ERC24 has the next edition of Petter’s Blog #2 of 2016. “Without my team there would never have been a double FIA World RX champion: Petter Solberg.”
You can see them in the background on TV, out of focus on still images and photographs captured in the service area. Or on the grid. Their feet sticking out underneath the car, their heads down in the engine compartment, under the bonnet, behind computers or, over the pots and pans in the kitchen. Without my team there would never have been a double FIA World RX champion named Petter Solberg. Here is my tribute to my best friends, helpers and family: the PSRX team!
I have been in countless discussions about the importance of a good team and whether Rallycross – (and motorsports in general) should be referred to as a team sport. My view is clear, I firmly believe the answer to this is YES! For me, to even think about competing in the FIA World Rallycross Championship; I must have a team around me. How good the team is, determines how much I will achieve.
My team is hand-picked. I’ve put together a group of people who want exactly the same as me. They want to win as much as me. And they do whatever it takes, no matter how “impossible” it may seem at times.
There are people with wives, husbands, children, family and friends at home, who are also an important part of our team. Life in World RX is tough, and we are often out travelling a long way away and for a long time. It’s a comfort for all of us knowing that those who are at home, support us fully in our quest to fulfil goals and dreams.
Petter on his way to victory in Portugal. © JKR/ERC24.com
The 2016 pre-season and the season opener in Portugal is the best example of how we at PSRX thinks and performs teamwork as a team. Having rebuilt large parts of last year’s ‘Golden Car’, we were put under huge pressure to get it 100 per cent competitive and ready for the first race.
We did the first proper test just five weeks before the season began. In Lohéac, France, we found partially good conditions to get a good first impression of the changes. We were able to see for ourselves the impact of the changes we had made with the car during winter. Then we left behind all equipment in France and returned home to work on parts and details during the Easter week. Then we met again on our second test in Estering, Germany, and from there we went for a final session in Lousada, Portugal.
Let’s just briefly recapture our struggles that led to race success: Almost all the other World RX teams also came to Lousada, did some test runs and disappeared again. PSRXX arrived as one of the first teams to arrive and also was the last one to leave as well!
Late on in the evening before scrutineering, the team and I felt that we had a competitive car. Only then did we decid to enter the World Championship circuit in Montalégre a couple of hours away.
We spend a lot of human resources in our preparations. But my team’s philosophy is that it would have been pointless for us to emerge as starters in Montalégre without being fully prepared. In the final three weeks before the race, a base of 9-10 technicians, and mechanics, helpers, team members and I worked around the clock under a small roof as the only protection against rain, snow and hail in Lousada. We worked to make the car more than right. We worked to make it perfect.
An estimated 70 per cent of the car has been changed from the previous season. The most important changes are related to the geometry and weight distribution. Our competitors in several factory teams are also working around the clock with development. We can easily see that Peugeot, Hoonigan, EKS and Volkswagen Sweden have more resources than we do.
But in my opinion we have more passion. And you can’t beat passion!
“Without my team there would never have been a double FIA World RX champion.” © JKR/ERC24
After the victory in Portugal I have been thinking a lot about our journey so far. We have faced many challenges, but all of my team members stand together through thick and thin. Unity is the most important attribute a team can possess. We did not count on victory in the first race of the season. We do not regard that there will be easier in the future. But what we now know now from the race in Portugal, should reflect the 2016 season for us:
1) When we are struggling and we have been beaten (like on Saturday), we must still keep faith and believe in the plan and our strategy. In order to achieve success in a World RX race and to win the final, the most important job is to get stay safe through the four qualifiers and then the semi-final.
2) It’s better to be safe than sorry. What you don’t get to do today, you can only regret tomorrow!
A huge thank you to my team for the enormous work you performed in the pre-season and during the race. I received the first prize on behalf of all of you!