by Rob Wilkins
TO HEAR THE INTERVIEW IN FULL WITH RICHARD TAYLOR: CLICK HERE
Subaru launched its new car less than two weeks ago on the Acropolis Rally of Greece and after finishing second
Petter Solberg declared that the Banbury-based outfit is definitely on its way back to its former glories.
Crash.net Radio caught up with managing director Richard Taylor recently to chat to him about that event and to get his thoughts not only on the next round in Turkey, but also on the rest of the season too...
Crash.net:
Richard, how much of a boost was it for the team to see the new car do so well straight out of the box?
Richard Taylor:
Obviously we were all very, very pleased with the performance of the car and with the way the whole event went in Greece. We started off with a deliberate strategy to go steady and see how we got on. The car was very strong and very reliable throughout the event. It performed very well - and that was really without either of the drivers' pushing at all, other than Chris [Atkinson]'s fastest effort on Sunday morning [after he re-started under the SupeRally].
Crash.net:
How important was it for the team to launch the car now, as opposed to after the summer break?
RT:
I think overall our objective with launching the car in Greece was to make sure we are in the strongest possible position for the second half of the season. However much testing you do, it is never quite the same as going and competing. We believe that rather than doing two or three more tests before Finland we would be much better off doing a couple of rallies because that will accelerate the learning curve and put us in a stronger position.
Crash.net:
How difficult was it to bring that launch forward?
RT:
Whenever you launch a new car, it doesn't matter if we had waited another month, two months or six months, it would still have been a big challenge and a big effort towards the end. It was something we had been preparing for and it obviously didn't come as any great shock to us because we knew that was what we had been aiming at. It was a lot of hard work from a lot of people - from the design team, the car builders, the test team particularly and everybody. But it was worth it.
Crash.net:
What feedback did you get from Petter Solberg following the Acropolis?
