After calling Patrik Sandell and PG Andersson asking some questions regarding Rally Norway, the turn went on to Patrik Flodin. Just arrived to the hotel after a long day recceing out on the stages, Patrik answered some questions about his tests earlier this week in Lima, Rally Norway and the future.
First thing, he saw plenty of snow today:
- It’s a lot of snow, but not very much ice. I guess it will show up some gravel during the rally, but it looks wonderful at least. We had no problems at all during the recce, besides having a really long day after doing the drive down to Oslo to recce the arena stage there. Now we’re back in Lillehammer again, have just had some dinner and are going for an early night before going out on the recce again tomorrow, says Flodin.
Flodin drives for the Uspenskiy World Rally Team, based in Russia. A few days ago they were testing in Lima – just over the border in Sweden from Norway. The end was happy – but Patrik was really struggling during the test:
- The start wasn’t really good… The new tyres made everything really slippery and it took quite a while before we found out a setup that worked out well. As soon as you got a little bit off track or tried to cut corners just a little it got really slippery and I felt that I totally lost the car – and it wasn’t even a lot of loose snow. The old tyres had much more sideways grip. One things that’s sure is that it wont be fun at all to the first few WRC cars this weekend, and Loeb will for sure lose time the first day.
Present at the test were also Mikkelsen, who has stepped in as Patrik’s teammate for Rally Norway. I wondered if they compared times – but Patrik is so cool he didn’t even bother:
- I guess the team can compare us in the log, but who cares? Anyone can go fast on one single test road. We’ll see when the rally starts.
Coming to Norway Flodin gets into a real “nest of wasps”. Patrik Sandell has a car that proved really fast in Monte Carlo and Eyvind Brynhildsen among with Flodin’s teammate Mikkelsen must be counted as the main concurrents – but Flodin will look out even for other names:
- Both Prokop and Arai have made good times from time to time and the competition in my class will be really tough. I want to win the class, absolutely, that’s my goal going into the rally!
To us following rally closely, it has been quite obvious that Patrik have had a hard time for a while. Patrik does agree, but he’s also got a feeling things have changed and looks bright on the future:
- It has been tough for quite a while, but it has turned again. I think it started to get better last summer and after a good autumn and now three rally victories in a row I’ve got my self-confidence back. It feels good again!
So, with a drive secured for Uspenskiy for the rest of the 2009 season and a good feeling going into the car – how do Flodin look on his future? He has already stated that the Uspenskiy team is really good, but what about the dream of WRC? Is it still there, is he happy with group N – or is he looking for Super2000?
- I’m more looking at Super2000 than the WRC. This year is really important to me, to show that I can do great results for the team all the time. Then I guess you’ll have to wait and see what happens. There seems to be many teams going into Super2000, so maybe one could get a drive next year for at least a reasonable amount of money.
So, conclusion after this interview is that we hopefully will see Patrik doing good results in the PWRC – and maybe a Super2000 drive next year. Personally I think that it went to fast for him a few years ago when he outpaced the concurrence in the Swedish Championship and then went straight on into an international career and a few WRC drives. Now he have had time to gain some experience and cool down, and hopefully he can get the flow back – but now on a higher level. He is just 24, so there is no need to hurry!
