24h Le Mans
Here's another installment in our series about driver preferences at that 24 Hours of Le Mans, and now it's Toni Vilander's turn! The Finnish driver has participated in the legendary race nine times, all representing Ferrari, winning the LMGTE Pro class in 2012 and 2014. His last appearance was just last year with the Risi Competizione team, the result at the wheel of the #82 Ferrari 488 GTE shared with Giancarlo Fisichella and Pierre Kaffer was a retirement.
Do you prefer...
...the start or the finish?: "I prefer the start [of the 24 Hours of Le Mans], there's a lot of extra emotion, extra adrenaline. And normally toward the end of the race you're so tired that you need to find all the energy, so yeah I prefer the start, which I've done several times at Le Mans."
...Scrutineering or the Drivers' Parade?: "Let's say Parade, because all the crowd. Even if it's the night before the race and you'd like to be on your own, you see all the crowd, with children and grandmothers, everyone is crying, yelling, whatever. The Parade is something special."
...the sunrise or the sunset?: "I prefer the sunrise because normally that's when you get the fastest lap times. When it's daylight already, still cool temperatures, so it's normally quite calm, even if there's a lot of cars on the track. Somehow that's the calm time of the day."
...a few hours of sleep during the night of the 24 Hours of Le Mans or a white night?: "I've had both but I prefer to be able to sleep a couple of hours. It's always difficult because of all the noise and high adrenaline, but I do prefer to sleep some hours!"
...a massage or a meal right after a stint?: "I need both but I would say eat because you need to always get the energy back that you lost during the stint. But I need also the massage."
...the Indianapolis corner or the Porsche curves?: "The Porsche curves are challenging, I like that part of the track."
...a dry or a wet track?: "Dry, for many reasons. It already takes concentration and then if it's wet with low visibility, it makes it difficult so let's keep it dry."
...jogging or biking to prepare for the 24 Hours of Le Mans?: "I do both. I love cycling. I love cycling! I would do it more but I always need to be careful with my lower back, but I prefer cycling."
...resting seaside or in the mountains after the 24 Hours of Le Mans?: "In Finland, we have over 100,000 lakes, so I prefer near a lake. Normally I don't go to the sea, so if I can change the question to a lake...I own a summer house on a lake so I go there to be in nature and that's it."
What are you thoughts on your last participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans: "It was finished after five and a half hours, so that was disappointing. A big shame for the guys, the American team that spent almost a month at Le Mans and so to not even reach six hours was difficult and disappointing. We were starting to get a really good feel, overtaking other cars in the class and then our race was done. It was disappointing (TDA Racing's #28 ORECA 07-Gibson made contact with his teammate Pierre Kaffer, Ed.)."
