Photos courtesy of Rolex/Kahn Media, Audi AG, Bentley, BMW & Charles Bradley
Two minutes into a lunchtime roundtable chat at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, and Tom Kristensen, whose nine victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans is three more than any other driver on the planet, is already berating me with a twinkle in his eye – “You always give me the tough questions straight away!”
As our group, hand selected by event patrons Rolex, giggles at his seemingly antsy response, it’s only fair to point out that we have shared history. Tom kindly asked me to contribute to the international edition of his biography, Mr Le Mans, just as the global health pandemic struck – and we hadn’t seen each other in person since, apart from our many chats on Zoom.
It also reminds me of the first time we met, over 25 years ago, when he blamed my mere presence as a passenger in his Honda Accord British Touring Car Championship racer for a brief off-track excursion into a gravel trap! And we’ve been friends, through triumph and loss, ever since. Only once did we properly fall out, after he shouted at me in a post-race, red-mist moment. Not many drivers have phoned me up a day later to apologize… I think I could count them on one finger!
That was then; this is now. His amusing chastisement this time is for me daring to ask “what would your perfect supercar look like?” after a brief discussion about what Gordon Murray has been up to with his amazing new line of special vehicles.
“Actually, I’m not super-attracted to supercars,” Tom admits. “I’d rather see them as track cars. I drove a lot of heavily-regulated racing cars, but supercars today are unregulated, and I think that’s why there’s such a strong business around them. But with my racing career behind me, that’s not how I want to go day-to-day. I do think they’re really cool, but I’m more practical now. Actually, I just bought the last Audi RS6 Performance. I’d been through so many RS6s in my job, but I never owned one until now. For me, that’s in a way a supercar – I can fit everything in the boot, including all my bikes.”
Cheekily, I respond: “Well, that’s a great way to not answer my question…”
After a stern stare and a long pause, we’re back on track: “The original McLaren F1 comes to mind, due to my age. It created the benchmark for perfect weight distribution – something people still underestimate in supercars. What Gordon Murray did was way ahead. If you can find me a good price on one of those, I’ll go for it! I drove one in period, not in racing, but in Japan for a short period. So maybe that’s my dream choice.”
And how about his favorites among road cars? “I’d list the Audi R8, the RS6, Porsche 911, Ford GT, Ferrari 250 SWB lightweight Carrozzeria… and maybe a Lamborghini Miura just to look at!”
How about colors? “From Italy, never red,” he replies. “But from the UK, British Racing Green is OK, and my Bentley Continental, the Diamond Series version, is in a dark green, the same as the Bentley Speed 8 I drove in 2003 [pictured above]. That was the most elegant racing car I ever drove, and winning in it at Le Mans made it even more special.”
With road cars out of the way, it’s time to turn the discussion in the sport that he loves and made him famous. His number one pick for favorite race car is easy: “The Audi R8 LMP1 – every time it won, I was one of the drivers, five times in total – they couldn’t get rid of me! The board of Audi then decided to build an R8 for the road, their first mid-engined supercar, and I had one of the early ones, number 11 or 12. And then, I must mention my last winning Le Mans car: the Audi R18 e-tron quattro [pitcured below].
“The Toyota TS010 Group C car also stands out. That car taught me about physical and mental strength – it was brutally powerful, and I drove it on dangerous Japanese circuits in the early ’90s with Jacques Villeneuve and Eddie Irvine. In a way, that happened so far away from Europe that it gave me huge confidence going forward for Le Mans later. My physical strength was up, and I knew what to expect from the Porsche in 1997 [pictured below.]
“I have to include the McLaren Formula 1 car – I tested it last year at the Red Bull Ring thanks to Zak Brown. Incredible! Also the Williams FW21, a car which the drivers of the time could not deliver good results with, or Ferrari F399. I drove the Ferrari at Goodwood recently, the chassis in which Irvine won in Malaysia – 17,200 revs up the hill! That really closed the ring for me, because that’s what F1 should feel like. OK, the cars we have now are super-efficient, which is cool, but they are so heavy.”
Kristensen never raced an F1 car in anger, but he test drove them plenty in 2000 when Michelin returned to the sport – piloting a mixture of Williams and Jaguar V10 machinery. It led to me penning a piece for Autosport magazine – entitled ‘The Best Driver Never To Race In F1?” – and Tom recently turned it into a t-shirt, which is hanging in my wardrobe!
Tom owns the record number of victories at the 12 Hours of Sebring (six), and also mastered the art of touring car racing in Germany, Japan and the UK. He brought the curtain down on his professional career at the end of 2014, a year after adding the World Endurance Championship title to his stellar résumé.
He was appointed Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog by the Queen of Denmark, and in January 2018, he was inducted into the Danish Sports Hall of Fame. But as it’s Le Mans that gave him his nickname, so how does he feel today about the fabled event in retrospect?
