McNish , is he overated?

[pink69]

At the end of last year everyone was raving on about how good Alan McNish was after he won the ALMS championship.I believe he is way overated.So he won the championship , did he win it in 99? no but he was driving an Audi then! Did he win any races in the Audi R8R? No. The only reason Alan McNish was able to win the 2000 ALMS crown is because he drove the R8 , plus alot of work was also done by cappello and the misfortune of the number 78 car of Biela and Pirro and the way off the pace BMWs and Panoz. Had he of driven one of the other cars do you think he would have won the championship?I don't think so.

[Zero Signal]

Audi raised the bar when they introduced the 2000 R8. Would he have won the championship last year if he had been driving a Panoz or a BMW? Probably not. However, you'll be hard pressed to find a driver who hasn't won a championship in any series when not driving one of the best cars.

And your comment about him not winning the ALMS championship in '99? Sorry, but your dead wrong there. He wasn't driving for Audi. He was driving a Porsche GT1 Evo. You see how easy it is to win a championship when your driving a two year old car that competes in a different class, and was designed for a different set of rules.

[Heeltoe6]

obviously he benefited from the R8, but he had won le mans prior to joining audi, so it's not like he was mediocre and then suddenly stellar. PLus, we saw that he was consistently the fastest, by far, in the r8, look at him lapping even his own teammate at sear pt last year. I think maybe the press is overrating him a bit by comparing him to Ickx, bell, and the like, and unfortunately, with him going to OW we won't be able to make those comparisons fairly. But if he had stayed in sportscars longer, he'd have a good shot at legendom.

[Emfa]

I can't help but wonder if he will be back if all the reports about Toyota not wanting to keep him are true.... Anyone have any insight?