Timo Bernhard: Alex said …
“Since the early days of my Porsche career with the Junior team and to this day, Alex Wiggenhauser has worked as a mechanic on my car. He has always enthused about Le Mans. He told me of the GT1 entries and the Porsche overall race win in 1998. I could not imagine what this was like. When I started for the first time in the GT class, it slowly dawned on me what the Le Mans myth meant. Back then we had won our class but the overall winners were heroes to me. It seemed unthinkable but it became a target to stand once as an overall winner on the huge balcony in front of this amazing crowd. Between 2009 and 2012, Porsche loaned Romain (Dumas) and me to Audi. In 2010 the balcony dream worked out.
“I had the pleasure to drive the first and last stints of the race that year. Those obviously were the most emotional parts. It was the first time I had done the start at Le Mans and it comes after an enormous build-up of tension lasting hours. The formation lap is pure adrenalin and on the last lap the marshals stood on the track and waved their flags. We finished the race in convoy. I will never forget these impressions and feelings for the rest of my life. The final minutes in the car were very personal. It was as if I watched a movie that brought everything back to me: childhood dreams, my parent’s support, the hard work. I felt satisfaction. When I stepped on the podium, looking at thousands and thousands of fans, it felt surreal. Tom Kristensen stood next to me and asked: ‘What’s the matter – are you not happy?’ I just felt overwhelmed from everything. The late kind-hearted journalist Gustav Büsing said to me: ‘Now you are a Le Mans winner. This stays forever.’ I felt very touched. I’m very much aware that no matter how good you are as a race driver, it is not granted you can ever win this race. The dimension, the endurance, the drama – Le Mans cannot be planned. I’m very grateful.
“Allan McNish once told me that he couldn’t really appreciate and enjoy his first Le Mans win because everything was impacting on him at the time. He had managed it only when it happened for a second time. This is what I want to experience with Porsche!”
