"We didn't come here to finish second - we know no one remembers second”.
Mark Webber’s words might sound bitterer than an artichoke, but it’s an honest response and is quick to stress his admiration for his team-mates and victors in the number 19 Porsche.
"Winning is what it's all about and those guys have done the job so congrats to them. They were exceptional, especially in the night. They left the Audis and the rest of the Porsches behind. When you see the effort in this team over the last 24 months with this being the ultimate goal, you're still extremely proud because you know the toil and graft that goes into it."
Toil and graft. It’s not until you experience the 24 Hours of Le Mans first-hand that you can fully appreciate what a herculean effort goes into just finishing – let alone winning – this event.
Journalists tend to survive the 24 Hours of Le Mans on a staple diet of caffeine and mixed lollies – not what you’d expect of a top-level athlete, but Webber admits that even the professionals find it difficult to completely switch off between stints.
“We’ve done a few long tests now at Aragon where you’re sleeping in the hotel, you sleep for six hours, then you get up and go to the track and the car is still running, so you know how long these events are” Mark explains. “You guys will see that if you don’t go soft on us and watch the whole race! If you can grab an hour or two during the night, that’s nice. But that’s probably about it. The rest is adrenalin and Red Bull” he jokes.
“You might feel it a bit more if you’re in a position to close and it’s tight – that’s when people might get a bit twitchy. But before then it’s really just about focussing on each stint as it comes. It’s still relatively old school in that it’s a super long track. It’s still a place with consequences. The concentration is super high given we’ve got backmarkers that are going slow relative to our speed.
But the number one topic for me is the emotion that comes about at this event. When you’re tired, you see grown men in the garage and how the emotion of the event hits them, depending on which way it goes. When we lost the race last year with two hours to go, Timo and I went down to congratulate Audi and all the mechanics and management stood up and clapped us as we came into their garage. I said to Timo: ‘how flash was that?’ I still get goose-bumps”.
Webber had a baptism of fire during his debut WEC season last year. While he didn’t struggle for pace, dealing with traffic and the unique qualifying format took a bit of adjustment for the 38 year-old Australian. 2015 has seen Mark on the ascendancy, with pole positions and a devastating turn of speed that – through bad luck – hasn’t translated into silverware. It’s a grounding though, that perfectly prepares him for Le Mans.