麦克尼什谈从塞纳身上学到的经验及其在奥迪的应用
奥迪F1首位赛事总监阿兰·麦克尼什接受Autosport专访，回顾车手生涯中的重要经验及其在车队管理中的应用。
麦克尼什讲述他从塞纳身上学到的经验，并带到奥迪
奥迪的一级方程式赛车总监阿兰·麦克尼什接受了《Autosport》的采访，回顾他从辉煌的车手生涯带到车队管理中的关键经验
对于奥迪的资深老将、勒芒冠军阿兰·麦克尼什来说，成为奥迪在一级方程式中的首位赛车总监，感觉就像是他那传奇职业生涯在维修区墙内外两端的自然延续。
在上世纪80年代末和90年代初逐步攀升英国单座赛车阶梯之后，麦克尼什通往巅峰的道路经历了许多曲折，其中包括一个迈凯伦一级方程式测试的角色，但最终没有换来正式车手席位。于是麦克尼什转投耐力赛车领域，成为奥迪极其成功的原型车项目的支柱之一，并在1998年随保时捷赢得了勒芒24小时耐力赛。
这位苏格兰车手最终在2002年以32岁的年龄登上一级方程式（F1）的起跑网格，加盟新军丰田，但次年就回到奥迪，并在2008年和2013年——也就是他作为车手的最后一个赛季——又赢得了两次勒芒冠军。麦克尼什一直留在奥迪大家庭中，并成为其电动方程式（Formula E）车队的领队，之后被这家制造商邀请参与其刚刚起步的F1项目。
麦克尼什在接受《Autosport》采访时，谈到了他一路走来学到的宝贵经验：从十几岁担任迈凯伦测试车手时与埃尔顿·塞纳并肩共事，到与奥迪传奇赛车主管沃尔夫冈·乌尔里希博士合作。
《Autosport》：回顾你的职业生涯，成为奥迪F1项目的赛车总监，感觉像是你此前所有经历的总汇。你作为车手三次随奥迪赢得勒芒冠军，随丰田参加过F1比赛，之后成为车手经纪人和联络人，还担任过电动方程式车队的领队。
阿兰·麦克尼什："确实如此。作为车手，你会接触到每一个领域，无论是工程、策略、轮胎还是沟通，因为你必须参与新闻发布会，或者与合作伙伴打交道等等。不过，车手对成功的理解往往非常狭隘，因为成功只意味着你个人的成功。而当你参与车队工作后，你就必须以更宽广、更全面的视角来看待问题。当然，每场比赛结束后，衡量我们的仍然是同样的成败标准。但如果你拥有一段高水平的车手生涯，你就会积累非常广泛的经验。
"然而，就像优秀的足球运动员不一定总能拥有成功的教练生涯一样，我认为车手身份也不总能顺利转化为车队管理者的能力。但正如你所说，我在电动方程式的经历非常出色，这些年来我在奥迪参与的其他各项工作也很顺利。与此同时，我有非常好的老师可以学习，比如奥迪的沃尔夫冈·乌尔里希博士和迪特尔·加斯，然后是从F1角度来说的现任领队马蒂亚·比诺托。从这个角度来说，我可以说是跟着一批非常优秀的教授学习的学生。"
AS：显然，F1的运作规模与电动方程式相比完全不在一个量级。领队这个角色到底有多不同？有没有什么让你感到意外的地方？
AM："我认为这是一个自然的发展过程。回想我小时候还在跑卡丁车的时候，十二岁在拉克霍尔或罗拉这类地方比赛时，做好充分准备的基本原则是完全一样的。确保你在赛道上把事情做对，确保你在正确的时机做出正确的决定，而最终你是由结果来评判的。但如今的数据、技术和复杂程度要高得多。"
AS：说到早期岁月，1989年你在英国三级方程式锦标赛中获得年度亚军，随后成为迈凯伦的测试车手，在埃斯托里尔完成了你的F1测试首秀，而同场竞技的正是埃尔顿·塞纳本人。对于一个来自邓弗里斯的19岁少年来说，能和塞纳一起测试迈凯伦的F1赛车，那一定是一次非常震撼人心的经历。
安德森：“那其实是在我去澳门大奖赛之前不久的事。当时我根本没想过这个问题，因为我只是一门心思‘做事’。你知道，他是世界冠军埃尔顿·塞纳，迈凯伦当时也是世界冠军车队，但你就是直接上去开就是了。我记得最清楚的是，我从车里出来时心想：‘天哪，这车可真快！’
“那对我来说是一堂教育课。我还留着当年在埃斯托里尔第一次测试的老数据打印件，但那只是两张纸，你得把它们叠在一起对着光看，因为那时候没有像今天这样的数据对比工具。天哪，那时候你还得踩离合器踏板呢！方向盘上也只有两个按钮。和今天的赛车相比，它们简直就是恐龙。
斯皮尔斯：你在赛车运动的晋升之路上走的确实是一条非同寻常的路——2002年你32岁时才代表丰田首次亮相F1，而这距离你第一次赢得勒芒冠军已经过去了四年。
阿隆索·马丁内斯（音译）说："哦不，那绝对不是一条直路。有一小段时间是顺途，然后就左右拐了几个弯……不过说来有趣，我觉得这其实会给你一种不同层次的历练，因为当你遇到糟糕的日子或糟糕的年份时，它会给你一种韧性。车手都会有这样的经历。不是每一年都是夺冠之年。关键在于你如何从低谷中反弹。"
"在我的职业生涯中，我曾在不同的阶段依靠这种韧性支撑下来。但当机会来临时，这份历练也让我受益匪浅，让我能够抓住机会并善加利用。你说得对，从1989年10月那场19岁时的测试，到2002年3月终于站上发车格，中间整整过去了13年……"
"在那段时间里，你驾驶F1赛车积累的里程，比如今许多常规车手整个职业生涯能达到的还要多。"
