“I thought, ‘Okay, what should I do?’” McNish said. “I went to Japan to test for Formula Nippon, and there was something strange in the contract, so I said, ‘I’m sorry. I said, ‘I can’t sign.’ I went home and Tom Kristensen got the opportunity instead. It’s funny, I talked to Tom later and he said, ‘No, that’s not in the contract.’ So I guess they pulled it out again. That was Tom’s break, long before we got together at Audi and formed such a strong relationship.
“Then at IndyCar we did some testing with guys like me and Lehto, Mark Blundell and Dominic Dobson. It was a very clear program. Everyone went racing with used tires, new tires and high fuel. It’s no secret that I was the fastest in every dynamic, but they gave up the spot to Mark. Because Mark had a connection with McLaren. What was in the car was a Mercedes engine.
Traffic lights: Williams, McLaren’s Mark Blundell, American racing swap cockpit for TV studio
“To be honest, there was a point where I thought, ‘What should I do?’ I delivered what I could, but it wasn’t enough due to other parameters. it’s okay. Because Mark had those connections and relationships and he used them really, really well.
“I met Jost Capito, who was running the Porsche Supercup championship. They said, ‘Come and race,’ so I took a VIP car and did a cheering event for the 1996 British Grand Prix. Then Porsche called me at the end of the year and said, ‘We’re looking to revamp our sports car driver lineup. ‘Would you like to run one?’ I did it and my career started again.”
F1 tickets with Toyota
McNish established himself as a key member of the Porsche endurance line-up by 1997, taking his first thrilling victory at the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside Frenchman Laurent Aïello and Monegasque Stéphane Ortelli.
