Driver: Matthew Wilson (
Stobart VK Ford)
Team principal: Malcolm Wilson (
BP Ford).
Press conference.
Q:
First time in Corsica here for you – how does it compare to the previous experience of World Championship asphalt rallying you have had in Catalunya? Do you think it's easier or more tricky?
Matthew Wilson:
Yeah, I think here it's a unique place and one you have to treat with a bit of respect. We were fortunate enough to do the recce here last year, so I have some idea of some stages. That will make things a little bit easier. I would prefer it if it stayed dry, but I'm looking forward to it. As Petter [Solberg] says, we have to take what comes. In some ways, it is going to be more difficult than Spain. It is a more difficult rally. We have to keep learning. In Spain we got around the stages, if I can do the same here and get more experience, I'll be happy.
Q:
Obviously you had the turbo problem in Catalunya that let you down: what exactly was it? Are you confident that it has been fixed now and how worried are you about reliability here? You have been testing – what did you find that will help you for the future?
Malcolm Wilson:
It's been well recorded; it was the wastegate which controls boost pressure. The wastegate is in two parts and they separated due to the fixing. Okay, you can never be 100 per cent sure, but I am 99.999 per cent sure we have addressed it for this event. I'm confident we won't end up in same situation. Basically, it's what I said from the outset: there will always be something unique on an event. Nothing had been changed from October when the car started testing. It was the high speeds for long periods of time – that's unique to that event. There are no long straights here. We didn't test for 1.5 km at 190kph. I always said something like that would catch us out, I just hope there's not going to be any more of them.
Q:
The Ford Focus WRC you are driving was the winning car in Corsica in 2004 with Markko Martin. Do you think that the car is still up there with the best on these surfaces? Is it easy to drive? Are you worried about the weather at all?
Matthew W:
Yeah, for sure. There have been steps made with the new car, but look back to this event last year, when it was late in the year. Toni Gardemeister was second last year. This shows the car is still capable of doing the job, but I don't think I will be capable of doing the job. We haven't done a test, we've come straight from Spain and gone for a similar set-up. We'll be making changes as we go and trying to improve things.
Q:
What do you think of Matt's progress so far this year? What would you say have been the strong and the weak points of his driving? Is it difficult to remain objective when you work with him? What will be his target for this event?
MW:
Do you really want me to answer that with him sat here! We have a plan in place which everybody in this room knows about. It's not going to happen overnight. He's gaining valuable experience at this point. I want him to finish rallies; that's invaluable to going forward. In relation to his performance, look at Mexico. He was 1.2s/km behind Petter in similar road conditions. If I look back to other young drivers we have had on the books, their performance was maybe not as good as that. Taking into consideration his experience, I'm very happy. We want more of the same here, maybe a bit quicker than in Spain, but as he said, getting to the finish is very important for experience.
Q:
Like Monte Carlo, this is one of the legendary events on the world rally calendar. What are your thoughts now that you are here and actually doing it? There are some very famous people who have gone before you…
Matthew W:
