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Audi – A Phoenix Rises from the Ashes

Marc Gene, who is taking the place of Loic Duval on the #1 Audi for the race.  [Photo credit: Audi Motorsport]

Motorsports is the ultimate test of man and machine. Unlike other sports, which tend to focus on the singular achievement of the athlete, auto racing requires the combined talents of a lot of individuals, which make up a team.

While the drivers of racing cars get the bulk of the credit for victories and championships in the press, they know they wouldn’t have had the opportunity for those individual achievements without the support and work of a tremendous team to support their efforts.

A prime example happened yesterday at Le Mans with Audi Sport Team Joest. Loic Duval had a terrible accident at the Porsche Curves when his Audi R-18 e-tron Quattro went airborne into the barriers and the catch fencing at an estimated 180mph.

Not only did he survive the accident, which in years past would have almost certainly been fatal, he is, quoting Dindo Capello, who I was able to reach on the phone at Le Mans this morning, “he is perfect – no problems.”

That alone is testament to the hundreds of designers, engineers, mechanics and others behind the scenes at the Audi factory where this latest incarnation of Audi’s sports prototype car was designed and built. To withstand such an impact and have the driver be able to walk away literally uninjured is almost unbelievable. Audi builds one tough car.

Now, this is where the team comes in. Audi had entered 3 of the R-18 e-tron Quattro cars in this year’s edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They knew that they were facing a very tough challenge to be able to repeat as winners of the 24 hour French classic. New cars from Toyota and Porsche were going to provide very stiff competition.

After Duval’s crash, it was obvious that the car he was driving was a total write off and couldn’t be repaired. I daresay that they would have been lucky to find any parts from that car that could be used again. Perhaps other teams would have just put the wreck on the transporter and continued with the remaining two cars for the race.

But not Audi Sport Team Joest. Knowing that the final qualifying was the following day beginning at 7pm, they set to work, literally building an entirely new car from scratch in the garage in the pits at Le Mans.

By this morning, the bulk of the work was finished; the car presented to the ACO for technical inspection and is now ready to go for the final qualifying sessions.

Marc Gene has been enlisted by the Audi squad as a replacement driver for Duval (who was not cleared to drive by the Le Mans officials), so Lucas De Grassi and Tom Kristensen will have a new teammate for the race.

All in all, the events of yesterday and today show how important a “team” is when it comes to racing. I am sure that if Tom Kristensen is able to win his record 10th Le Mans on Sunday afternoon, the first credit he will give will be to the outstanding team he has behind him at Audi Sport Team Joest.

UPDATE: Toyota captured the pole for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, followed by Porsche, Toyota, Porsche and the 3 Joest Audis. All the hard work by the Audi squad paid off – the completely new #1 car, built last night at the track, is in the race giving 9 time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen a shot at his 10th victory. Seeing how this race is shaping up, you never know what might happen. Stay tuned.

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