Le Mans is an extraordinary race, and to conquer it takes an extraordinary mix of abilities. Physical fitness and stamina, high levels of concentration, often during dramatically changing conditions. And, nowadays, real ten-tenths speed, day and night, hour after hour.

Thus, to win Le Mans even once is a signal achievement. To win it eight times [nine after 2013] indicates a truly exceptional talent. Only Tom Kristensen has done this. In 1997 he was an F3000 driver, leading the European championship and knocking on the door of F1, when at a few days’ notice he was summoned to Le Mans for the first time. Having never sat in the car before, he won, and set a record fastest lap during the night.

Tom was born in the small northern town of Hobro, in a flat over his father’s garage business. Today, every inch the professional racer, he lives in Monaco. But to relax he likes to spend time with his young family in his holiday house on the North Jutland coast at Skagen. We meet there, and lunch is at the 100-year-old Ruth’s Hotel, a stone’s throw from the sea.

“My dad was a big influence on me,” he says. “He was into hot rod racing and rallycross, even a bit of circuit racing. But money was tight, so he was always struggling with bad equipment. He’d work hard all day and work on his race car all night, and his enthusiasm came across to me. From when I was six I used to go with him to races. At first I was more interested in stickers to add to my collection, but even then I was aware of the friendship, the paddock camaraderie.”

Fast-forwarding through a hugely successful, but also hugely punctuated karting and single-seater career, Kristensen eventually found himself in F3000, leading the championship in 1997 when a chance phone call changed everything.

“The week before Le Mans, on the Thursday, I got a call from Ralf Jüttner of Joest Racing. They were running a Porsche with Michele Alboreto and Stefan Johansson, and thought of me for the third seat. Everything happened very fast. I flew to Germany next day. The car and most of the mechanics had already left, but on the workshop floor was a spare monocoque, and Jürgen Hördt suggested I get in and try it. I wriggled into the seat and I said, ‘It’s fine, it fits me very well.’ Then, starting to feel at home, I said, ‘Maybe if the brake could be just a fraction closer, it would be perfect.’ And old Jürgen put his head down to me in the cockpit and said, ‘Das schnellste bestimmt bei uns’ – ‘with us, the fastest driver decides that’.

“I went to Le Mans, and had just 18 laps in practice. And we won. Michele and Stefan were so good to me. Michele knew the car well, so I spent a lot of time with him. We went together on a scooter and looked at parts of the track, and I asked him about lines and gearchange points. He never told me what to do, but when I asked questions he always gave me good answers. He gave me confidence, such a good guy.

“And during the night I happened to set a few quick laps. It was getting towards what we call ‘Happy Hour’: it’s just starting to get light, so visibility is better, but it’s still cool, so you can run a relatively soft tyre and the air density is good. The rules allow you to stay in the car for up to four hours, so I was on my third stint and the tyres were still good. Jüttner came on the radio and said, ‘Fastest lap, well done. Keep the pace.’ That meant: don’t go slower, don’t go faster. Three laps later he came on again, and told me I had beaten my new record. That was 3min 45sec. Then, because the tyres seemed OK, he said, ‘Tom, can you do another stint?’. I did, but I was knackered. It was my first Le Mans and I was concentrating so hard, even on the straights. Back then there was no power steering, no paddle-shift: you shifted with your left hand, a good old Porsche ’box, very strong, but heavy. But they’d given me this chance, and I wanted to pay them back.

The BMW V12 LM had barely run when the teams went to the May pre-qualifying weekend. “It was only the second time I’d been at Le Mans, and that was when I had my worst scare. On the fast stretch between Mulsanne Corner and Indianapolis, suddenly I had no steering. At around 200mph I was on the grass. I braked with my left foot and managed to keep the car out of the barriers, got back onto the Tarmac, drove back to the pits and said, ‘I think I have a rear puncture, or some sort of aero problem.’ They couldn’t find anything wrong, and my team-mates Steve Soper and Hans Stuck were saying, ‘If Tom isn’t happy let us take over.’ Then they found it: the floor had split, allowing air to build up under the car. Patrick Head showed me later on the telemetry that the front wheels had been off the ground for between 19 and 27 metres. In the race we ran in the top six, but there was a problem with the wheel bearings. After four hours we parked it.”

BMW was back in 1999 with the radically revised V12 LMR. “It was a big year for manufacturers – Mercedes, Toyota, Nissan, Audi, BMW – and we led for most of the race. We were three laps in front after 19 hours and it was all looking good. But at Le Mans a small thing can always turn into a big thing. A damper unscrewed itself and pushed against a rollbar, which in turn jammed the throttle cable to one bank of cylinders. JJ was driving, and with half the V12 on full throttle he had a massive crash. A couple of months later I had my first meeting with Audi. Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, its head of motorsport, showed me a drawing of the R8, and we made a deal that day.”