“When you arrive at Le Mans, you immediately feel the history and heritage,” he says. “Scrutineering happens in the city center, and you say “hello, hello!” to all the people – it’s different to anywhere else. The circuit is massive: 13.6 kilometers, or about 8.5 miles. A lap takes about three and half minutes, compared to just over one minute in F1. You’re constantly in traffic, passing cars every kilometer. That becomes part of the race – you can meet 10 or more cars each lap of the race, a car per kilometer – you have to accept it, prepare for it, and manage it.
“If you’re in the car second, you’ll be driving through the sunset into the night, or perhaps you’ll be in the night, extending your stint, and going through to the sunrise, with the sun straight in your eyes in some key places. It’s a race that takes a lot of energy; when you think you’re good place in one area, there’s always something else to think about the next time you get into the car.
“Driving at night is another unique challenge. In my early years, I was the youngest in the car, so I did many night stints. The night is special – sometimes magical, sometimes desperate – sometimes you don’t feel comfortable at all. It’s a sharp knife edge. You fight fatigue, changing conditions, wrong tire choices. I remember 2001, when 19 of the 24 hours were wet or on intermediate tires [pictured below]. I spent 20-25 minutes in total frustration on the wrong tire at a quarter to two at night, making tons of mistakes, then the conditions gradually came to me, and it turned perfect, we recovered much more time than we’d lost. That’s Le Mans – you’re constantly tested, you need a good camaraderie.
“It’s not just the driver. To win, you need mechanics, engineers, and complete trust in your team. Everyone is under pressure, everyone has to take responsibility – the car is averaging 220 km/h over 24 hours, including about 30 minutes of pitstops, with top speeds of 350. It’s not Hollywood pit stops, where you stop and say “what do we do next? Maybe we need a car for combat!” – it’s… relentless. That’s why I love Le Mans more than any other race.”
But Circuit de la Sarthe also has its dark side. When Kristensen scored his final victory in 2013, he couldn’t celebrate as his fellow Dane, Allan Simonsen, was killed in the race’s early stages – and Tom dedicated his victory to his memory.
Kristensen’s biggest near-miss at the track came in 1999, when he was driving a Williams-assisted factory BMW V12 LMR entry. He takes up the story…
“It was a time when we had cars taking off,” he says. “We were testing. I had just gone from wet tires to intermediates, and heading toward Indianapolis at 320-plus km/h. At the small hump in the circuit, the car suddenly lifted up off the ground, it didn’t turn anymore because the front end was coming up. I braked instinctively with my left foot, went on to the grass at 320 km/h and touched the barrier. It was scary.
“If I had blinked, or I didn’t have the instinct to brake, I would have been off in the trees. This I realized after. I drove back to the pits saying, ‘big problem, big problem.’ I was staying quite calm, arrived to the garage and said ‘take a look’ – but the data showed nothing was wrong! I loosened the belts and jumped out.
“We had a famous technician from Williams, Patrick Head, and he looked over the data with my engineer Jason Sommerville, and they realized that, for 60 meters, we had no sensor readings from the front end [due to the car being airborne]. Then they discovered a fault with the floor assembly – it split at high speed, letting air under the car and creating lift. A few other manufacturers went airborne, and into the trees, at that time. I was lucky.
“So, they fixed it, and 20 minutes later, I was back on track. That was tough!”
Although his professional racing career is over, Tom continues to be a high-profile draw at Goodwood, where he stars at its multiple historic racing events, and as a Rolex Testimonee he enjoys a fine time being ‘Mr Le Mans’ – for instance judging at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance [pictured above]. So, what’s he wearing on his wrist today?
“A Daytona,” he smiles. “A chronograph has to be the choice for anyone in this business. Rolex has so many lovely watches, no doubt, and it’s not a winner but this one is very special – it’s a centenary edition from 2023 that I unveiled one hour into the race at Le Mans with Rolex CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour. It has a little red ‘100’ on the dial. White gold, a wonderful watch, and I also always travel with two watches just in case. The other is a Milgauss with green sapphire.”
I point out that Tom never contested the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, due to the fragmented nature of sportscar racing at the time, so he missed out on winning a watch at Florida’s famous cathedral of speed: “No, but I have been Grand Marshal, and I was there again this year. I love that race too, and it put its name on the best timepiece in history. Any driver who doesn’t have it, they will buy it or they wanna win it. If they don’t win it, they’ll try again next year!”
I quip that “it must be a tough life being a Rolex Testimonee?” and TK fires back with a wink “again, you’re asking a lot questions, Charles!” and enjoys a chuckle.
“After the career I’ve had, I feel very privileged to still be around cars with passionate people like yourself,” he says. “And, obviously, promoting these elegant timepieces of art, which has relevance to all these beautiful cars here today.”
