Are Toyota the favourites to win Le Mans in 2022?
For Toyota’s ambition, they have been supporting and racing particularly around Le Mans for many years. It’s hard to understand that Toyota actually – when they had their devastating moment I think in 2016 – when they had been leading the race until the last three minutes and then the car broke down with a technical failure. They had been at Le Mans for many, many years and still not won – and now for three years they have been winning and, of course now, going into the hybrid era and trying to overcome Le Mans again to win yet another race that is something that I applaud. Toyota will have the pressure of many other manufacturers joining in future.

For this very reason they are challenged by an American privateer with big ambitions – James Glickenhaus – who has put together a great team of drivers and two beautiful cars which can challenge Toyota. They have surprised leading up to Le Mans in terms of pace and speed. Alpine Racing, Rebellion Optimised Cars, it’s not a true hybrid – it’s a hybrid between the hyper car – they will challenge and put pressure on Toyota.

But no doubt, Toyota is the favourite – they have two strong cars, they have the world championship drivers, but it’s not going to be a walkover and easy because anything can happen, any little mistake they have, any little issue they will have with the car or on track – let’s say mishaps with the drivers or whatever. The LMP2 cars are only a few seconds behind so you cannot, over 24 hours, have a small repair or a small mistake in your strategy. It can bite you back. The race, in many ways, can suddenly be completely open if there is some issues starting.

Reliability issues are always more likely when you start with the new hyper cars which Toyota and Glickenhaus are competing with.

What is the key combination to get to the top spot on Sunday?
You need confidence and self-confidence, but always to be able to allow yourself some time to just wait a second or two. People under pressure tend to make mistakes so you have to mentally be in good state. There is no doubt the team can help and you also need a reliable car.

I’m not saying you can trust it 100% because you always need to go fast into the corners, but you need a little bit of trust there which means for the drivers, how you are on the Wednesday and Thursday night, putting the car in the right set up... The small changes, the tyre pressure, aerodynamics, a little bit of gear tweaking, a little bit of all these things.

It has to be a choice of all three drivers together. All three have to own the way they go forward. This is very part of creating the best team. And that doesn’t matter if you’re a rookie. There are a lot rookies this year, a lot of quality rookies who are very established racing drivers who now have the opportunity to come here. That doesn’t matter if you are young or old, you have to get this chemistry working for you in the car. Everyone has to feel ownership and important in the race car to be at the top step. When you are at the top step, I tell you, then you are born for the rest of your life.

Being associated with Audi, and with Audi returning in LMDh, will you be part of the project as an adviser for the team given your experience in endurance racing?
At Audi I am still working in an ambassadorial role – how it goes forward we will have to wait and see. I take great pleasure in still being involved with Audi on the public relations side over the years even after I retired. At the same time, I am also enjoying what I am doing with Eurosport on weekends like these and supporting the expert team and doing interviews.

This year we have fans back. What do you think about this? And when you’re driving can you feel the atmosphere?
Yes, you absolutely feel that. When you’re driving in different times into the evening, you could smell the barbeque and see the flags, the fans and if you were in a fight with somebody you could see the fans alive. That’s the nature of Le Mans and very much part of it. It’s the best race in the world but also a festival, a motorsport festival where fans come from all around the world to support the teams and drivers. And also where parents bring their young kids to watch. I came for the first time in 1997 and was racing here.

After my retirement, I’ve been working here but I was not here last year. It was very sad not to be here last year but motorsport showed us, not just Formula 1 but also Le Mans, they showed us a sense of community for the rest of the world and showed us we could even go on racing under the Covid rules. That shows a lot of dedication and commitment because it’s tough in a lot of ways. But they showed us motorsport can go on. In terms of fans this year, they will not be like what I started with. It’s not going to be here this year but there will be fans.
A lot of teams when they are in the paddock, they feel that and they are very happy to see them again. Motorsport is very a fan-based sport particularly Le Mans because it is a motorsport festival. This year and hopefully next year will be very good, but definitely fingers crossed, 2023 100 years, the centenary, that is going to be a race and a party.

What was your toughest race at Le Mans?
I was actually talking last night about the dreaded race of 2001 when 19 hours of 24 hours was in the rain – this was my toughest race in terms of driving, just to keep along and keep the car on the track. That was 20 years ago.

What was the best win?
I’d say maybe 20 years ago in 2001 as well as the first one. We had lost Michele Alboreto in a freak testing accident a month before the race and then 19 hours out of 24 it was really pissing down with rain, it was really tough. Generally, everyone said the 2008 race where we really beat the tough opponents of Peugeot when I drove with [Rinaldo] Capello and [Allan] McNish and we changed the lead several times but came out on top. 2013 my personal last victory was very tough as well.

Tom Kristensen is an expert for Discovery Eurosport's coverage of the 2022 24 hours of Le Mans. Live coverage starts from Saturday 21 August at 16:15 on Eurosport, discovery+ (selected markets) and Eurosport Player.