It was the start of a very fruitful relationship. Now, at 32, he realised that sports cars were his future. And, teamed with Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela, he won the next three Le Mans races on the trot: “The 2001 victory is particularly unforgettable, because on April 25 that year we lost Michele.” Alboreto was killed during a pre-Le Mans test at the Lausitzring, when a rear tyre failure led to a terrible accident. “We respected Michele greatly, he won his final race at Sebring, and we felt him missing at Le Mans, we all thought about him. After his crash there had been a lot of talk about the danger of this type of racing. And Le Mans 2001 was wet. Endlessly wet. Heavy rain at Le Mans means you are constantly aquaplaning, because water lies in the indentations in the track. That year the 24 hours felt like a week. There were a lot of accidents, and driving slowly during all the safety car periods the cockpit filled up with water, up to your arms, like sitting in a bath. Because of the conditions, and all the safety car periods, we weren’t changing gear at full throttle, and that upset the transmission. In the end I lost fourth gear, so I chugged into the pits in fifth and, with less than four hours to go, they changed the gearbox. We still won by a lap. On the podium I felt completely empty, physically and mentally. Dr Ullrich said, ‘This one is for Michele’, and we all burst into tears. It was the most emotional Le Mans for me.

“In 2002, close to midnight, I had a right-front puncture going into the Porsche Curves. A huge explosion, took out a lot of the front bodywork. I managed to get to the pits on three wheels, but I thought our race was gone – or, at least, we’d be in the pits a very long time. The mechanics were working on the right front, I was just sitting in the cockpit trying to be calm, and after about two minutes the chief engineer said, ‘Tom, be ready.’ The guy working on the right front caught my eye and put his thumb up. Then the engine was fired up and out I went. I’d been stationary about three minutes. I couldn’t believe it. We won the race, and the next morning when I looked at the car I realised there was a metre and a half of bodywork missing, back to the radiator.”

In 2003 there were no works Audis at Le Mans, so Tom was seconded to Bentley. With Dindo Capello, already a familiar partner from the ALMS, and Guy Smith he won again.

“The Bentley was a closed car: better aero, but little space inside, and very hot. Running behind the safety car was almost unbearable, because at low speeds there was no airflow. But for me the Bentley is still the most beautiful Le Mans car.”

Tom won the 24 Hours again in 2004, with Dindo and Seiji Ara in a Japan Team Goh Audi R8, and in ’05 with JJ Lehto and Marco Werner in an American Champion Racing R8. He had now scored a quite astonishing six consecutive victories, and seven in all – beating Jacky Ickx’s long-standing record. For ’06 the Audi works outfit was back with its mould-breaking R10 TDI turbodiesel, and Tom was teamed with Allan McNish.

Tom, Allan and Dindo gave the R10 victory first time out, at Sebring, but at Le Mans Capello had an off avoiding a slower car. Delays to mend battered bodywork and replace a turbo left them third. Then in April 2007, doing the DTM for Audi, Tom was involved in a horrifying high-speed pile-up at Hockenheim. His car was T-boned, reportedly generating forces of 63g. “I woke up in hospital feeling fine, because of all the adrenaline, but by Monday night I felt terrible. For a long time I was just unwell, with dizziness and headaches. It took me two years to recover fully.”

Nevertheless at Le Mans that year things seemed back on script. “We were ahead almost from the start, and after 17 hours we had a lead of over 15 minutes. But at Le Mans the biggest lead can turn into the biggest disappointment. While Dindo was in the car on Sunday morning, he lost the left rear wheel and crashed.” Then came 2008, and a major onslaught from Peugeot, determined to end Audi’s winning streak.

“The Peugeots were quicker, and everyone was waiting to see Audi get beaten at last. We were fighting the fastest Peugeot right up to the end, and we were on the same lap at the flag – but we were in front. That win really meant a lot, because it was so close-fought. For us it was a mega-triumph.” But in 2009 Audi did get beaten. The French cars finished 1-2, with Tom, Allan and Dindo only third, six laps down, after many problems with the new R15. “In the bad weather the radiators silted up, a problem we’d never had before. When you run those diesels out of the temperature range you have two choices: run with less power, or blow up the engine within one lap. So we ran with less power. Afterwards the whole Audi team went over and congratulated Peugeot. That evening the Peugeot guys were wearing Audi shirts, all completely out of their heads, with the Germans in Peugeot shirts.”

