Posts Tagged ‘privateer’

Video: Petter Solberg, Finnskogsvalsen 2010 [action + interview with English summary]

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

As most of you know, Petter Solberg tested his car in Finnskogsvalsen yesterday. Here are two video clips of it, one is an interview (in Swedish/Norweigan) at the start – and one is a clip from SS2. I’ve made a summary of the most important things said in the interview below the clips.

Driving on SS2:
YouTube Preview Image

The interview:
YouTube Preview Image

Quotes from Petter’s interview:

  • “This is most a way to test on many stages and get back to the feeling again”
  • “I have one goal this year, and that is to beat Sebastien Loeb. I’m a privateer now and that’s tough, many people probably regard it impossible, but I will try my best and I have a 2009 spec car that should be at least almost the same as the one Loeb will drive. I will do my workouts,eat good and try to get more testing than Sebastien. He will do 15 test days this year, so I have planned 26.”
  • Asked on the differences between Petter’s car and the 2010 Citroen works car, Petter says: “Sebastiens gearbox is 4 kg lighter than mine. I could get it, but it would cost me 8M NOK (ca €912.000) more, so I thought I’ll have to lose 4 kg’s myself instead.”
  • Talking on when Petter left Subaru, he says: “I had a good time with Subaru and we had many good years, but it came a time without that right philosophy, and then you’ll have to do something. They’ll probably come back some time – but when you don’t fight to win anymore you can’t do anything else [than leaving]. Now it’s Citroen and times have changed, but that’s life. It changes and you can just look forward.”
  • “The Citroen and the Ford is very similar cars, but I have a feeling the Citroen is better. Especially since this year’s WRC has many asphalt rallies, where the Citroen is clearly better.”
  • “I have one team in Torsby and one in France. The French team is currently preparing my other car for Mexico, and it will be loaded on the containers on Monday. At the same time, Pernilla is working on clothes and other things. Everyone in this team is working all around the day now, very hard.”
  • “This is the life of my family and also my wife Pernilla’s family. We all want to win and we’ll try to do it…”

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Posted in Rally testing, Swedish Rallying, WRC | 1 Comment »

Suzuki back in the WRC in 2011?

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

Despite total silence from the Japanese Suzuki World Rally Team since their retirement in December 2008, Estonian driver Urmo Aava states in an interview that Suzuki may be back in the WRC already in 2011. These rumours conforms well with the statements made by Suzuki in the time before their retirement, where they said that they could take a sabbatical to develop a Super2000 from their WRC spec car. Aava himself has quite good connections into the Suzuki team after being one of their junior drivers for a long time, and according to RallyBuzz he also did a test with the team recently in Sardinia. Aava states:

- I have a good relationship with the Suzuki team from driving for them in the JWRC. I am hoping to get to test their S2000 car sometime in the next year and maybe I can do some rallies with them at the end of 2010 season.

They (Suzuki WRT) are currently bulding an S2000 car but I can’t say anymore. For the 2011 season they will probably do a full WRC programme.

Of course I have to bring my own “money”  to this project but if we compare this cost to the current amount of money required (for a Stobart or Citroen deal) then it’s much cheaper.

So, what do I think? Well, it very much makes sense. Suzuki have been talking for a long time about a Super2000 car, but most important it makes sense considering costs. The financial crisis over the world is expected to go up in a few years time, which would make both car makes and sponsors more interested in sport again – and a S2000 is way cheaper to build and run than a WRC car. That makes it cheaper for Suzuki, but most important it makes it more likely to be a real consumer market for the car – such as Urmo Aava.
Given all this, my guess is that the rumour is true. The car is probably under development, and I guess an announcement will be made this autumn or perhaps during the first half of next year. Maybe Suzuki will run a true works team, but more sure is that they will sell the cars to privateers.

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Posted in Silly season, WRC | No Comments »