The highlight of the Audi Sport Finale 2013 was meant to be the unveiling of the 2014 spec Audi R18 e-tron quattro, but in the event the new car’s appearance was to be the supporting act to the tribute paid to a pair of Audi Sport’s faithful servants.
Allan McNish announced his retirement yesterday of course and there were plenty of tributes paid from the stage at the Audi Forum Ingolstadt, none more emotional though than that offered by Dr Wolfgang Ullrich.
McNish got not one but two standing ovations from the packed room, as his boss paid tribute to his spirit, competiveness and, of course, his speed.
“I tried to tell him to carry on, and his decision in the end surprised me but, I can see that from his point of view that if he was going to stop, pretty typically of Allan, this is the perfect time.”
With an audience of his peers from Audi’s factory and customer teams, Audi’s board, senior staff and guests including Pierre Fillon President of the ACO, Gerard Neveu from the FIA WEC and Stephane Ratel, McNish was subjected to a slide show of his Audi triumphs “to show him what he is missing.”
Dr Ullrich said too that the decision had come too late for an arrangement to be made to present Allan with a car from his past career, as was done last year with Dindo Capello, “but we will get back to you on that when we have had a chance to prepare!”
McNish responded to the tributes saying that “ever since, back in 2000 Jurgen Pippig and Ralf Juettner had pointed me in the direction of Audi Sport as somewhere where there could be a long and meaningful career track the overwhelming feeling at Audi was always one of family, we have had excellent engineers and mechanics, cars that you could totally rely on to get the job done. I want to thank each and every one of them.
“Particularly though I want to thank Wolfgang (Ullrich), I want to thank him, and the whole of Audi Sport for giving me the opportunity to fulfill my dreams.
“I can now look forward to a new role at Audi Sport, standing next to Dindo Capello at the Expresso machine appreciating the stunning grid girls as they parade by!
“From the green light to the checkered flag it has been a hell of a race and I thank you all.”
The timing of Allan’s final decision had one major effect on the proceedings of the evening, no final decision has yet been made about the LMP driver line-up for the 2014 FIA WEC though 2013 drivers Oliver Jarvis, Marc Gene and Lucas di Grassi were all present tonight as it was announced that Audi would again enter three cars at Le Mans
The next surprise though was for Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, celebrating his 20th year in charge of Audi Sport, a cinema chair was delivered to the stage and the Audi Sport Boss was ‘treated’ to a film montage of what has been an amazing two decades of success, starting with the first year of the Audi 80 Quattro Super Touring car, 1994, which produced no fewer than 7 national titles around the globe, through to the Le Mans 24 Hours and the now legendary LMP programmes, Ullrich teary eyed as he watched the highlights, no sign of retirement yet though from one of the most respected men in any paddock.
Before these tributes there had been awards to a myriad of GT Race and Championship winners, teams and drivers aligned to Audis super successful Customer motorsport programmes with the Audi R8 LMS, the 100th example of which has just been delivered.
Portugese, FIA GT, Belgian, Swedish, GT Sprint International and GT Asia team and/ or titles, plus race success in the Macao GP and in the GT class at Daytona were celebrated, as was the commercially very important Audi LMS Cup in the Far East, all for the Audi R8 LMS with drivers including Stephane Ortelli, Eduardo Mortara, Bert Longin, Dion von Moltke and Rene Rast honoured together with teams including MTM Motorsport, Belgian Audi Club Team WRT and PK Carsport.
All told the R8 LMS started in 241 different races in 2013 and scored 1500 podium finishes, 53 of which were race or class wins
Gianni Morbidelli received an award for his success (in an Audi RS5) in the Superstars Series in Italy and, of course, Mike Rockenfeller was honoured for his DTM title, Dr Ullrich confirming that ‘Rocky’ will be back with team Phoenix to defend his title.
