Petter Solberg has been a popular visitor to the service park in Sibiu today to support his driver Patrik Flodin on the Intercontinental Rally Challenge qualifier.
How are you enjoying your first visit to the IRC as a team boss?
“It’s very nice, the atmosphere in the middle of the town here is fantastic. The people are very good and this is what rallying should always have, being in the centre and bringing the people close. It’s great.”
What do you think of Patrik’s performance so far?
“We are helping him with the set-up, he’s doing really good times. Two of the stages you can’t compare because of the dust that you have no chance. But when it’s normal he’s two or three seconds behind and he should be happy because he hasn’t driven a lot in the car and he’s developing himself with the Hankook tyre also. He’s doing great.”
He’s suffered some disappointment today. What words of encouragement are you offering him?
“He is driving here for times and to get on the podium is easy. So many people have had punctures and tomorrow will still be rough so everything can happen. I have good confidence in him – he just needs the time and support and more driving basically.”
How frustrating is it to be a driver and not be able to drive like it is for you today?
“Of course it will be nice to drive but we are taking it as a vacation with my wife Pernilla and my son Oliver.”
Will Petter Solberg Engineering run more cars in the IRC in the future?
“We do one thing at a time, no rushing. We want Patrik to do very well and we want the car to be very good and reliable with all the effort. Then we see. I have the trucks, the cars, the parts and all the equipment and the guys are doing a very good job and have a lot of experience.”