马丁内斯说："毫无疑问。我在不同的车队，包括贝纳通，大概进行过两三万公里的F1测试。但回头看，这大概晚了十年。这期间我赢过不少荣誉，但32岁才在2002年第一次参加大奖赛，实在不算理想。"
AS：成为奥迪勒芒项目的一员是什么感觉？你已经提到过乌尔里希博士的影响力。你从与他共事中学到了什么？
AM：“保时捷终止赛车项目时，我正签约在保时捷。他们造了一辆赛车，我们进行了测试，原本要与奥迪R8竞争，但最终没有成行。后来我见到了乌尔里希博士，我们以握手的方式达成了原则上的共识。这个握手经受住了时间的考验，直到我正式签下合同。所以，我想说，这可以追溯到一条古老的原则——‘握手即约定’。直到今天，我仍然非常坚定地坚持这一点。
沃尔夫冈·乌尔里希博士与阿伦·麦克尼什，奥迪
“乌尔里希博士非常清楚，赛车运动既关乎技术，也同样关乎人。他致力于打造人的团队，明白某些特质和性格能够彼此契合。这对我来说无疑很有吸引力。很明显，在我结束一级方程式的时光之后，我会回到奥迪。没有任何书面协议，但一切照常运转。而且一切都清清楚楚、非黑即白——要么赢，要么输。如果输了，你就回家，不去指责谁，而是继续埋头寻找解决方案，确保下一次能赢。”
"这其实一直是我职业生涯中合作过的大多数优秀人士身上的共同特质。你需要有长远的眼光，而没有大量的辛勤工作就不可能获得短期的成功。奥迪的勒芒项目就是一个完美的例子，那可能是最大的一课，正在转化到我目前的工作中。尤其是在F1，竞争极其激烈，没有捷径可走。"
阿兰：在车手生涯末期，你也做过一些零散的副业，比如管理哈里·廷克内尔，还做过一些解说。你是否一直都打算在座舱之外开启新的职业生涯？
阿兰："零散的副业，我喜欢这个说法！（笑）其实有两件事。我一直非常清楚，作为一名车手是有职业寿命的，我从来不想成为那个死撑着不走、成为短板的人。在我与汤姆（克里斯滕森）和卢瓦克（杜瓦尔）合作的最后一年，我赢得了世界耐力锦标赛冠军。我们赢下了勒芒，也赢下了银石（6小时赛）。在美洲赛道（COTA）取得我最后一场胜利的第二天，我就决定退役了，因为我想确保自己已经实现了心中的目标，可以这么说。"
奥迪的阿兰·麦克尼什、卢瓦克·杜瓦尔和汤姆·克里斯滕森赢得美洲赛道（COTA）6小时赛冠军
“与此同时，我一直以这样或那样的方式参与着汽车行业和赛车运动周边的其他生意。从零岁开始，我就是在这个环境里长大的，而且我热爱这个环境。所以这其实是一种热情，而不只是一份工作或一项运动。我想，对我和大多数处于这种境地的人来说，这是一种生活方式。”
阿兰·麦克尼什：如果我没记错的话，你最初说过你不想当车队领队，因为你不想应付驾驶舱里那些自私的家伙……
麦克尼什：“说实话，就是像我这样的人！（笑）这是真的，因为管理一支车队非常耗费时间和精力。我很清楚自己当年当车手时有多难搞，也知道我给车队提过多少要求。我当时想：‘天哪，我刚当完车手，真的还想站到另一边去经历一遍吗？’但这也给我上了一课：永远不要说永不。
“当电动方程式的车队领队一职出现时，其实挺意外的，因为我之前已经为乌尔里希博士和迪特尔·加斯做过关于电动方程式的分析，研究该怎么参与、机会在哪里。我坐在会议室里做汇报，墙上有一张图表，上面有几个空着的方框，其中包括车队领队这一项。然后他们说：‘那个位置就是阿兰的。’那是我第一次动过这个念头。并不是我去主动敲的门，而恰恰是相反的情况。
“他们在我身上看到了一些我自己可能都没发现的东西，这感觉挺好的。”
AS：现在F1里有这么多数据和技术可用，我想那本老的车手借口大全应该已经不存在了吧？
AM：“确实更难了。回想我第一次开F1赛车的时候，数据非常有限，基本就靠一块秒表。你听着引擎的轰鸣跑圈，声音震耳欲聋。但现在一切都被数据覆盖了。我们被它管理着，靠它生活，在某种程度上它定义了我们。但数据只是某个时间点的快照，关键还在于你怎么去解读这些数据。
“不过，尽管我们有这么多数据，归根结底秒表才是最关键的那一个。它才说出真相……”
英文原文
McNish outlines the lessons he learned from Senna and brought to Audi
Audi's Formula 1 racing director Allan McNish sits down with Autosport to reflect on the key lessons he took from his glittering driving career into team management
For long-time Audi stalwart and Le Mans winner Allan McNish, becoming Audi's first racing director in Formula 1 feels like the natural progression of his storied career on both sides of the pitwall.
