Allan McNish has shared his reflections following his first weekend in his new role as Racing Director at Audi, with the Scot admitting that his passion for the sport means that he won’t “go home happy unless we’ve won”.
Following the exit of former Team Principal Jonathan Wheatley in March, it was confirmed in late April that McNish would becoming the squad’s Racing Director, heading up trackside operations from the Miami Grand Prix onwards.
His arrival was welcomed by drivers Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg, with Bortoleto stating that he believed McNish – who has long been a part of the Audi brand – would “do an incredible job”, while Hulkenberg acknowledged the vast amount of motorsport experience that the former F1 driver brings.
When asked how his first weekend in the new role had gone following the Miami event – which saw Bortoleto end Sunday’s race in P12 while Hulkenberg was forced to retire the car – McNish joked when speaking to media: “Well, I’m actually more nervous now than any time before!
“You know, I’ve been at the circuit a few times – it’s not the first time, so I understand the ways of the world, so to speak. Clearly, we’ve got a lot of experience in different areas of the team, which is good.
“On the other side of it, I knew quite a lot of the things that we were needing to work on in operational.
“But on the other side, it was the biggest event that the team has had from marketing and communications with events downtown, so there was a whole load of other stuff apart from what was going on in here as well, for some pop-ups and other things.
“So it was actually across many areas more than necessarily just the Racing Director operational aspect of it, which is what you have to do in the role. But it was good.”
McNish reiterated that – having spent much of his life in the world of motorsport – he remains as passionate about it as ever.
“Look, I live to race,” he explained. “I’ve lived to race all my life, since I was 11 years old. It’s what I love, it’s what gets me up in the morning, it’s what’s the passion.
“But when I say I live to race, I don’t go home happy unless we’ve won, and I know that that’s not always the case because, in racing in your career, you lose more than you win. That’s just natural statistics, apart from maybe one or two.
“The reality is that this environment is my life, it’s my career, it’s my hobby, it’s my passion. It’s always good to be here. The alternative’s not.”
Reflecting further on what he enjoyed the most in Miami from his perspective as a racer, McNish added: “I loved Gabi’s move round the outside of [Isack] Hadjar at Turn 4 [in the Sprint]. I have to be honest, when he went round the outside of Hadjar there, I was like, yes, get in!
“And that is it, because it’s just the drive. Also, that for me was a fantastic repay to the mechanics that had just worked like hell to get his car out. That’s what they love – they will give everything if they see their driver giving everything back, and that was a cool one yesterday, so I think, yes, I did like that.”