You were the Grand Marshal at the last 24 Hours of Le Mans. How was it?

"It was really cool, I have to say it was an extraordinary experience. First of all, I've been to Le Mans only ever as a driver, and as a driver you just do the things you have to do which is focus, sleep, drive and keep doing it until you win. But as it is such a massive event, I always wondered [what it was like] on the other side. I know it attracts 250,000 spectators every year so it must be a cool event. So I really looked forward to having time to see other things. It was an eye-opener to the size of the event but as I mentioned in a personal letter to Pierre Fillon (President of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, Ed.), two things were in my head. First the amount of volunteers who come there and are extremely important to us drivers on such a high-speed track, we put our trust fully into the [track] marshals and the race organizers and race officials. And it works really well in Le Mans. It was an honor for me and I really wanted to meet as many marshals as possible. Secondly, the ACO organization of the event, it is such a big event for so many years, but it is very smooth, nothing hectic, no screaming, it runs very smooth. That was impressive."

For our readers who are unfamiliar with what the role of Grand Marshal entails, can you give some insight?  

"Yes, it is basically an ambassador role. And the ACO chooses people who are previous winners of this event. We are the face of that year's [24 hours of Le Mans], therefore I went to some of the official events, usually smiling and waving and giving interviews and photos. I think it's quite cool because sports car racing is quite heroic, and cars are very important as are the drivers, so it's a good mix putting an ex-driver in such a role underlines they know exactly how to promote an event and it's cool."

You had a special co-driver by the name of Brad Pitt with you for a bit before the start. How did he react during your track lap?

"He's a really cool guy, of course he's maybe one of the biggest superstars in the world and we had dinner before with a few people. He's very down to Earth and asked a lot of questions, and is interested, not just small talk, and the next day we spent quite a lot of time [together]. He is very interested in the race and racing, and he asked lots of questions about the mind games of what's happening, and when it started raining before the race, we kept talking and he kept asking so how would you feel now, what are the other drivers doing. So then I explained to him about the tire choices, but also how self-confident you are so if it's wet you look cool if you put slick tires on, sometimes while it's not the best engineering decision, a driver wants to show he's a macho and so he puts slicks. He was fascinated by this because obviously he thinks of putting into Hollywood context. It was quite cool to have this time to hang out and talk about it. During the driving, he was just excited. He said he was expecting just a road car lap. It was good!"

In addition to the role of Grand Marshal, you took care of young Toyota drivers like Ryo Hirakawa who was competing in the European Le Mans Series and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the wheel of an Oreca 05 Nissan LM P2 with Thiriet by TDS Racing. What exactly was your role?

"When I stopped [my career], I agreed to remain with the team as a sporting advisor and also to look after the drivers, especially how to [collaborate] with engineers. The team really enjoyed working with me, I'm trying to instill these properties in [upcoming] and existing drivers. And that works quite well. I'm never a guy who is always next to someone because for me coaching is not training. I'm looking and observing, I'm not telling him what to do better, I'm trying to guide him and he finds his own solution, or like oh this is something I should focus on more. Just guiding him a bit because at the end of the day, that's what makes him really learn."