WRC Rally Argentina 2012

Pre-event Press Conference - Thursday 26 April

Present:
Mads Østberg, Adapta World Rally Team
Sébastien Loeb, Citroën Total World Rally Team
Malcolm Wilson, Ford World Rally Team
Paulo Nobre, WRC Team MINI Portugal

Q:
Mads, we’re going to start with you because we look back to Portugal and with everything that happened at the end of the event you finished second, and then we had Mikko Hirvonen excluded and you took your first WRC win, so congratulations for that. But how did you feel; I’m sure you wanted your first win to be something special.
MO:
Well, that’s definitely true. I wanted to fight for my first victory. Well, we didn’t, we settled for a second in Portugal and we’re really happy with the good rally. And then after the rally everything was changed, and okay, it’s not the way I wanted it to be. Okay, there’s nothing we can do about it, and we just have to be happy about the extra points in the Championship and take it as it is. But I still want to fight for a victory next time. Hopefully I can do that as soon as possible.

Q:
Here?
MO:
Well, not here, I think. I don’t have enough experience on this event. Lots of things can happen in this event, it’s very long and it seems it’s going be very tricky. So I think it’s important to go a little bit steady and come to the end; for sure, lots of things will happen and everything is possible. We’re not starting the rally fighting for the first position.

Q:
That must have been be a good boost to your confidence; that you performed so well in Portugal. A lot of people fell by the way, but you took away a great resut. Did it boost your confidence?
MO:
Well, yeah, the second position did. Moving up to first didn’t give me any extra boost. It was still the same and I was happy with what we did to come second and it was definitely a good rally for us, without any troubles. We just did what we had to do to finish, so that was good and we saw that we can cope with difficult conditions for a long period. I think we will find a bit the same here.

Q:
Well, that’s going stand you in good stead here, because it does look like it’s going to be a difficult weekend in terms of the conditions. What’s it been like out on the recce?
MO:
It’s been a bit up and down, some of the stages have been quite good, in other stages we had rain and fog and quite rough conditions, so I think a lot will depend on the weather. Many of the stages are soft anyway, and as far as I rememer they’re a bit rougher than last year. It will be tricky conditions, even if we don’t have rain. I think it’ll be very tough anyway.

Q:
Mads, what do you think is going to be the biggest challenge out there this weekend?
MO:
I think, to be honest, the stages are very likely to be foggy and rainy. Some of the stages, specially El Condor and the other stage, I don’t remember the name, up to that stage, is very narrow with a lot of stones and I think it’s very likely to have fog, and I think that will be a very big challenge, like we saw in Portugal on Friday when we had the fog. And rain; things happen very quickly. I think you need to be a bit clever on those stages where you have fog and you have rain, because it’s all about being consistent and getting through the stages. Of course, it’s different drivers at different speeds and maybe what’s consistent and safe for me is slower than many others. I think I will stay on my safe speed, at least on the tricky stages. If it clears up and gets a bit easier, then for sure we need to push straight away.

Q:
Sébastien even with the changes to the regulations, you still selected first on the road when given the option. Do you think it’s going be the place to be?
SL:
I hope so. I don’t know, if we start with rain, or not, but if you start 15th on the road, maybe you lose a lot of time. Sometimes the first place is the best. I hope it will be tomorrow. True we’ll have to start in the night [darkness] in the morning, the rivals for the Championship chose the third and fourth positions, and they will all be in the night too.

Q:
We could have fog as well tomorrow morning. That could make things incredibly tricky out there.
SL:
Yeah, of course. If it’s dark and foggy… and there’s a long stage, with lots of stones on the side, it’ll be interesting.

Q:
We didn’t see a lot of you in Portugal, unfortunately, but despite that you still lead the Championship, so it’s not all bad in that sense.
SL:
No, it’s true. I retired very early in the rally, but the others were doing the same. We’re still leading, not for a big gap though.

Q:
Talk to me about what you think about the event here in Argentina now that it’s changed and we have many more kilometers. Is it a good thing and what are the stages like?
SL:
The long stage is very different, it’s special, so I like it.

Q:
There’s a lot of talk about fog. There always is when we get to Argentina, it seems. Yesterday there was fog on the stages when you were doing the recce, is it difficult then to make notes in the fog?
SL:
Yes, but I was quite lucky. There was a lot of fog in one stage [El Condor] that we know very well. We have the notes, it’s not a big problem. But we had to take the notes of one of the new stages in the fog. Luckily, the second pass was okay, so we were able to have some correct notes. So it should be okay. But driving in the fog is very tricky. If you have just enough visibility it’s okay, but sometimes when you have 20-meters visibility, you can do nearly nothing. Then, anything can happen.

