Eleven victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans between them. Tom Kristensen and Jacky Ickx give us the recipe for their success in this legendary event (N.B. this interview took place a few weeks before Tom Kristensen’s sixth victory at Le Mans – 15 victories in the end from 2013).

For numerous drivers, win Le Mans recover from a pure fantasy. For Jacky Ickx and Tom Kristensen, it is almost about a custom. In fifteen participations to the sarthoise classic, the Belgian driver, retired from circuits since 1985, knew six times the success. A record which appeared out of reach until a Viking named Tom Kristensen puts the foot on the circuit of Le Mans in 1997. A noticed entry because the Dane was imperative from his first participation. Since, he accumulated four other titles and “threat” directly the record of the Belgian driver. The idea to gather these two experts to know the keys of the success in Le Mans was too attractive.

Far from feeling threatened, Jacky Ickx shows himself on the contrary very enthusiastic towards the young Dane : “I am satisfied to meet Tom because I want to show that the world is not necessarily made that of egoism, I would be really happy if he could equal, at first, then beat my record. He has big chances to reach it in a near future. I really wish it to him. Tom, you are young and have henceforth the chance to choose the car which you want. If, for example, one day, a factory team like Porsche returns to Le Mans, it is certain that they will choose you. You have everything to take it. And even when you were not supposed to do it, you even won!”.

Modest Tom doesn’t know where put himself: “It is certain that win from my first participation is a situation which created something special around my presence in Le Mans. But, finally, it is not much compared with Jacky’s career which won as well in Le Mans as in Formula 1 or still in Paris-Dakar. I feel really small next to him… at the moment, everybody is asking me about this record. For me, honestly, I am at the same moment bothered and honored to be mentioned next to Jacky because when we are a child, we grow with heroes. And meet yourself some years later with them, to compete with their number of victories, it is a very particular sensation. Jacky, you do not maybe realize it, but your record puts a terrible pressure on me !”
– I am sorry about it. Forgive me! [laughter].
– Not, it’s true, Jacky. Everybody, at the moment, tells me only about Le Mans, about Le Mans and still about Le Mans and about you ! In a sense, I work at your fame…
– Thank you, Tom. It is very kind to you !

Let’s stop these politenesses. Our experts committee has a mission: to enlighten us on the best method to approach the 24 hours of Le Mans and on the evolution of this mythical race.
– I think that it is necessary to be at the right place, at the right time and with the good car, tells Jacky Ickx.
– It is true that it is a necessary condition for the success, confirms Tom. As for me, the team manager of the Joëst team, Ralf Juttner, appreciated what I did in Formula 3000. Reinhold Joëst, the boss, had preferred a more experimented driver but finally, the Thursday before the week of Le Mans, I received a phone call which proposed me competing for my first 24 hours with Michele Alboreto and Stefan Johansson. And we won the race ! This day, I had the chance to say yes to the good persons !

This choice of the team Joëst was not harmless :
Before this race, explains Tom, I raced some seasons in Japan. I have learn a lot. Over there, I had to accept to drive many different cars : formula 3, Formula 3000, touring cars, protos… And it allowed me to become a mature driver ready to manage with all types of cars and in any circumstances, as under the hard rain of 2001. This year, moreover, I appreciated a lot the comments of Jacky at the arrival. It is clearly the most difficult race in which I have ever competed. Le Mans is already an extremely difficult race at normal weather, but when the conditions burst out… How was it in your time, Jacky ?

– In my time, it was really a long-distance race literally, and we were, most of the time, only two drivers. It was very physically hard but the rhythm was more reasonable. Today on the other hand, it became a real sprint during which the drivers are permanently at most possibilities of the car. Am I wrong ?
– No. Today, if you do not go flat down, the victory will not be for you. It requires a big concentration to maintain a high rhythm. I think that at the time of Jacky, the concentration was less centred on the rhythm but more on the fact of protecting the car, the consumption, the tires…
– It’s true. There is however a common point between two periods : you should never commit fault. Because, within a team, you can switch easily from the leading car to the car number 2 or 3. And in that case, you have to accept to fold to the strategies of the team. In fact, even if the race lasts for a long time, no error is allowed.

At the time of Jacky, there were only two drivers by car. Do you have already imagined, Tom, to share the steering wheel only with a single team member ?
– It did not even have to think of it, intervenes Jacky Ickx. Today, the teams are taking advantage automatically of the possibility to align three drivers. In my time, crews of two drivers was moreover from the tradition. At the very beginning, it appeared the best soIution because that limited the changes of settings, seats… Until about 1985 , it was the custom. It is certain that today this option is not any more adapted. It is a sprint. It is warm !
– Last year for example, explains Tom, I made four following relays aboard the Bentley. It was 3h55 in a row in a closed car and, sincerely, I would not have been able to drive longer. Finally, not with this rhythm.

With one or two team members, the drivers who participate in Le Mans have to learn to share. Not always evident for sportsmen who cultivated the art of the individualism in single-seater :
– In the life it is necessary to know how to adapt yourself to circumstances, explains to this subject Jacky Ickx. If you are intelligent, you know pertinently that you have not a single chance to impose yourself in such a race with an individualistic state of mind. The ideal is to compete for Le Mans with one or more team members whom you know already well. You are then in confidence. You already know the way of working of the other one, you don’t need to speak much together to understand each other. You do not even need to justify yourselves when there is a snag : you know that each gives the best of himself. If we speak about recipe to win Le Mans, here is certainly one. Naturally, it was easier in my time, you should find only a person. Today, it is necessary to look for two, and I think, Tom, that this year you should have imposed in your car somebody that you already knew !
– Yes. But a small detail : it is not me who bring the budget! And I am sure that we have a strong crew with Rinaldo Capello, with whom I have already won last year, and Seiji Ara.

