ALLAN McNISH I LEARNED TO FOLLOW MY RACING INSTINCTS

Allan McNish is now a mainstay on the pitwalls of the globe, leading his troops into a battle he has tackled himself on so many occasions.

But it is a position he is happy with, and one that allows him some time to reflect on his decorated career. Here are the McNish headlines: he is the 2013 World Endurance champion, a three-time Le Mans 24 Hour winner, three-time American Le Mans Series champion, Formula 1 test driver with racing legends, and a season racing with Toyota in F1, BBC Radio commentator and now team principal of theAudi SportABT Schaeffler Formula E team, as well as a master of the bacon butty. Read on for more details…

He is also one of the nicest people to chat with. So much so, we already have enough for a ‘part two’that will come up in earlyAugust, so if your question wasn’t answered this time keep your eyes out for that.

In McNish’s own words: “I’m so old there are a lot of stories in there.”

Question: You’ve worked with some legends in racing, everyone from multiple champions Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher to Tom Kristensen – and even Mika Hakkinen. Who did you learn most from?

Jamie Moore Via email

Allan McNish: “Does it have to be a driver? [Very long pause for thought] “I will give a two-stage answer to that. From a driving point of view and because of a particular scenario, I would have to say Senna. Remember, these were the days [1990-1992] before data. The principal part of data back then was the stopwatch – his driver feedback during testing was a real factor in the development of the car. It was very clear to me that his capability mentally to be able to ‘record’what happened during a test, corner by corner, whether it was a race distance or a five-lap run didn’t matter. For him he was then to be able to relay that information with enough detail that the engineer could build the story. Nowadays that’s a pretty simple task because the data is now all there, live.

“When I think back now, that was a key point for me because for me it was very much, yes, you had to deliver information on the car, but that was to a limited extent. Senna’s was to a significantly different level. That’s where I realised that the benchmark was clearly quite different to where I thought it was. I learned a lot from that.

“In terms of what I do now, I have to say [formerAudi Sport boss] Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. I learned a tremendous amount from him atAudi. He is a very strong character, but also a very thoughtful person. He is just a really nice human being.At the end of the