Despite a tight economy, PG Andersson will drive Rally Norway in the same Skoda Fabia WRC as he has used during two rallies in the Norweigan Championship recently. The Fabia is owned by Norweigan driver Bernhard Kongsrud and has now passed a major overhaul since last time it was used. During Sunday and Monday, PG tested the car in Finnskogen, Norway:
- It worked out quite well. I want to change some small things, but overall it works fine. On Wednesday we will get new differentials delivered, so we will try to fit them on the car before shakedown to test them there. Besides that, it’s the same car as I used in the Norweigan Championship – the only difference is that it’s now completely gone-through and checked.
In 2008, PG was works driver for the Suzuki World Rally Team. However, after just one year of competition – Suzuki decided to close their WRC activity and blamed the financial crisis. Just looking at the chassi, the Skoda Fabia WRC is quite similar to the Suzuki, but we all know that means almost nothing. So, how similar are the two cars? PG answers:
- In size, they’re quite similar and they also have the same type of suspension, so it’s not a major difference – but all cars have their own character. The Skoda has a little bit more torque than the Suzuki, but it lacks a bit of top capacity. Besides that, the Suzuki was more aggressive and therefore harder to drive than the Skoda.
Surprisingly, PG’s regular co-driver Jonas Andersson can’t accompany him in Norway. He is a building worker and got a new employer in December that doesn’t seem to like rallying – despite the building company being Norweigan, Jonas can’t get off-duty. That means that Anders Fredriksson will join PG in the rally. He is not completely new to PG and the Skoda, since he has done quite some rallies with PG before – and also was the first one in the right seat when PG tested the WRC Skoda for the first time.
Yesterday I talked to Patrik Sandell, who said that the new wider Pirelli Sottozero tyres worked good in the tracks but made it really slippery in the snow. PG seems to agree to that, but he doesn’t share Patrik’s theory that the tyres would favour Scandinavians:
- The tyres work really well in the tracks, but as soon as you get out of the track it get’s slippery. Of course it has always been slippery out there, but now it’s even worse than before. Now it has been snowing quite a lot, but I can’t see that it would favour us Scandinavians. I think Loeb and the others can keep into the track too…
Talking about Sandell, some people have speculated on the Fabia Super2000 car being able to beat the Fabia WRC, probably much because of the good initial result of the Proton S2000 in Ireland. However, this seemed to depend much on the tyres in the difficult Ireland conditions – and PG doesn’t give much about the thought about the Fabia S2000 beating the WRC, if nothing happens of course:
- I’m nooot worried, says PG with a laugh.
As I mentioned previously, PG’s start has been surrounded by economical problems. However, those seems to be solved now, but the rest of the season looks dark:
- We’re obviously here and we’re gonna drive – but there wont be any money left after that, is PG’s short answer being questioned by me about the economical situation.
So, what can we expect in Rally Norway? During todays tests, PG drove on the same roads as Petter Solberg on Finnskogen. They did some comparisons and after winning two Norweigan Championship rallies PG seems to look resonably bright on his chances, despite not having a top car:
- Petter did his last run today 4 seconds faster than me with new tyres on a 9 km road, and I set my time using tyres that I had driven on for 100-110 km’s, so it seemed quite okay. The opposition now is of course totally different from the Norweigan Championship rounds I’ve driven, so if I can finish on fifth or sixth position I have to be really satisfied. You can’t really drive away from the Fords and Citroens, so you have to have some luck too. If I can battle somewhere around Mads Östberg I’ll have to be happy…
