Romain Dumas answers your questions (1/2)

Romain, at Audi, when did we really realize that your overall tactics were the right ones, and that it was possible to win? (ditooracing)
It was difficult to tell yourself that it was the right tactic. Because the only tactic we could have was to drive as fast as possible without making any mistakes. But there really weren't any tactics. The objective was to run at 99%, not 100%, because otherwise we would ruin everything. We tried to do our best and then looked at what others were doing to see where we stood. Above all, we had to not get our feet wet, hoping that they would have problems.

What does rolling 99% mean to you? (nanny)
It's trying not to tear off the splitters on the vibrators. Be careful, I'm not saying that we were slow because we avoided the curbs. I am not saying that we are not going fast enough on purpose. Basically, we were already too slow. But our watchword was to be careful, not to make mistakes, not to hit the curbs because, if we had to change our flat bottom, it was dead.

What was your impression at the time Peugeot started to take off? (Dumas-9)
The only idea I had was to be the best Audi. On the one hand, for the future, to showcase oneself. And for the race, in order to be the first to benefit from a possible failure of the Peugeots. Above all, we had to stay ahead of the No. 8 Audi with this objective in mind. Because we knew that, if all the Peugeots had problems and an Audi took the lead, the positions would be frozen. So it had to be this Audi.

Was the lower pace of the Audis compared to the Peugeots intended to avoid damage? (yoann49)
Honestly, no. We adopted the best pace we could, we drove at the best speed we could. We did our best but it wasn't enough. The only thing we could do was not stop.

Did we at Audi say to ourselves that the Peugeots were not going to last 24 hours at this rate?
Not at Audi but, for my part, I thought so. It's true that it's a bit easy to say it now, it might seem pretentious to say that I was sure of myself. But I still told myself that this year, things were really going too quickly. And my doubts were reinforced when there was the first breakage?

In your opinion, what was lacking at Peugeot that caused victory to elude them? (superrallyman)
It?s hard to say when you?re not in the team. You don't know what they had planned? There is necessarily a combination of circumstances, luck for us, bad luck for them. Then it's always easy to say, once you've won, that they made a mistake. So I prefer to reserve my opinion. It is certain that, in an endurance race, it is never a good idea to force yourself. But I can't say if they were all in or not.

When did you start to believe in victory? (Xavier M.)
Not when we took the lead, not right away. First, we had the Peugeot n°1 which pulled out all the stops. They were third and came back at us. I only had to lose three seconds per lap to give myself a safety margin. So, as they were running in 3?22??, I had to run in 3?25??. But they started running in 3?19?? around ! There it became more complicated. I chained together a few 3?22?? but it was hard because we couldn't make any mistakes because we were in the lead. Afterwards, there was the safety car and the gap widened again with the #908 1. It was when I got behind the wheel at 11 a.m., four hours before the finish, that I started to believe it. But that?s not the funniest thing, these moments are hard to experience from the outside.

Find the interview with Romain Dumas by AUTOhebdo next Wednesday on your newsstands.