Allan McNish was one of nearly thirty drivers to be inducted into the FIA Hall of Fame on Monday night, and admitted afterwards that he felt it was a humbling experience to be on stage with his childhood heroes.
Speaking to Motorsport Week after the ceremony, McNish explained how he had experienced the ceremony.
"It was really quite humbling when you were standing on the stage, looking out on people that were heroes of yours when you were a child growing up, Derek Bell being one of them," McNish explained.
"Obviously, being a Brit, Derek was at the height of his career when I was starting to follow sportscar racing in the mid-eighties and when I was starting to race karts myself. And to be a very small part of that big history and tradition definitely is a great honour.
From my point of view, the world championship was the last tick of the box. It was the final achievement that I wanted to actually get, and when we did win it, it was also my last ever race."
McNish won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times during his tenure racing sportscars. His first win came in 1998, driving for Porsche, but the Scotsman is arguably best known for his stint with the ultra-dominant Audi team, which handed him two further wins in 2008 and 2013. The latter of which was one of three wins en route to his title victory alongside Loïc Duval and Mr. Le Mans, Tom Kristensen.
When asked what his fondest memories were during his time with Audi, McNish had a lenghty response:
"We’re really lucky, because there were quite a few highlights," McNish said. That was one of the positive things. You know, dr. Ullrich [former head of Audi's motorsport efforts], who is here tonight, who is our boss, probably one of the biggest highlights, that is not a racing one, was actually shaking hands with him in december 1999 to say that I would come to Audi. Because if I hadn’t done that, and he wouldn’t have committed that, then the story might never have been what it turned out to be."
"If it was racing: in 2006, oddly, which is Lime Rock, the last ever race of the Audi R8, which was a titanic battle with Dumas and Bernhard," he continued. "They were in the RS Spyder, and we were trying to give the last race of the car, which had won its first race in Sebring in 2000, to try and give it its final ever race, which turned out to be its fiftieth victory. That was a pretty cool way to send the car off to its retirement. You know, Le Mans in 2008, the battle with Peugeot, won in 2013 because it was the last one."
McNish also explained that winning the RAC Tourist Trophy was a major personal highlight of his career.
"The Tourist Trophy was a big one for me personally. I don’t think Loic and Tom really understood traditions behind the Tourist Trophy at Silverstone, but they did after I told them the history of it, the oldest trophy in the history of motorsport.
We were fortunate that even as there were some tough times at the back of the truck trying to work out how the hell we were gonna rectify this lap or the next, it was also some really, really good times."
