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Audi Formula 1 Racing Director Allan McNish has recalled the formative experience of testing a McLaren Formula 1 car with Ayrton Senna present, an early episode that helped shape his understanding of what it takes to succeed at the highest level of motorsport.
McNish has recently taken charge of Audi’s Formula 1 operation after years of association with the German marque as a sportscar driver and Formula E Team Principal. He had initially been appointed to lead Audi’s driver development programme, before being elevated to the racing director role during a management shakeup following Jonathan Wheatley’s surprise departure in March.
The Scot’s own Formula 1 racing opportunity arrived with Toyota in 2002, when he completed his only season as a Grand Prix driver. His route to the grid had, however, begun much earlier. McNish first tested for McLaren in 1989, while still a teenager, and Senna was on hand to oversee that maiden outing.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, McNish said the test took place shortly before the Macau Grand Prix. At the time, he did not fully process the significance of working around the reigning World Champion and a team that was also at the sport’s summit.
“That was just before I went to the Macau Grand Prix, actually,” he said. “I never actually thought about it at the time, because I was just ‘doing things’. You know, he was World Champion Ayrton Senna, McLaren were the World Champions at the time, but you just went and did it.”
The immediate impression, though, was impossible to ignore. “What I do remember about it was I got out of the car thinking: ‘Bloody hell, this is fast!’”
Senna’s focus on engine friction and other details gave McNish an early benchmark. It also reinforced a lesson that remains central to his approach at Audi: talent alone is not enough. Success, he explained, requires an increased level of commitment and attention at every stage.
“Talent only gets you so far. There is a work ethic and a focus on detail that you have to put in,” McNish said.
McNish still has the original data printout from that first test at Estoril. Unlike modern comparisons, it consisted of two sheets that had to be joined and held up to the light. The car also retained a clutch pedal and had only two steering-wheel buttons—details that underline how different those machines were from today’s Formula 1 cars.
McNish will now hope Audi’s progress continues when Formula 1 returns from its summer break at next weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, following what he described as a relatively impressive debut season. His early lesson from Senna remains clear: progress depends on raising the standard at every level.
That same long-term development mindset also features in Audi’s commitment to Gabriel Bortoleto, another strand of the team’s emerging Formula 1 project.
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.