tron Quattro because of the systems, we’ve got to drive the car slightly

differently We’ve got to let it use it’s natural feel and then dictate it from there And that’s the thing is, if you feel [INAUDIBLE] coming out of a car, now why? Straighten up the wheel, let the car float, let it run And sometimes when you’re ahead of the car you can think about these things If you’re behind the car you’ve got no brain capacity to think about that You’ve got to get in that position where you’re relaxed, you’re feeling, you’re in one-to-one communication with the car as it’s doing things, held in the seat And then you’ll start to think, ah, I can actually release the wheel here and let the car float LEO PARENTE: OK Let’s talk about feet Is it that same mentality of being light? I know there’s a lot of force to go down with the down forced car putting on the brakes But how do you feel the modulation that you need to put in there? ALLAN MCNISH: Well with down force, basically you’ve got more grip at higher speeds LEO PARENTE: How many Gs are you doing? ALLAN MCNISH: A lot, now, I’ll tell you what It’s a lot of G. Not like in a Formula-One car, if you lift off it feels like you’re hitting an ABS in a street car because of the drag Because we don’t have a lot of drag because of the efficiency for our straight-line speed And now with quite low levels of horsepower, as well, it’s even more critical if we take it relative to maybe a few years ago LEO PARENTE: And I didn’t mean to interrupt ALLAN MCNISH: Yeah, no, no, no But with down force, you basically have to hit that brake pedal as hard as you can at the beginning Because that’s when you’ve got the least chance of locking up the wheels And that’s when you’ve got the highest deceleration But then after that, you’re in a constant battle and balance between releasing the pressure of the break– or I should put it a different way Maybe keeping the pressure on the brake pedal to the point where you’re just about locking up Because as soon as you lock up one of the wheels, you lose 25% of your braking efficiency So that’s when you see suddenly the apex sliding past here, and you come out of the corner with a flat spot like this And so you’ve got to just try to feather the brake back And the laws of physics haven’t changed They’re going to be the same You can’t quite put the load into the tire by braking and turning in It doesn’t work that way You take the load off the inside You can lock that up So as you start to turn in, you’ve got to be nearly off the brake pedal And that’s where you’ve got the aggressive first hit, but then you’ve got that very gentle release and finesse as you start to get towards the turn’s apex LEO PARENTE: It may be my imagination, but I always felt like watching a race and watching a real good person do it, it’s almost like that tire is rotating just a little slower than the pace of the car And actually, race drivers were the first ABS, because that’s kind of what you’re doing ALLAN MCNISH: Well we are Because when we do lock up, then immediately we’re starting to cadence brake So it’s effectively like an ABS system The thing is that even in racing, an automated system can do it not necessarily better on one occasion, but more consistently And it’s like anything Then once you’ve got it, which sadly we don’t– but the traction control is another example Coming out of the corner, we’ll take it coming out of the corner With traction control you would think you just nail the throttle and let the systems do the work But that’s not necessarily the best because that can sometimes put too much load into the rear tire, make the rear tire work too much And then it builds too much heat And then the tire doesn’t work as well over the– so you’ve got to have a bit of thought process and finesse coming out of the corners, as well, even with the systems LEO PARENTE: Do you think about how you want the car to be working? ALLAN MCNISH: Pitch control Yes You do You think about that a lot Because ultimately, as I said, if you lock a wheel, you lose 25% So if you break too hard– and this is a big thing, I would’ve said, on track days You know, people charging up to a corner, braking really hard And then first of all, they put so much energy into the discs and pads that they wear them out like that Second thing is that the rear is up in the air Because effectively they’ve taken the whole weight of the car, stuck it onto the front wheels And it’s like being on the tiptoes of the car The rears are up in the air and it’s dancing around, and it’s unstable And if you turn into a corner when you’re on your tiptoes, or if you try to move standing on your tiptoes, you’ll fall over Cars are the same You see, you’ve got to try to balance all of that out And we do that naturally by the feel But also, you do it by the thought and process of the setup of the car So for example for me, if I’ve got a car that when I’m braking it turns in and it moves around and it’s too soft, I’ll come back and say, I need it stiffer Because I need to have that constant feedback, that understanding, no delays in information And we stiffen the car up with either the roll bars, or the springs, or the dampers, or geometry, or whatever it may be LEO PARENTE: I’m going to ask a question of you We were playing with the Palatov yesterday And we– ALLAN MCNISH: I noticed LEO PARENTE: Yes We’re going to talk about it– no, we’re not going to talk about that But part of that was they were running the car very soft

