MW:
For sure, but I think that is more for Marcus and Mikko to get some experience of the Irish stuff. They have never been over there. I think as an M-Sport team we have got quite a lot of customers in Ireland and so we can gather quite a lot of knowledge through that. I think we are reasonably prepared, but for the likes of
Citroen, who have never done any events over there with customer cars, then these outings in Ireland are probably more for them on a car side than on a driver side. But really for Marcus and Mikko I think it is just to get up to speed on the bumps and make sure they are happy. It should be good and if they do learn something then hopefully they can pass it across and we can use it as well.
Crash.net:
Marcus has recently announced he is going to retire from the sport. How big a gap will that leave?
MW:
Massive - he is a character and he has been brilliant for M-Sport and for Ford. He has been an inspiration to a lot of people and especially for Mikko. I think he has helped Mikko a lot and now Mikko is at the stage where he can step into his shoes. If you look at Finland this year they were very close and next year Mikko will definitely be going to win that rally and probably quite a few others as well. He is at the point then when he can step in but it will be a big shame to lose Marcus.
Crash.net:
Is it a year too soon for Mikko to step up, because although he has been getting quicker and quicker,
Sebastien Loeb is a very hard target for anyone to try and match?
MW:
Mikko has had to play the game a little bit this season, - and if he hasn't been in a position to fight with them at the end of the first day, it has been a case of ‘well there has been no point in risking anything'. He has always been in a comfortable, safe third place and so he has had nothing really to push for. But if at the end of the first day he is in amongst them, Ford have said to him ‘right you can carry on' but I think he has had to bear in mind the manufacturers'. Ford has got a lot to think about there and he has had to remember that. Hopefully next year he can really push himself on and be fighting with Sebastien because Norway this year and Finland have been really good rallies.
Crash.net:
Ford are looking strong in the manufacturers', however it is a lot closer in the drivers'. Any idea which way it might go? It is a bit soon to say isn't it?
MW:
I think you can never write off Sebastien. That is one thing you can't do. But I think mentally now, Marcus' win in New Zealand was a fantastic result for him, if he hadn't had got that it might have swung in Sebastien favour. However fortunately now he is so confident and now that he has decided to stop, he wants to go out on a high. He will be pushing like hell and in Spain last year he was actually beating Sebastien fair and square until the car had a problem. Catalunya could be a good rally for him and I think in Corsica you are always going to struggle to beat Sebastien there, but for sure he will be close in Spain. Then the gravel rallies you would expect Marcus to be having a big fight with him there as well. We will see. There is a good part left, there are five rallies; there is still quite a long way to go.
Crash.net:
In terms of yourself what do you want to do in these final five events? Do you want to get into the points?
MW:
I want to try and keep this run going that we have had on the next few rallies [in Spain and France] and get some good strong finishes there. There is quite a lot of new route in Corsica, which I think will be new for a lot of people. That is going to be a bit of a challenge. We won't be able to use the pace notes from last year, which we have been doing on the last few rallies. That is going to make it a bit of a difficult one. For sure though in the last three rallies we are going to try and see if we can get some good results. I loved Japan last year. It was a fantastic rally and hopefully we can do something there. As I said before, Ireland is going to be a tricky one for everybody. We will have to see what happens and then it is GB at the end of the year. Obviously that is my home rally and we are back in the Welsh forests and that should be another good one.
Crash.net:
Obviously this is only your second year in the WRC and a lot of people seem to forget that. Do you think you would have benefited from another year in the BRC or maybe even a year in the J-RC, so you weren't in the limelight so much?
MW:
Yeah, we would have loved to have stayed in the BRC another year, but obviously when they went to the Group N and Super 1600 cars that was something we couldn't do [at least with a WRC car]. The only option then was to step up to the world championship and I don't think there is anything that can prepare you for it. There is a big divide between anything you do at national level and British championship level, to going up there. But I think the sooner you get into it the better it is. OK it is a real challenge but the biggest thing is to learn the rallies and just get there and get experience. For any young driver, if they can do anything, the recces and things like that without doing the actual rallies, it is a massive help. Just seeing the stages and what they are actually like it is a big help.
