Scot McNish fears new petrol racersposted in LMANS15 | 01 | 2011

SCOT ALLAN McNish has admitted he believes his bid to claim a third win in the Le Mans 24-Hours in June, behind the wheel of his turbodiesel Audi R18 coupe, could be scuppered by a petrol-powered car.

Since Audi switched to diesel in 2006, oilburners have dominated Le Mans, but now race organisers — the Automobile Club de l'Ouest — is adjusting the regulations this year and opening the door for performance balancing changes to ensure parity between petrol and diesel cars.

On the back of those regulation changes, Aston Martin opted to develop a new petrol LMP1 car — they won't start testing it till the beginning of February — and the 40-year-old Scot believes it could be a very strong package under the 2011 rules.

"Looking at the straightline speed that Aston Martin had last year — and they were very fast — anything going more towards them and less towards us is a fear, no question," McNish said today at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham.

"The one area where we've got a slight advantage is that we're out with our car already and testing. Le Mans seems a long way away in June, but in reality it's not that far away. Aston is still to get it into the track, so it's going to be a bit behind. But you can never discount the potential of that team."

Watch the interview with Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen.

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Jim McGill