Present:

Sébastien Ogier, Volkswagen Motorsport

François Delecour, Porsche 997 GT3

Marek Nawarecki, Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team

Bryan Bouffier, Hyundai Motorsport N

Elfyn Evans, M-Sport World Rally Team

 

Q:

Sébastien, a huge weekend here in France once again, where you could seal the title. How are you feeling?

SO: 

I feel okay, it’s good to be in my position leading the championship and to have a chance to secure it once again. But as I already mentioned, it is not going to be as easy as last year, I don’t need just one point. I need first to beat Jari-Matti [Latvala] or at least to score six points more than him. It’s possible, but he is in great shape, pushing hard on every event including tarmac. I expect him to be good this weekend so if I want to win the title I need to do a great job. 

 

Q:

You will have to take a lot of risks out there to beat him?

SO:

I don’t want to take too much risk, tactically I am not in a position for that I think. I want to score good points and it would be the cherry on the cake to secure the title here but what is the most important is to make a step forward for the championship. If it happens on the next rally I have no problem with that. I want to win this second title so we will start with a strong rhythm and then let’s see what happens at the beginning of the race and we will adapt our strategy. 

 

Q:

Good memories coming back this year after the success of last?

SO:

Of course it was my most emotional week last year. It was a bit crazy to be the World Champion on the first day, I struggled a bit after that to be back as I was still dreaming a bit and then we had a fantastic fight with three other drivers. We were all four fighting for the victory on the last day and we were all within five seconds which was very exciting. To eventually win was the end of a fantastic week for us. So of course we have wonderful memories. But as always in rally we have to restart and replay it again so this weekend is another weekend and I look forward to it. The weather forecast seems promising with no rain, the stages are beautiful with great new parts in the forests. So let’s see what happens.

  

Q:

What of next year – where will we see you next year?

SO:

I think I would be stupid to change. The team I am in is the best one at the moment and I reached my dream to become World Champion with them. We started the story together three years ago and we had to develop everything. Last year it was a real surprise to be so successful immediately and this year is again a very strong year for Volkswagen so really no reason to change. I know we are really not in advance to announce the future, it’s a question of timing but you should get the answer quite soon. 

 

Q:

So it is not a confirmation yet?

SO:

I am not the one who should do this, the team will do it. I can just tell that you should not have to wait too long from now on. 

 

Q:

Let’s turn to François Delecour. Good to see you again François. We see you compete here with a Porsche 997 GT3 R-GT car. The car looks fantastic - and sounds amazing! What is it like to drive? 

FD:

I am so happy to be back. I am 52 and still in the business! To drive this kind of car is a dream. For example I remember Bernard Beguin – who is here today – driving a Porsche 20 or 30 years ago. It’s fantastic to drive this car and I believe that it brings a lot of spectators to the event as people like this car and its sound. It will be difficult to drive behind some people like Sébastien [Ogier] who will destroy the roads for us behind! But it is going to be a fantastic experience.

 

Q:

You tested the car earlier this week. How many kilometers did you do François? How was the car?

FD:

Not so many because last week I was for a championship in Romania (“Congratulations on winning the Romanian Championship!”).  FD: Yes it’s our little world championship! To be honest I was testing last Thursday in Romania when Richard [Tuthill] called me and asked if I was ready to go Monday and drive the Porsche on Rallye de France. I answered I was ready! Of course it’s a bit difficult to be ready but we will be by tomorrow. We didn’t test more than 30 kilometres before we broke the differential but I have a good feeling in any case. 

 

Q:

How well do you know the roads in this area of France? How familiar are your with these stages?

FD:

I know some portions from the past. Last time I was here was maybe eight years ago with a Porsche GT and at that time the regulations were not so good for the Porsche, the car was heavy, difficult to drive with no brakes. I remember a little bit some of the stages such as Montagne d’Ormont or Charbonnières which is a good stage for the Porsche as it is very fast. But most of it is new. 

 

Q:

A battle with Romain Dumas this weekend who is also in a Porsche, that should be interesting - are you looking forward to that?

FD:

Yes, I saw Romain many times on Rallye du Var, he is driving so fast with a Porsche and he has a lot of experience as well. For sure we will fight, it’s going to be interesting. 

 

Q:

As you said, you are 52 and still in the business. What about next year? Are we going to see you more?

FD:

Next year I am doing the World Championship but don’t say anything! No seriously next year we will try to do the R-GT Cup with a GT, I would like to do it for sure. 

 

Q:

Marek, a huge weekend for you: Citroën is competing across every level here in France, the WRC, WRC 2 with the R5 and the R3 in Junior WRC. This is an important event for you.

