Interview: Tom Kristensen on Le Mans and Goodwood

Tom Kristensen will drive the Audi R8 he used to win the 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans at Goodwood
Kristensen retired in 2014, but remains an ambassador for Audi Sport
1997 - JOEST RACING TWR PORSCHE WSC-95: Kristensen only secured a drive with Joest Racing in the week before the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans. He won at his first attempt - and went on to become a Le Mans legend
1999 - BMW V12 LMR: Kristensen and team-mates JJ Lehto and Jörg Müller had built up a four-lap lead when a mechanical failure forced them to retire in 1999. Kristensen says it hurt so much that it motivated him for the rest of his career
2000 - AUDI R8: Kristensen joined Audi Sport (the racing team was run by Joest Racing) for 2000, scoring his second Le Mans win. It was the start of a long relationship between driver and marque
2001 - AUDI R8: Heavy rain for much of the race made 2001 victory particularly challenging
2002 - AUDI R8: Victory in 2002 made Kristensen, Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela the first trio to ever win Le Mans three times in a row
2003 - BENTLEY EXP SPEED 8: Audi's withdrawal prompted a switch to sister firm Bentley for 2003. Kristensen reckons the EXP Speed 8 was the 'most elegant' of his winning cars
2004 - AUDI R8 (TEAM GOH): Following Bentley's withdrawal, Kristensen returned to the cockpit of an R8, albeit run by the privateer Audi Sport Japan Team Goh. He shared victory with Rinaldo Capello and Seiji Ara
2005 - AUDI R8 (CHAMPION RACING): Kristensen switch to the US privateer team for 2005, taking victory alongside JJ Lehto and Marco Werner
2008 - AUDI R10 TDI: Kristensen had to adjust his driving style for the arrival when Audi returned as a works team with a diesel-engined car. After finishing third in 2006 and retiring in 2007, Kristensen's first win in the R10 came after an epic battle with rivals Peugeot
2013 - AUDI R18 E-TRON QUATTRO: Kristensen's final Le Mans win came with mixed emotions. His dad died shortly before the event, and his friend Allan Simonsen was killed after a crash early in the race

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4 mins read

29 June 2017

Danish driver Tom Kristensen’s motorsport legacy will forever be linked with the 24 Hours of Le Mans – a race he won an astonishing nine times.

Kristensen’s first win came 20 years ago, in 1997, on his first attempt. Kristensen only secured a drive in a Joest Racing TWR Porsche WSC-95 the week before the race, with the team questioning if the Formula 3000 racer’s skills would translate from single-seaters to sports cars.

Clearly, they did.

After winning with Joest, Kristensen spent two years with the works BMW team before a career-defining switch to Audi for 2000. He effectively spent the rest of his career with the manufacturer (Audi didn’t run a works team between 2003 and 2005, so Kristensen drove for Bentley and privateer teams).

Kristensen retired from driving at the end of 2014, having set a new record for the most Le Mans wins by a driver. His career will be celebrated at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend, with a collection of his cars on show.

Goodwood Festival of Speed: updates, pictures and live video

We caught up with Kristensen, and asked for some of his memories.

How does it feel to be celebrated at the Festival?

“It’s great. I was very happy, and pleasantly surprised, when Lord March’s team said they wanted to have a 20-year celebration. At first I said, ’20 years, really? Where has that gone?’ But then you start to look at all the cars, the team-mates and the races, and you realise how long it’s been.”

You’re driving up the hill in the Audi R8 you drove to win Le Mans in 2000 – before the car is retired to Audi’s museum…

“That will be very special. I’m there to enjoy the moment. I’ll go slowly up the hill, but I’m sure I’ll rev it higher than I should to give the crowd a thrill.

“Allan McNish will be driving the sister car from that year, and the R8 marks the beginning of Audi’s long journey in sports cars. The Porsche from 1997 will be on display, and the BMW I drove in 1999 and won the Sebring 12 Hours with will be driven by Steve Soper. It should be a nice celebration.”

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Do you have a favourite car?

“No. I enjoyed the journey. I’m the only one who had driven all the Audi Sport Le Mans cars – I came into the project a year late, but I drove the 1999 car in testing. And earlier this week I drove last year’s car, the R18 – the black one, called Dirty Harry by the mechanics – which is the very last car from this era of Audi. To have driven all those cars has been a great privilege.

“Five of my nine victories came in the R8, with works and privateer teams, so that car means a lot.

“The biggest best, absolutely, was the R15 [from 2009-2010]. But the R10 [2006-2008], with the 12-cylinder diesel engine, was the one I had to change my philosophy and driving style for, and it was a huge challenge for the engineers.

“The R18 e-tron quattro from 2013 was the most aggressive car – with the hybrid engine, wide tyres and narrow cockpit. It’s probably also the most extreme-looking car I’ve driven.

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“But the most elegant is the Bentley from 2003. I’m sorry to go a bit away from Audi, but since we’re in England I can say that that was the most elegant – and it still had an Audi-built engine.”

Which was your most memorable win?

“The first one was special, of course: getting the drive so late with the Joest team, and it’s the foundation of the others.

“I also remember 1999, retiring when we had a four-lap lead with the BMW – that hurt me so much it helped with Audi. I didn’t have to worry with Audi because the reliability was so fantastic, but I was always so tense until the chequered flag.

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“Of my Audi wins, 2001 stood out – it rained for 19 hours – as does 2008. Everybody thought Peugeot would smash us that year, but it rained in the night, and the will of Allan [McNish], Dindo [Rinaldo Capello], myself and the whole team to not give up, and push to find any seconds, make that win very rewarding.

“Then the 2013 race was tough mentally. We a lost a great guy that year in Allan Simonsen [the Danish driver was killed in a crash in his GT-class Aston Martin early in the race], and my dad also died that year. That win was very important for me to say ‘well, at least something went right that year’.”

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James Attwood

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James is Autocar's acting magazine editor. Having served in that role since June 2023, he is in charge of the day-to-day running of the world's oldest car magazine, and regularly interviews some of the biggest names in the industry to secure news and features, such as his world exclusive look into production of Volkswagen currywurst. Really.

Before first joining Autocar in 2017, James spent more than a decade in motorsport journalist, working on Autosport, autosport.com, F1 Racing and Motorsport News, covering everything from club rallying to top-level international events. He also spent 18 months running Move Electric, Haymarket's e-mobility title, where he developed knowledge of the e-bike and e-scooter markets.