After climbing the UK single-seater ladder in the late '80s and early '90s, McNish's road to the top took a number of strange turns, with a McLaren F1 test role that ultimately didn't lead to an F1 seat. Instead, McNish headed to sportscar racing, becoming one of the pillars of Audi's hyper-successful prototype programme and winning the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1998 with Porsche.
The Scot ultimately made it to the F1 grid in 2002 at the age of 32 for newcomer Toyota, only to return to Audi the following year and claim two more Le Mans wins in 2008 and 2013, his last season as a driver. McNish stayed a part of the Audi family and became its team principal in Formula E, before being tapped up by the manufacturer to get involved in its nascent F1 programme.
Sitting down with Autosport, McNish talks about the invaluable lessons he learned along the way, from rubbing shoulders with Ayrton Senna as a teenage McLaren test driver to working with Audi's legendary racing boss Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich.
Autosport: If you look at you career, becoming Audi's racing director in F1 feels like the culmination of everything you've done so far. You won Le Mans three times as a driver with Audi, you raced in F1 with Toyota, and then you became a driver manager and liaison, and a team principal in Formula E.
Allan McNish: "It's true. As a driver you're exposed to every area, whether it be engineering, whether it be strategy, tyres, communications, because you have to be involved in your press releases or working with partners and things like that. What you have got as a driver, though, is a very narrow view over what success looks like, because success only looks like your personal success. Then when you're involved with the team, then you've obviously got to look a little bit more wide and holistically at it as well. Clearly, we are still defined by the same success ratio at the end of every race. But you do have a very good width of experience if you come out of a high-level driving career.
"However, just like good football players don't always enjoy successful management careers, I don't think that always translates as well. But I had a very good run through Formula E, as you said, and also through other different things that I've been doing with Audi over the course of time. At the same time, I had very good people that I could learn from, in terms of Dr Wolfgang Ullrich or Dieter Gass at Audi, and then Mattia Binotto here from the F1 point of view. In that respect, I would say I was the pupil of very good professors."
AS: F1 obviously operates at a massively different scale compared to Formula E. Just how different is the team principal role? Has anything surprised you?
AM: "I think there's just a natural progression. If I think back to when I was a little kid in karting, racing at Larkhall or Rowrah or somewhere when I was 12, the fundamentals of proper preparation are exactly the same. Make sure that you get things right on circuit, make sure you make the right decisions at the right time, and you're defined by the end result. But the numbers, the technology and the sophistication of it is significantly more."
AS: Speaking of the early days, in 1989 you finished second in British F3 and became a test driver for McLaren, making your F1 testing debut at Estoril alongside none other than Ayrton Senna. For a 19-year-old kid from Dumfries, to go test a McLaren F1 car with Senna, that must have been quite an eye-opening experience.
AM: "That was just before I went to the Macau Grand Prix, actually. I never actually thought about it at the time, because I was just 'doing things'. You know, he was world champion Ayrton Senna, McLaren were the world champions at the time, but you just went and did it. What I do remember about it was I got out of the car thinking : 'Bloody hell, this is fast!'
"That was an education for me. I've still got the old data printout of that first test in Estoril, but it was two pieces of paper you put together and held up to the light because there weren't data comparisons like today. You still had a clutch pedal, for goodness sake! And two buttons on a steering wheel. They're dinosaurs in comparison to today's cars."