Q:
Malcolm, Portugal, as Sébastien referenced, wasn’t the best for Ford. You had two drivers, one after the other off the stages. You did come away with points though, but then another week later you hear Jari-Matti has broken his collarbone. Has it been a black few weeks, or is there light at the end of the tunnel?
MW:
Oh, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, I mean, you can imagine Portugal was a big disappointment for everybody on the team because we were given a good opportunity. I think we were lucky to come away with some good points. And we were obviously really looking forward to here as well, because we were really competitive in Mexico and these are two places where we’ve probably struggled a bit in the past. But then of course I got the phone call about Jari. So obviously the priority was to make sure we could make him fit for Greece. And then of course the next challenge was to find a replacement for him.

Q:
What kind of group of drivers were you looking at to replace Jari-Matti? How many drivers were you looking at before you decided on Dani Sordo?
MW:
I think everybody knows we’ve got a fantastic group of youngsters with Mads [Ostberg], Evgeny [Novikov] and Ott [Tänak] and obviously serious consideration was given to those people. But that presents another problem because if we transferred one of those drivers to the main Ford team we’d still have to find someone else for the customer team. And we obviously looked at all the drivers’ history on this event. So, that’s the decision that we decided to take with the Championship still in its early days; we tried to find the strongest team that we possibly could.

Q:
Malcolm, what are the instructions this weekend to both Petter and Dani? Is it just a case of getting through the event, or are they out to win?
MW:
No, for sure, we want to try and win. We need to win events and that will be the big push, to try and find a way to win this event. I think, as everybody pointed out, it’s going be a difficult rally. I don’t see it as an endurance rally, but with an extra 160 kilometres, I think then you have to be more mindful of where to push and where not to. I think it’s going to be so easy to get caught out, as they say, with so many rocks on the side of the road, but both our drivers will be pushing to try and win the event.

Q:
Jari-Matti isn’t here, but we know he likes to have a lot of input into the way things go during the weekend. Has he given you any advice Malcolm?
MW:
Well, I told him to give me a call anytime during the event, but I have received nothing from him yet.

Q:
And he will be back in Greece, yes?
MW:
That is the plan, yes. I don’t see any reason why he won’t be able to start in Greece.

Q:
The Championship’s still in its early days, as you say, but Petter Solberg is just four points adrift of Sébastien Loeb. Does the balance shift in the team now to put more focus on Petter for the Drivers’ Championship now that Jari-Matti won’t get points from here and hasn’t got points from quite a few events?
MW:
How did I know you were going ask that question! No, it doesn’t change anything for sure, I mean, we’re going with our strategy as the season unfolds. I think you need to be very clear for us to win the Championship for Manufacturers, we’re going to have to win rallies. We’ve seen this year that Jari has the pace to do that, so for sure we’re running him back in the car as soon as possible. If it means we have to alter our strategies later, we will do that as well.

Q:
Do you feel Petter has the pace to win rallies?
MW:
Well, he’s certainly fitted very well in the team and he’s driving very well. And he’s getting more and more confident as he works with everybody, so hopefully he can.

Q:
Paulo, welcome to the press conference. This is probably the closest we are going to get to a home event for you here in Argentina. Brazil is not too far. How much are you looking forward to competing in front of what probably are the most passionate fans in the Championship?
PN:
First of all thank you very much to invite me to this press conference. This is really funny, it is really an honour to be together with these big guys of the rally here, thank you very much. Argentina and Brazil they have a big rivalry in soccer but when you come to rally this disappears. People from the fans in Argentina they love so much rally that they treat really, really well everybody who comes here to race. It is not my first time here. I raced in 2006, it was my debut, and for the South American Championship I came many times and they are really kind with us, so it is nice because they know rally, they like rally and they support everybody who races here.

Q:
Talk to me about what you think of the stages here this weekend; have you competed on a rally similar to this in terms of length or longer?
PN:
This rally is the longest that I did in my career. Talking about cross country we made some timed special stage with eight hundred kilometres, but talking about rally a 65 kilometre stage is something really different. But the smaller special stages like Condor Copina for example, it is really, really difficult and if you have fog it is almost a lottery. The pace notes are really, really important and I remember – I don’t know how many years ago – Colin McRae made one special stage in the fog and he was like much faster than the others because of the recce, so I think the pace note is really important not just for the longer special stages but for the smaller ones with lots of rocks and really, really tricky special stages. Rally Argentina is a survival rally for sure so whoever manages not to have big problems and comes to the end with a constant speed will have a good result for sure.

