TOM KRISTENSEN PREVIEWS 24 HOURS OF LE MANS

What are your thoughts on the battle for race honours this year?
For outright victory there is no doubt Alpine is putting a lot of pressure on the two Toyotas. They beat them already in Sebring and are leading the championship going into Le Mans. Alpine are outsiders and Toyota still have to be favourites but they are complex cars. They had some issues in Seping and it was not luck that Alpine won, it was due to very good execution of their cars and in that sense it could happen again at Le Mans. But Toyota are favourites and they will also try to gain even more experience of Le Mans to be ready when everyone joins next year.

What kind of atmosphere can fans expect Le Mans?
People want to get out, people want to go and enjoy and have a festival. Le Mans is a festival. We had Le Mans last year with limits on spectators due to protocols, this year we are back full and people want to go out and enjoy it.

Why is Le Mans so special to you?
The myth of Le Mans, it goes back a long time, everything has evolved. There are a lot of stories. The history and heritage is enormous. There is a lot of shared emotion, everyone has experienced something different. I know you can say everybody talks about the Olympics, but that happens every four years - Le Mans is every year with 200,000 spectators from around the world.

How has technology evolved since you were competing?
The cars are incredibly complex these days. The areas when the teams can improve and optimise the cars like the aero dynamic concept and the engine become really key and detailed. Technology is important, in the 90s the cars were quite simple, I didn’t have many buttons on the wheel and a few buttons on the panel. The technology has evolved a lot.

That is what it’s like, all four categories at Le Mans have different technologies, which relate to the car industry behind it, so at the end of the day it goes back to what the fans are driving at home and what the whole world is driving, it has a lot of relevance to the technology developed over Le Mans – brake discs, wipers, seat belts, more or less most things have been developed by smart engineers going into Le Mans.

I am very grateful that I drove in a period which had very simple cars in the mid-90’s. I like that. It’s nice that they are a bit more basic.

Tom Kristensen is a motor racing expert for Warner Bros. Discovery. The 24 Hour of Le Mans race will be broadcast LIVE on discovery+ (selected markets), Eurosport and Eurosport App from 16:00 CEST on Saturday 11 June.