AS: You certainly had an unconventional route up the motorsport ladder, making your F1 debut with Toyota at the age of 32 in 2002, four years after your first Le Mans win.
AM: "Oh no, it was definitely not a straight route. It was straight route for a little while, and then it turned left and right a little bit... But funnily enough, I think that actually gives you a different level of experience, because it gives you a certain resilience when you've got bad days or bad years. And drivers have them. Not every year is a winning year. It's how you bounce back from it.
"I've had to lean into that resilience at different points in my career. But it's also something that's stood me in quite good stead when the opportunities came, to take a hold of them and use them. And you're right, from that test at 19 in October 1989 till sitting on the grid in March 2002, there was a good 13 years in between..."
AS: In that time you logged more miles in an F1 car than many regular drivers will ever get these days.
AM: "Without a doubt. I probably had about 20,000 or 30,000 kilometres of testing in an F1 car with different teams, including Benetton. But looking back, it was probably 10 years too late. I'd won a lot of things in between, but starting your first grand prix in 2002 at the age of 32 was not ideal."
AS: What was it like being part of the Audi Le Mans programme? You already mentioned Dr. Ullrich's influence. What did you pick up from working with him?
AM: "I was contracted to Porsche when it stopped its racing programs. They built a car which we tested that was going to go up against the Audi R8, but ultimately that didn't happen. And I met Dr. Ullrich, we agreed in principle on a handshake. And that handshake stood the test of time until I could sign the contract. So, I would say it goes back to an old principle of 'a handshake is an agreement'. And that's something that I still hold very strongly today.
Dr Wolfgang Ullrich and Allan McNish, Audi
"Dr. Ullrich was very much aware that racing was about people as much as technology. He was into building teams of people, realising that certain characteristics and personalities fitted together. That was definitely a draw for me. It was quite clear that after my time in Formula 1, I was coming back to Audi. Nothing was written down, but it functioned. And it was quite clear, black or white, whether you won or lost. If you lost, you came home, didn't point a finger, you just got on working to find the solutions to make sure you won the next time.
"That has been a thread through most of the good people that I've worked with in my career, actually. You need to have a long-term vision and you don't get short-term success without a lot of hard work. The Audi Le Mans program was a perfect example of that and that was probably the biggest lesson that is translating to what I'm doing now. Especially in F1, where the competition is hyper tough. There are no shortcuts."
AS: You did various bits and bobs on the side towards the end of your driving career, like managing Harry Tincknell and doing some commentary. Were you always going to transition to a career outside the cockpit?
AM: "Bits and bobs on the side, I like that! (laughs) There's two things really. I was always very aware that you've got a lifespan as a racing driver, and I never wanted to be the weak link that was hanging on. I won the World Endurance Championship in my final year with Tom [Kristensen] and Loic [Duval]. We won Le Mans and we won the Silverstone [6 Hours]. And the day after I [took my final victory] at COTA I decided to retire, because I wanted to ensure that I'd tick my boxes, if you like.
Audi's Allan McNish, Loic Duval and Tom Kristensen win the COTA 6 Hours
"At the same time, I have always been involved in other businesses one way or another around the car industry and motorsport. It's an environment that I've grown up with since day zero and one that I love. So it's actually a passion, not necessarily a job or a sport. It's a way of life, I suppose, for me and most people in this situation."
AS: If I remember correctly, you initially said you weren't interested in becoming a team principal because you didn't want to deal with those selfish bastards in the cockpit...
AM: "People like me, to be honest with you! (laughs) And it's true, because running a team is quite an investment of time and energy. I know how difficult I was as a driver in terms of the demands I put on a team. And I thought: 'Crikey, I've just lived as a driver. Do I really want to put myself through the other side of it?' But it was also a lesson in never say never.
"When the team principal role in Formula E came up, it was actually a surprise because I'd done the analysis for Dr Ullrich and Dieter Gass looking into Formula E, how you could do it and what the opportunities are. I sat in the room presenting it and there was a chart on the wall and it had several empty boxes, including team principal. Then they said: 'And that's Allan.' That was the first time the thought even entered into my head. It wasn't necessarily me knocking on the door. It was actually the other way around.
"It was quite nice that they recognised something in me that I probably didn't in myself."
AS: With all the data and technology we have available now in F1, I suppose the old book of racing driver excuses doesn't really exist anymore, does it?
AM: "It's definitely more difficult. If I go back to when I first drove Formula 1 car, there was very limited data and it was a stopwatch. And you listen to the engine as it drove around, so it was screaming away. But now everything is covered by data. We're governed by it. We live by it. And it defines us to some extent. But data is only a snapshot in time, it's how you read the data as well.
"But from all the data we have, at the end of the day the stopwatch is the critical one. That one tells the truth..."
Autosport ·
内容来自公开信源，聚合内容版权归原作者与来源所有。