Q:
What is going to be your approach to this event, Paulo? We saw in Portugal that shakedown didn’t go quite so well and you couldn’t start the event unfortunately. Were there some nerves before shakedown this time around?
PN:
I was really, really nervous. If you look at Portugal I didn’t even start the race. Argentina is a little better because we didn’t have any problem in the qualification. But before that I had Mexico that I didn’t finish, and Sweden that I didn’t finish, so my goal here is to go to the end. It is really important to have one race without a big problem so your confidence starts to return and you start to grow up your speed. Of course I cannot compete with these guys here and this year for me is about learning and it was really interesting until the problems started so my focus is to make a clean classification.

FIA PRODUCTION CAR WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

Present:
Marcos Ligato
Nicolás Fuchs

Q:
Marcos we are going to start with you since it has been a while since we have seen you competing in the PWRC full time. What has made you decide to come back to the Championship?
ML:
Thank you. I’m very happy. We stop for the World Championship six years ago and for me to be again in the World Championship is very nice, it is very good. We are coming back with the team Top Run. I made a lot of World Championship events with them and everything is okay. I feel very good with the car. The car is very nice, easy to drive and we want to see what happens. We are starting in my place [home]; it’s easier for me and we have six events in total and we hope to make a very good Championship.

Q:
What are hoping for in the 2012 PWRC? Do you think you can try for the title?
ML:
Yes of course. In the last year I’ve been in the PWRC it was competitive. I always fight for the title. I think this year we can make a very good job. I have more experience and that is important in the PWRC. You must be very careful all the time and try to run with this in mind, not flat-out all the time. It’s very important to finish all the rallies and I think my experience now is better than before.

Q:
As you say this is your rally so I’m sure you are hoping to win this weekend?
ML:
Yes of course, it’s my rally, I hope to win here. It’s not easy. I saw last year what happened to the Championship, it was very tough, a lot of good drivers but I think we are in an advantage here. We know very well the stages. And we want to try to win, that is the idea.

Q:
One thing that has changed is the distance of the event, it is much longer now than the ones you were contesting before. What do you think of the stages, the new stages and the length of the stages we have here?
ML:
It’s very nice. I think it is difficult for the PWRC because more kilometres is more difficult. The long stage is very nice, really, really nice. And the other stages; some are very hard and other ones are very nice. We have to choose in which we can go with good speed and the other stages we must be careful but I think it is good. We must think how long is the rally, there are a lot of kilometres and to drive them is not easy. We must think about the last day, not every stage.

Q:
And what about the weather Marcos, it is not very nice right now. Was it damp and foggy during the recce as well?
ML:
Yes, the last day. Wednesday – yesterday – was a little bit foggy and if it continues like this tomorrow in the long stage it is going to be also foggy. It is difficult. Some years we found fog in the top of the mountains, but it is the same for everybody and we must be careful but it is not easy. We can see nothing in some places.

Q:
Marcos, did you manage to test before this event?
ML:
We have a problem with the time of arrival of the car in Buenos Aires and the car arrived when we started the recce and we couldn’t test before, but I made some laps in the shakedown. The car is very easy to drive. I feel good and we must find a good speed for the rally and not lose that idea.

Q:
Nicholas, you already started your PWRC campaign with second in Mexico just a month ago. How are you feeling about the PWRC and is it your goal to challenge for the title?
NF:
This is my second time in the Championship and in Argentina before I ended in fourth position. It is very, very difficult this year, there is a lot of rain, rocks and mud. It is a very long race. I will try to finish.

Q:
The longest stage we have here is on Sunday, 65 kilometres in length. How difficult is that? What is the stage like?
NF:
This stage is very fast. There is fog and rain. There are straight and twisted parts.

Q:
Talk me about testing; have you managed to test ahead of this event?
NF:
I tested an hour during the shakedown.

Q:
In terms of the result here in Argentina this weekend, there is a strong field of PWRC drivers out there. Who do you think your main rival is?
NF:
Marcos [Ligato] is really fast here in Argentina, his home.

Q:
What do you think is the most difficult aspect of the weekend?
NF:
The long race is going to be very difficult for production cars. There are a lot of rocks and mud. I try to save the car.