New Zealand was absolutely incredible and I think it typifies where the WRC is at. The cars are fantastic - you have two of the biggest manufacturers' in the world in
Citroen and Ford, two totally different cars, two totally different drivers' and over 400 kilometres of competitive driving they are separated by 0.3 of a second at the finish. I don't think there is any championship in the world that is as close as that and it adds to the excitement of it. It has been a fantastic season.
Chris Atkinson is starting to show the potential of the
Subaru with a bit of resurgence now too - and it has been good. It would just be nice to be a part of it.
Crash.net:
Who do you think will take the title this year -
Sebastien Loeb or Marcus Gronholm?
KM:
It is very difficult to say with the asphalt events coming up. Dani Sordo I know is very, very strong on tarmac and he is a good friend of mine. I know he will be pushing like hell to get some results - and aid Sebastien in his fight for the title. On those tarmac events if Dani can fit into second place it will help Sebastien a lot, because obviously it will be another two point gap to Marcus on each event.
I think it could go either way at the minute though and I think a lot depends on the second drivers'. Ultimately I think Sebastien has what it takes to win all the remaining asphalt events but it remains to be seen where Mikko and Dani can fit in. If Dani can finish second it is going to make it very difficult for Marcus. To be honest I think Dani is the key player in the title role, which is quite ironic.
Crash.net:
You have obviously got a good relationship with Citroen and tested the new C2-R2 back in February - and prior to that, you also tested with Citroen C4 WRC in October. Are there any tests coming up with Citroen?
KM:
To be honest I haven't done much testing. I did one test back at the beginning of the year with Citroen - but I am still in contact with lots of the guys there. I obviously made some very good friends there during my time at Citroen and they are a fantastic bunch of guys. I have not done any other tests with them this year though. Maybe sometime in the future, we will see.
Crash.net:
Final question, what are you hopes for 2008?
KM:
I have people working on my behalf trying to secure budgets. It is purely down to if we can get a budget together to do a sustained programme at world championship level. Doing one or two events in a season is not going to be beneficial to anybody. We need a sustained programme and as everyone knows that costs money. It is purely down to if we can secure the money and all we can do is work hard and try and get it. If it comes it comes and if it doesn't... well we can only try. We will have to see what happens.
Crash.net:
I guess the
FIA's decision to cut the calendar from 16 events to 12 will help, although of course that change doesn't come into affect until 2009.
KM:
Yeah for sure, that reduces budgets greatly for everyone. Hopefully it will allow other sponsors to come in and see it as attractive and more cost effective - but you are still talking millions of Euros. To any sponsor that is a lot of money - and to try and get one on your side and trying to get them to back you to secure a sustained seat at WRC level, but we will see what happens. I am working hard in the background and fingers crossed we can sort something.