MN:

Yes, Rallye de France is very important for us, the most important of the season especially as the Citroën brand is the partner of the rally in France. So from a promotional point of view and for the PR activities it is very important both for the Citroën brand and the new DS brand. DS was just created and we display cars here for the first time. We are involved of course for the WRC but also for the WRC 2 and the Junior WRC: it’s their fifth round here and we expect to see a huge battle between the young drivers. 

 

Q:

Let’s talk about the WRC first. We saw great performances from Kris Meeke a few weeks ago in Germany. He was leading for a short time, but still a good performance. Are you hoping for more of the same here on the tarmac in France?

MN: 

Yes we expect Kris to be in a good position, he is confident. But the objectives are not quite the same here compared to Germany Of course Kris will try his best to stay close to the leaders, to fight for the podium, but the most important target will be to bring points for the Manufacturers’ Championship

 

Q:

In terms of the WRC 2 and the development of the car, we have seen Sébastien Chardonnet competing this year, how is the development going, is the team happy with the R5?

MN:

I think we did a lot of progress with the development of the DS3 R5 this season. We learnt a lot from the events this car did this year. Here on tarmac we expect to do a very good performance. I also think that Sébastien is in a good position and he has a nice experience of this rally. We hope to confirm our good performances here in France.

 

Q:

You mentioned the strong battle in the Junior WRC. The Junior WRC Championship title could be sealed here, have you been impressed by Lefebvre’s performance this year?

MN:

Yes, from the beginning of the season, Stéphane did some very good performances and we saw some incredible battles between the drivers. Here we can expect the title to be sealed but it’s not sure. Martin Koci is also very fast on tarmac. Stéphane from the beginning has been very impressive but he needs to finish the round and we will see what happens on this rally. 

 

Q: 

Bryan, after Germany, you are back again. Back on tarmac. What is the objective for you this weekend?

BB: 

It’s nice to be back at the wheel of the Hyundai i20 WRC. For this weekend, of course, my target is to do better than in Germany. It was a very bad weekend for us. We continue to develop the car. There is a long way to go to put the car in the highest level of performance. If I could do interesting times, it would be nice.

 

Q: 

How do you think the development is going? Can you feel the car getting better?

BB: 

Yes, for sure. The team is doing a great work on the car. They have improved the handling of the car and its performance. We still have a lot of things to do but I’m very confident that the car will be a fantastic car soon.

 

Q: 

What do you think of the route this year?

BB: 

I don’t have a big experience of this rally. I did it once, four years ago. I went through some parts of the stages. The organisers did a fantastic job. I’m impressed and I don’t say that because I’m French! The organisation is very good.

 

Q: 

What is the future for Mr Bouffier?

BB: 

You know, with Mr Bouffier, anything can happen! I don’t know yet. I’m focused on this weekend. We’ll see. I’m open to many activities. Look at François. He’s 52 and still in the business.

 

Q:

Elfyn, we will watch you for the next three rallies as you have experience of them all, and you also set some great times in Germany, can we see a repeat here?

EE:

Let’s hope so. It’s a nice position to be in. We have finished the learning of the new events, now we can start hopefully working on next year which will be a very important year for me. As you say I have a good experience of this event as well as on the next two, so I am looking forward to enjoying the driving on those rallies. 

 

Q:

You have mentioned several times it’s been a learning year for you. Most of the events you haven’t competed on. Do you feel now that the team are letting you do just what you need to do on those final three?

EE:

I don’t think there is a massive change.  Of course we don’t have the pressure that we have on the new events that we have to finish. At the beginning we will be pretty much in the same position that we were in Germany. We hope to keep up with what we have started building up in Germany.

 

Q:

You mentioned next year as being a big year for you; you already have an objective in your mind I guess?

EE:

Well we have had a fantastic opportunity this year to learn – it was necessary to have this year - so it is important that we can display some speed next year.

 

Q:

Are there any particular stages here in France that you would pick out as being exceptionally difficult? Does a day stand out or are they pretty much the same?

EE:

Well there are no vineyard stage this year. They all tend to be in the forest. For sure there is a change of character within certain stages, from very narrow and fast to wide and open so we have to be adaptable. It can also be tricky here especially maybe on the Sunday where there is likely to be a lot more cutting.

 

 

FIA WRC 2 CHAMPIONSHIP

 

Present:

Pontus Tidemand

Quentin Gilbert

 

Q: 

Pontus, you won the last WRC 2 rally on tarmac, in Germany. Does that give you added confidence coming here?

PT: 

Absolutely, we are confident but there will be a lot of good drivers with different cars and different tyres. I think a lot of things will happen this week. It could be interesting. I have also a new co-driver. We are really looking forward to this new challenge.

