It is accepted as a matter of fact among those who write about motorsport that retired racing drivers, or perhaps those who have switched to a lower profile branch of the sport after a long career in the top-flight, make for much better interviews than their still active counterparts. I’ve found on many an occasion that a former racing driver talks with more honesty, wisdom and often passion than those who still earn a living from the sport.
Petter Solberg has made switch to rallycross
There have been exceptions, of course, but freed from the insular four walls of professional motorsport and now in possession of the kind of 360-degree vision that can only come with time, not to mention released from the shackles of contractual and sponsor interests, these guys tend to talk more candidly and that makes for better copy.
So it was when I spoke with former World Rally Champion Petter Solberg last week as he prepares once again to project his unique brand of showmanship in international rallycross this coming season. With the Monte Carlo Rally due to kick start the 2014 WRC season later this week, I was interested to get Petter’s informed thoughts on what the series may have in store this year.
From a British perspective at least, this certainly should be the most engaging WRC season for a decade. In Kris Meeke and Elfyn Evans we now have two home-grown competitors for whom to cheer, and with Hyundai joining the fray as a full works manufacturer there’ll also be more variety on the stages than we’ve seen for a long time; in the Polo, DS3, Fiesta and i20, there’ll be four individual World Rally Car models running throughout the season. An announcement last week also confirmed that BT Sport is due to live televise the series on these shores during the year.
But he still has plenty to say about the WRC
Last week’s column
considered the phenomenon on the dominant motorsport competitor. I concluded by saying that, in the interest of interest, I hoped no one driver would have it all his own way in either the WRC or Formula 1 this year.
In Petter’s educated opinion, however, I may well be in for a disappointment.
“Monte Carlo is a good rally,” he began, “but it’s very different to any other rally because of all the ice and snow. I liked it, but to tell the truth it wasn’t my favourite. This year, nobody will beat Sebastien Ogier. He will also win the championship easily. The other drivers are not on the same level. Jari-Matti Latvala [VW] is good, but I think Ogier is cleverer and more controlled in the high-speed sections.
“Mikko Hirvonen [M Sport/Citroen] has a possibility to win in Sweden, but I don’t think he will beat Ogier on any other rallies this year. Thierry Neuville [Hyundai] is the best of the younger drivers without doubt. His performance on tarmac, the podiums throughout last year… Mads Ostberg [Citroen] didn’t have that level of performance at all.”
I ended our conversation by asking if we WRC fans were in for more of what we’ve witnessed for the past decade, namely the total superiority of one driver over all the others. “Yeah, I think so,” he replied, simply.
Hyundai's arrival should spice things up
Would Petter have so glibly written off an entire WRC season were he still within the employ of one of the big teams? Not a chance. Refreshing at it was to hear him talk so realistically, one can only hope that he’s proven wrong in his assertion that reigning champion Ogier will walk all over the competition once again this year. At this moment, my faith lies in the Monte Carlo Rally’s reputation as being one of the least predictable events on the calendar, owing to the changeable weather and the unforgiving nature of the stages.
Away from the WRC, I was pleased to receive an email last week outlining motorsport’s contribution to the UK economy. A study found that the sector achieved sales of £9bn in 2012. Motorsport Valley, loosely located along the M40, is home to some 4,300 companies within the industry, between them employing 41,000 people. If we assume that many of those will have families, we can reasonably estimate that somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 people are dependant upon the sector within the UK.
As the environmental, safety and local noise lobbies become increasingly vocal in their criticism of motorsport, those figures will serve to prove the importance of the sector’s contribution to UK plc.
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