We have had the calendars confirmed for 2009 and 2010 and this rotation system is coming in. Are you surprised that some of the classic events like Monte Carlo and GB will be left off one year? Would you have preferred some events to be 'fixed'?

MW:
The FIA was in a very difficult situation. Obviously the teams, the ISC, we have all been working with the FIA to try and come up with a solution. There is a lot of very, very exciting and emerging countries that are of great interest to manufacturers' and who are looking to hold a world championship round. Places like Russia, China and India - huge growth and obviously places of great interest to the teams. So really as much as we would like to see the old established rallies on an annual basis to be fair to everybody what the FIA has done is probably the only way it could have been achieved. OK we will miss kicking off the season in Monte Carlo but if you look at what happened this year on Rally Ireland - the new rallies did an absolutely brilliant job. They set the standard for a lot of the other events. Furthermore if you look at what Ireland did and the fact it is going to be the first event in 2009 then, I'm absolutely sure they will not let us down. They will put on a fantastic show for us and if it is anything like it was last year it will be a great place to kick off the [2009] championship.

Crash.net:
What can we expect from the Stobart Ford team this year? The outfit almost took third spot in the manufacturers' in 2007 - can they do that this season?

MW:
It is always going to be difficult to follow that up. But the Stobart team did have a great season last year and obviously once we moved Jari-Matti up it is always difficult to find a driver of that equivalent. We feel though that Gigi Galli is a very, very exciting driver and basically he fits in very well with the Stobart side from the promotional and marketing side. He is a very flamboyant character and not only that I think he can spring a few surprises. Maybe not in the early part of the season but once he gets use to the car he will do well. The Stobart team can be very, very strong again.

Crash.net:
What do you want to see the other two Stobart drivers' - Henning [Solberg] and your son, Matthew - achieve in '08?

MW:
We saw that Henning was gaining in confidence with the 06 Focus last year and he is always going to be very strong on the gravel events. Certainly Matthew was very, very strong on the last three events in 2007. It is a case of much of the same really for Matthew [this season] - namely try and still keep building on that experience as part of our five-year plan. He showed some great speed on GB and in Ireland.

We have a great line-up nominated for Monte Carlo too with Francois Duval - that is only a one-off event, but to have him and Galli for the event at the Principality is a very strong way to kick off the season.

Crash.net:
Is it possible Francois will do more than one event with the Stobart team this season?

MW:
At this moment in time the plan is definitely just for one event - but we will see how Monte Carlo goes. There are no plans currently, but you never know...


TO HEAR THE INTERVIEW IN FULL WITH MALCOLM WILSON: CLICK HERE