 

Q: 

The confidence is always there with you, it seems…

PT: 

Yes. Hopefully, we can start with a good pace in this race. I try to keep focus and we will see where we are. We will be 110% from the beginning.

 

Q: 

What are your thoughts about the stages this year?

PT: 

The new stage is more narrow and bumpy. That’s good for me. I like that. I’m fit for these kinds of roads. That’s good for me, actually. I like it.

 

Q: 

We have seen you competing in WRC 2 and in Rallycross as well. What is the hope for you next year?

PT: 

I really don’t know anything yet about next year. What I would like to do is to do all the WRC events to get experience. If I can combine Rallycross and rally again, I will. But, for sure, I want to have a career in rally. 

 

Q: 

You want to do more WRC event in a WRC car or a WRC 2?

PT: 

The best is perhaps to do it with no big pressure. It should be a two or three year plan, something like that. What I need is experience.

  

Q: 

Quentin, we have seen you compete in many different cars this year.  It has been a busy season for you…

QG:  

Yes, it’s a good season this year for me, I drove a lot of cars. Two times in WRC 2 and in the French Championship. I competed with Renault, last week, in Mont Blanc Rally.  It was my first time at the wheel of the Renault R3. I compete also in the French Championship with a Ford Fiesta R2. Here, it’s my first time with the Ford Fiesta R5. So, many new things are for me here.

 

Q: 

What is your objective for this weekend?

QG: 

We hope to win, for sure but I know that Pontus is very fast. He won in Deutschland. He has a good experience of the car. Seb Chardonnet also, he’s very fast. Bernardo Sousa also. We will see. We had a good test session with the car on Monday before the rally. I’m confident. We will see after the first loop. The second stage is a bit difficult for me but I like this kind of stages. It’s my home rally and I like it. It’s important to finish here in front of our fans and partners.

 

Q: 

Do you feel any pressure to perform?

QG: 

Of course. You always feel a special pressure when you compete in your home event. Nevertheless, I feel confident.

 

Q: 

What is your dream for next year?

QG: 

We will have a better idea after this rally. Of course, my dream is to compete in the World Rally Championship but it’s difficult to forget the budget. Everything is open.

 

 

FIA JUNIOR WRC CHAMPIONSHIP

 

Present:

Stephane Lefebvre

Eric Camilli

 

Q: 

Stéphane, it’s a big weekend as this is the first opportunity for you to possibly clinch the Junior WRC Championship title. How are you feeling ahead of this weekend?

SL:

I’m ready to do my best this week. I think we will have a very good battle with Martin Koci this week for the championship. It’s not so different compared to the last rallies. I will have the same strategy and tactic: to do my best. I hope to win this weekend.

 

Q: 

Are you feeling a little nervous?

SL: 

For the moment, it’s okay. Maybe tomorrow!

 

Q: 

What have you been doing to prepare for the rally?

SL: 

It’s my third time here, in this Rallye de France. It’s very nice. I’ve watched videos before the rally in order to prepare and feel ready.

 

Q: 

What would that mean to you if you could win the championship here this weekend?

SL: 

It’s my dream to win the Junior championship. It would be as if a dream came true.

 

Q: 

You did a great season. Have you been surprised by your performance or did you expect to be so good this year?

SL: 

It’s a big surprise for us this year. I started this year with no experience in the championship. I got three wins in four events. It’s perfect for the moment. I hope to do the same this week.

 

Q: 

Eric, you did a great rally in Germany, on tarmac. Were you surprised by your pace there?

EC: 

Yes, I was very surprised for my first rally in the world championship. I’m satisfied because I was leading the first part of the rally. I improve at each rally. We’ll see what happens here in France.

 

Q: 

You tested the car earlier this week. How did the test go? 

EC: 

Yes, I tested on Monday. It’s a new team for me. The test was okay. We are ready for the race.

 

Q: 

What is your objective for this weekend?

EC: 

My objective is getting more experience. It’s only my second rally in the world championship. I really look forward to doing this rally. We will see.

 

Q: 

You are part of the FFSA Rallye Jeunes programme, which Sébastien Ogier also graduated from. How much support do you get from Rallye Jeunes and your mentor Nicolas Bernardi?

EC: 

I won Rallye Jeunes last year so I could start rallying this year in the national championship with Citroën. With Nicolas Bernardi and all the staff, we have a great support. And thanks to their help, we feel ready for this race.

 

Q: 

2015 is not far away. What do you hope for next year?

EC: 

I would like to compete in the Junior World Rally Championship. It’s my target but we will see.