Audi F1 opportunity changed my mind about taking a team director role, McNish says

Audi racing director Allan McNish says taking on his latest role with the Formula 1 team was an easy decision to make, despite previously stating he’d never run a team himself.

McNish was already involved with Audi’s F1 project but took over the trackside operations for the team following former team principal Jonathan Wheatley’s departure in March. The Scot – who raced for Toyota in F1 in 2002 and drove for Audi in endurance for more than a decade before retirement – says he never initially foresaw himself taking on such a role.

“When I retired from racing in 2013, I was asked the same question, and I said I would never be involved in team management or anything else because you'd have to deal with drivers like me. And I knew how difficult I was!” McNish said. “The reality is things change, life changes. So the rule of that is never say never.

“From that perspective, I've known this project from day one. I've been involved in it from literally the beginning in different roles, many different roles. And so on that side, it was quite obvious – for me being in Melbourne, and seeing the car race for the first time was definitely a special moment – and it was a no-brainer from my personal perspective when I got a telephone call and then went to have the discussion, that ‘Yes, 100%.’ Because I've lived it from day one. Why wouldn't I?”

Miami was McNish’s first race in the new role, and the 56-year-old says the more eye-opening aspects of the position were related to the extra demands away from the race team operations.

“I've been at a circuit a few times, it's not the first time, so I understand the ways of the world, so to speak," he said. "Clearly, we've got a lot of experience in different areas of the team, which is good.

“I knew quite a lot of the things that we were needing to work on in operational. But on the other side, it was the biggest event that the team has had from our marketing and communications with events downtown. There was a whole load of other stuff apart from what was going on [within the racing team] as well. First hot laps ever and things.

“So, I was actually across many areas more than necessarily just the racing director operational aspect of it. Which is what you have to do in the role. That was definitely [busy] … but it was good. Look, I live to race. I've lived to race all my life since I was 11 years old. It's what I love. It's what gets me up in the morning. It's what's a passion.

“But when I say I live to race, I don't go home happy unless we've won. And I know that that's not always the case because in racing in your career, you lose more than you win. That's just natural statistics, apart from maybe one or two.

“But the reality is that this environment is the environment that’s my life. It's my career. It's my hobby. It's my passion. It's always good to be here. The alternative's not.”