If the agreement with other team members is so crucial, have the drivers then their word to be said in the choice of those with whom they are going to share the car ?

– As for me, says Jacky, rather quickly I was able to choose. Nevertheless, there are some criteria to be taken into account as the size of the team member! For example, I have never shared a car with Hans Stück because I would not have been able to reach the pedals! In such cases, you become to compromises in terms of driving position which are not satisfactory for anybody and you lose a lot of time to change the seat, the pedals settings, etc.
– Me, I can emit suggestions or give my opinion, but I have no power of decision.
– I was thus more important than you, then !
– Yes, Jacky! But I am going to work on this question, I promise… No, seriously, it is important to have fast partners and especially those who have the team spirit. It is not necessary to be friends but, on the other hand, it is imperative to be successful together, there should not have one who feels abandoned, each one has to feel the same thing. This is why, in my point of view, it is important to share. For example, in Le Mans, there is three important moments : the qualifications, the start and the finish. For me, it is logical that each one takes care of one of these three moments. Each one is then valued. It works rather well.
– My opinion is that the least important moment is the qualification, starts again Ickx. Tom likes it because it allows to start in pole, but the position of start really has no importance. What counts, it is to become first.

For that purpose, it is necessary to be very carefull :
– For me, it is about an indispensable ingredient, explains Jacky Ickx. In Le Mans, there are 150 drivers at the start. In this number, you have 50 experts and hundred amateurs. So, to have a safe race, it is necessary to accept that, even if you are in the fastest car on the circuit, you have no priority on the slower cars. I don’t know if it’s always the same today, but it was crucial in my time. For the amateur drivers, it is already difficult to look far in front of them by anticipating, then to look behind in small rear-view mirrors… And I know that with Derek Bell, for example, we share this opinion. If you agree to lose one, two or three seconds to insure an overtaking, you put yourselves in good conditions to finish the race.
– Today, the competition is so competed that it complicates the notion of precaution, starts again Tom Kristensen. As for me, I consider the principle that the driver in front of me maybe didn’t see me. I thus pass him by placing my car there where he is not supposed to place his. But sometimes, it is the dismay when a driver adopts a strange trajectory.

For Tom Kristensen, win requests to fill another condition :
– A very quiet team is needed. It is imperative to have mechanics knowing perfectly the car. It is a crucial key of the success. If the team is quiet, it is more concentrated to resolve the problems that if it gives into the panic. Because it’s in the moments of panic that arise the technical errors. Today, Le Mans is won in spending least time possible in the pits. It is also necessary to minimize the amount of interventions. If we spare the brakes, it’s possible to make all the race without changing disks. It is for that reason that, personally, I do not use the braking with the left foot at the 24 hours of Le Mans, it is to my opinion the technique which seeks them too much. Nowadays, the consumption is not any more really a problem, even if it is always better to be able to make a lap furthermore than the foreseen plan.
– In my time, it was a little bit different, says Jacky Ickx. The way we managed the car was completely bound to the face of the race. This management took place, naturally, with a state of mind of endurance. Anyway, in such a race, it is imperative to adapt yourself to circumstances. Sometimes the rhythm was very steady, other times, it was very slow. If we could avoid climbing vibers and stopping in the pits, we did it. Today, I am really convinced that it became a sprint…
– It is true that, considering the very high level, we have to make fast laps. Nevertheless, when we have a small advance we try to protect the car. But it is clear, I have the feeling to compete for a sprint.

And to hold this sprint during 24 hours, the drivers follow a specific preparation ?
– All year long I train physically. I like very much cycling on road and the cross-country cycle. I make it about two hours per day, even if it is not absolutely every day. When I spent the week in Le Mans, I used to ride on the track before a rule forbids it.
– In my time, complete Jacky, we did not even know what the word “training” meant. We did not even know what was the jogging. We drank, we ate… Seriously : in the 70s, there was no physical training. We were so exceptional, so young and in so good health that we did not need it! [laughter] Having said that, we drove most of the year long, it maintained us in shape. In fact, we were very free-and-easy amateurs.

Free-and-easy to the point to devote to certain pleasures during the moments of break ?
– No sex! We did not even know what it was …, rebels Jacky Ickx, the smile on the lips with an sight which wants to be innocent.
– Nowadays, it does not exist any more, Tom Kristensen outbid.

The time is over when drivers such as Moss tracked down girls in the stands during the practices, and sent the mechanics to give them a date. Today, the 24 hours of Le Mans are rather synonymic of dietary regime and management of the sleep. Other era, other customs.

If for Le Mans, Tom and Jacky do not know masters,
…. in the kitchen of the Hermitage, it is Joël Garault the chef!

Interview conducted at the Hotel Hermitage in Monaco
Published in L’Auto-Journal on 10 June 2004
Photos: NANCY COSTE

Article by Alain Pernot – Auto-Journal
Originally  published on Tribute to Jacky Ickx on August 07 – 2004