And there was a philosophy of being afraid of stiffening the car for amateur drivers Maybe me And I’m not in agreement with that I don’t think people should fear a stiff car ALLAN MCNISH: No, no, no, no LEO PARENTE: OK So finish that thought a little bit for me ALLAN MCNISH: I think that there’s a compromise You can be too soft or you can be too stiff Stiff is going to make the car react harsher over bumps, and curbs, and things like that But it’s also going to maybe brake grip more and slide more But it’s going to give you a direct information So if you think a very quick and simple way, got up and drive a cart It’s got no suspension, it’s got quite high steering, caster angles, and things like that The ratio from what you turn on the steering wheel to the tire is relatively one to one, and so therefore it’s instant action all the time It’s quite hard to drive, physically and also mentally, because it’s all the time teetering on the edge But then if you get a very soft car, that’s lazy, and rolls around, and things like that, that’s quite hard to drive, as well LEO PARENTE: And they’re slower in terms of that feedback ALLAN MCNISH: It’s definitely a lot slower Because when you’re going into a corner and you’re depressing all that suspension and it’s coming up, there’s a time for all that to happen And then eventually, it gets to the end point where you stop loading it And then the car will start to turn around the corner And then– sorry, just to finish up I think that the philosophy of being soft or stiff is all relative And there is that point where you go over the edge on both sides LEO PARENTE: I know you’ve got a lot to do, and that’s all I was going to say We’ve got two more pieces Eyes Where do you look on the track? Are you connecting the dots, focused on the brakes zone, then the turn in? Or are you looking farther ahead with that anticipation, that ahead of the car mindset? How do look? Where do you look? ALLAN MCNISH: It’s funny I think if you’re talking about a qualifying lap– LEO PARENTE: Go ahead ALLAN MCNISH: –then it’s different than when you’re talking about, say, a race lap, especially a race lap in a sports car like started at Sebring If we take a qualifying lap, I think I would be, even, surprised how often I’m looking at different other things apart from the road Which mom, if you’re listening, no honestly, I know what I’m doing We’ve got little time displays on the steering wheel, delta time, which basically gives us an update every 100 yards or so to the fastest lap So you’re always looking at that, not to see if you’re going faster and faster which is the natural adrenaline But also there’s an element of if it’s the last corner, and you’re 7/10 up Do you try that last bit to gain an extra hundredth, or do you take the risk away and keep your 7/10? Do you bank it? And so there’s a bit of a game going on there But in pure driving terms, I’m very much one of where you are, through, where you are, through, all the way through it But looking far through the corner, not looking at where you are all of the time and then a little bit You know, before you turn the steering wheel, you’re looking at the apex When you’re going towards the apex, you’re looking at the exit point You want to look where you’re going to go, not where you are today It’s like doing a budget You don’t do a budget for tomorrow You do a budget for a year’s time or two years’ time and plan And that’s the same as driving And tell me if I’m connecting the dot properly When you visualize the track, that allows you to look ahead because you have that sense of where we’re going anyway ALLAN MCNISH: There’s an oddity about this sort of thing, that I think you just prepare the brain for something And it’s the preparation of the brain of doing things in a certain way And I was never fantastic at school And I was never very good at listening to the teacher, and then writing it down once and remembering it I used to have to go home and write it out and out and out and out and get it, bomb, bomb, bomb, into my brain And once it was in, it was in My report card sometimes suggested it wasn’t there, but it was there somewhere LEO PARENTE: Been there ALLAN MCNISH: Just filed in a different department I think But in that side of it, I think for me– and I’m sure it’s for a lot of people– you do have to work at it And just running over it in your mind helps with that whole process But just– LEO PARENTE: Go ALLAN MCNISH: –you said about the eyes When you’re in racing, then your eyes are darting around so much more Because you’ve got other things, you’ve got other cars coming around and you’re trying to anticipate them You’re trying to look at which drivers, at the number on the side, the helmet, where are you going to overtake him, prepare I’m going to get him out of that corner That’s roughly the judgment distance Then when you’ve got a line of cars, looking through two or three of them Because the guy in front, the likelihood of him having an accident and you hitting him is reasonably small The guy in front of him going off and you not seeing it and plowing into it, that’s the higher part And so it’s all about trying to look ahead and prepare as far ahead as possible LEO PARENTE: You mentioned earlier, ass