Le Mans is now a flat-out sprint that happens to go on for a day and a night. “You have to be absolutely on it, all the time. But you must be intelligent about it. The car is very strong, but if you are clumsy with it you won’t get to the end. The key to being quick at Le Mans is how you deal with traffic. What matters is not your time over a single lap, it’s keeping your average up over a whole stint. You have to read the traffic, because driving abilities vary. As you approach a car you can soon tell if there is a pro or an amateur at the wheel. If you catch one on the straight, you’re lucky. If you get into somebody’s boot going into the Porsche Curves, it can cost you. You almost never get a clear lap. It can rain a lot at Le Mans. In the rain you’re still flat out on the Mulsanne, but your absolute speed is less because the wet tyres have more drag. Visibility is a problem, because the spray from 50 cars hangs trapped below the trees. For a lot of the time, in traffic, you’re driving totally blind. In 2001 we were only on dry tyres for five of the 24 hours. And, like I said, the aquaplaning…

“With Allan and Dindo, we blend together well. Guys you’ve won Le Mans with, you have a bond. I have so much respect for those two. At Audi all nine drivers get precisely the same in terms of car and equipment, Dr Ullrich insists on that. Of course each driver wants his car to win, but we all share information. I can tell you, not all Le Mans teams are like that.

“Everybody’s goal has to be to maximise Audi’s chances of winning. In 2008, late in the race when we were fighting the Peugeots, it was raining on one side of the circuit and not the other. One of the Audis was several laps behind for various reasons, so it was used as a guinea pig: it was sent out on intermediates to find out whether they were right for the conditions. Those guys helped us to win, because it’s the whole team that wins. If anybody isn’t a team player, or is just out for fame and fortune for himself, he doesn’t get asked back.”

In January [2010], playing badminton, Tom tore his left Achilles tendon, which compromised his fitness regime for a while. But, apart from some discomfort jumping in and out of the car during pitstops, he says he’s now as good as new. “I do a lot of cardio work – running, cycling – plus strength training. When I’m stuck in a hotel room I do exercises. These cars are physical to drive. We have paddle-shift now, of course, and power steering, but with the diesels we run a lot of downforce. You can’t afford to run too soft a brake pedal, because you want the brakes to last, so they’re set up with heavy pedal pressure. The clutch too: it’s only used at pitstops, but you need enough travel so that, at the end of a hard race, if it’s worn you can still get out of the pits.

“Some say I talk a lot on the radio, but there are drivers who talk more than me. I talk when I get out of the car. Some drivers just say to the engineer, ‘It’s OK, it’s all good,’ and then walk away. On the radio I tell them things they need to know for the pitstop, and then after I’m out of the car I talk to the chief mechanic – I had to avoid a car here, I touched a bit too hard on the floor there. Things like that are easy to remember because they give you a scare. We have an event button on the steering wheel, and if you have a bad shift or maybe you hit a kerb too aggressively, you hit that button and say over the radio what it was. They can check the telemetry and take note of it. From every single lap there are positives and negatives you can pass on. It’s a constant process, because you’re not going to win unless you can keep the average speed over the 24 hours up around 135mph with all the stops.

“After I’ve talked to the engineers and spoken to Ullrich and Jüttner I take a shower, get fresh underwear and overalls, go to the physio and they arrange some food if I want. I just want to calm down, but I don’t sleep for long, just small naps. At the start of my Le Mans career, when I wasn’t in the car I wanted to be in the pits all the time, like a kid in a candy store. Now I’m more relaxed, better at preserving energy. If I eat it will be a bit of pasta and tomato sauce, which is easy to digest, maybe yoghurt or a banana. And a lot of fluids, isotonic drinks. You lose weight during the race, but you need to keep your fluid intake up. We don’t have a drinks bottle in the car, we just get a drink handed to us on a long pole during each stop.

“Howden ‘H’ Haynes engineers my car. I’ve known H since he was a young data engineer at Bentley in 2003. His number two is Leena Gade, a very clever woman. We love working with her, love to wind her up. Then there are 10 mechanics for each of the three cars. Stefan Grimm is chief on our car. They are all Joest people. The operation is Audi Sport Team Joest: Joest is actually running the car, but there are Audi people on all three cars as well. On the engine side it’s Audi, so it’s a carefully worked out mix. You’d struggle to know who was from Audi and who was Joest.

“A driver’s working friendship with the mechanics should be automatic: if you have to think about the relationship, it’s already too late. But the older you get the more you have to work at it, because it comes more easily when you are a young driver and you are the same age as most of the mechanics. The people working in the pits have just the same passion to win as the drivers do. A lot of them would have loved to race but didn’t get the opportunity. When we have kart races, it’s always interesting to find that some of them are very quick.

“On Monday morning, if the race has gone well, you wake early, still full of adrenaline, and breakfast tastes wonderful. I always go back to the circuit because the guys are packing up, I like to say thanks to all of them. If the race hasn’t gone well you feel different, but I still want to say thank you.”

Originally published in Motor Sport, July 2010