Audi positive about its failure

However, Audi could make a negative assessment of its week at Le Mans. In the general opinion of the drivers, the R15 had kept some under the hood during qualifying and kept all its chances for the race. But nothing happened as planned. The No. 1 quickly lost ground on the Peugeot n°8, before being overtaken by the second 908. The n°3 found the path to the gravel on the second lap before experiencing a fuel pressure problem which held it for more than two hours in its stand. As for the n°2, Lucas Luhr sent it into the wall after 6h30 of racing.

But Audi shows neither disappointment nor defeatism but believes that the R15 did not show its true face at Le Mans. Dr. Ullrich provides an unequivocal constant: “ Indeed, we are disappointed because we were not able to capitalize, in the race, on the potential of the car that we were able to sense during testing. In addition, we experienced many technical problems which really surprised us. So we put only one car on the podium. » A fine player, the voluble director of Audi Motorsport congratulates his opponent: “ Peugeot put in a superb performance and fully deserved its victory. We will study our mistakes and come back stronger in 2010 »

In the crew of the No. 15 Audi R1, which finished in third place, satisfaction is in order. Dindo Capello confirms this: “ I don't think we have any regrets. We did our best. » Tom Kristensen, record holder for victories at Le Mans, confirms this feeling: “ We can hold our heads high because the engineers, mechanics and drivers did the right thing. But I hope to come back next year and take my revenge. » For his part, the third man in No. 1, Allan Mc Nish, is even more positive: “ We can be totally satisfied with this 3rd place. This series of five victories had to end sooner or later. We had tough fights the previous two years with Peugeot. But this time, they were superior to us. »