And you talked about being plugged into the car so you’re one with the car And finish that thought, where it’s really important to have that direct sensation ALLAN MCNISH: I think it’s key It’s Chinese whispers, otherwise If you’re not at one with the car, and it tells you something and you’ve got a little bit of damping in between, whether it be the seats or whatever It’s uncomfortable, or not the right position And you’re not getting constant information– feet, backside, chest, arms– and it’s not all in a linear way, then you don’t get the right message And then you can’t make the right judgments from there on in If you’re cramped– it’s very difficult to put the right pressure on the brake pedal if you’re in the wrong angles with your– this angle here And for me, the basic is you should be in that sort of position, with your hands sitting relaxed, so your elbow just drops down You should be sitting with your feet in a nice, comfortable place And you should not have too much lateral movement in the seat So your shoulders should be held into place And that’s the sort of thing If you can have your body relaxed but held, then you will have much, much better chance of understanding what the car is doing and then being one step ahead of it LEO PARENTE: On the Simraceway, on a simulator, you don’t have that sensation of feeling, the car moving with the ass But you’re doing the input visually ALLAN MCNISH: And through some senses, through your hands and your feel, as well But you don’t have the G aspect to it, that’s correct LEO PARENTE: So my question is if you’re using your head and hands properly, even on the sim, and you’re getting the additional input visually, does that help you to understand movement of the car and how to drive it fast when it translates to the real-car experience? ALLAN MCNISH: Well if you can get on the sims here, all of those other areas, then you’re 90% of the way there And if you can tune yourself into that, prepare that, you’ve done 90% of the job And then if you get an extra bit of information, then it can only help And so on that side of things, the information and, I would say, the graphic detail, plus the feedback information the drivers get now of sims like we have, then they’re at the point where you can do so much of your ground work, so much of your learning a new circuit, getting an idea of the distances, where you should brake, where you shouldn’t brake And the scanning of them is so good, of the tracks, I mean, and also the cars It’s the little things, as well, for me It’s like, if you change the spring rate or the gear ratio, what it does And learning that if you do something, it has a reaction And there, can you gain here, can you gain there, and it gets your brain thinking, as well It doesn’t change the line, but it changes your approach to the lap, yes? ALLAN MCNISH: It changes your approach to what you do, as well Because then suddenly, you realize that there’s a heck of a lot more to driving than just steering, throttle, and break LEO PARENTE: So the last one on the input list is the Allan McNish balls How do you use that sense of–? ALLAN MCNISH: That’s the last part, to be honest The difference between first and second on the grid is confidence And confidence is brought up by the knowledge that you’re ready, you’re prepared, the car’s good, you’re got a good feeling, a good feedback, a good overall ambiance with the situation And that if you go into that high speed, the [INAUDIBLE] and a rear snaps, you’re going to catch it You’re going to be able to get it If you go in with the thought, ooh, I’m not sure if it’s going to do that, you’re going to be reserved And then you’re not going to get pole And that is the confidence Some people call it big balls, some people call it bravado, but I would actually call it confidence LEO PARENTE: Yes, yes So thank you for your time I hope we have some footage of you demonstrating some of these things on the Simraceway sim ALLAN MCNISH: I hope so LEO PARENTE: And my absolute last question Well the e-Tron Quattro be faster than the ultra? ALLAN MCNISH: Different regulations LEO PARENTE: Yeah, I know ALLAN MCNISH: It’s tricky We’ve got slightly different regulations I think right now, there’s two sides We’re very early in the process of developing the e-Tron Quattro It’s quite exciting I’ve got to say, it is quite exciting

But there is the knowledge of what you already have, and the ability to maximize it all of the time And then you’ve got the knowledge of the potential of new technology And how you can max out the time period Because you know, we’re in March Le Mans is not far away LEO PARENTE: June ALLAN MCNISH: It really is not far away If I look at the time schedules of tests, and the point where we have cutoffs to make our decisions on what we want to do so that we can prepare enough of it for Le Mans It’s now LEO PARENTE: No offense to your sister brand, Porsche, and their hybrid– ALLAN MCNISH: Who? LEO PARENTE: Yeah, right But I have a feeling that while some customers and people and fans of cars look at green as Prius, if Audi and e-Tron Quattro do their job, it’ll change the perception of that, just the way you did with diesel ALLAN MCNISH: That’s what I was going to say LEO PARENTE: Sorry ALLAN MCNISH: It’s funny I was on a flight across here, and there was a program on in-flight entertainment And it was asking questions to general public, can a hybrid be fast? And I can tell you, it can be LEO PARENTE: Did you raise your hand in the airplane? ALLAN MCNISH: Excuse me, sir Excuse me, sir But it can be And the Porsche ran at Petit Le Mans a couple of years ago, in the GT And that was quite cool to see And it was also quite cool to race against And I now understand quite a lot about why certain things happened, the way they race and the way they way they did things But without doubts, Audi changed the mentality of people when they brought in Quattro They did it again with diesel, especially in North America And I’m pretty sure that the e-Tron Quattro will be the next stage LEO PARENTE: Well we watched you at Daytona, but we really want to watch you at Sebring and Le Mans So thank you again, for all your time ALLAN MCNISH: My pleasure Thank you LEO PARENTE: Thank you Ciao [MUSIC PLAYING]