Interview World Rally Champion Didier Auriol Eva Rancho La Provincia 13 April 2015
World Rally Champion in 1994, one second position and four third positions. Didier Auriol, 56, is a worldwide Rally legend as an official driver for brands such as Toyota, Ford or Lancia. The French won four editions of Champions Race and now he is back to the island for Rally Islas Canarias El Corte Inglés. Canarian fans are happy to witness once again his show on the road. He is turning 57 in August.
Didier Auriol
Former World Rally Champion
“I feel good: I know the Rally itinerary, but not my car”
Eva Rancho
LA PROVINCIA / LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA, 13 April 2015
This year again at the Rally Islas Canarias El Corte Inglés. Are you looking forward to computing next Friday?
I’m very happy to be here. It’s always very nice to come back to Gran Canaria. The rally was very nice last year, it was fantastic, and the stage was very nice too, so I enjoyed very much last year. So I’ve come back and I expect to end the race.
Any expectations for this edition?
Last year it was a new route for me, but I knew the car. This year is different: I know the route, but I don’t know the rally car, it’s a new one.
Actually regarding the car you are going to drive, Citroën C4 WRC, is much more competitive and this year you will face very strong rivals such as Škoda WRC, even eight Porsche GT3…
This year is the first time I run this rally car, so it’s always a different feeling. You need to find my good set-up during the tests on Tuesday [in Tejeda] and what I expect it is to have a good feeling. If I have it, I’m sure I must be in the fight, and if I don’t have good feeling, it must be harder, but I will try my best.
Talking about last year that you mention once and again, you knocked everyone down in the race ? What were your most cherished memories that you could highlight?
Last year was the wrong time, it was not really driving a good car for race. So everybody was asking me before the race if I still want to fight for the victory and it was a really good feeling. It was surprising for me to end the fight first and then to win the race. And I think for me it was quite good last year, because there was some rain and I had a really good feeling on the way and I made a big gap on the rain.
Was it raining?
Yeah, last year the first night it was raining and in the morning it was completely damp, very very slippery, and I did a good time on this type.
And talking about the fans, did you feel comfy with Canarian fans?
You know it’s been a long time since I first came to Canary Islands, for the Race of Champions many years ago and I won six time. So I think a lot of people have seen me fight with all the top drivers at that time and I’ve always enjoyed fighting against these people, maybe they are not so young now, but I think there are still four of us and we try to do our best and make a spectacular driving style.
Before you mentioned that you know the itinerary this year, but not the car. The organization repeats the same itinerary. Is that an advantage?
It’s always better, but it’s not an advantage, because nearly all the drivers know about it. I’ve only run this race once.
But at least you are more familiar to it.
I’m more familiar, and less working during practice [laughs].
As for your health, are you OK? Full of energy?
Yes, full of energy. If I am not full of energy, I must have it during the race anyway, but it’s OK.
Last year you missed out on the Legend Race in Italy, what did you do in the mean time? Driving school?
I don’t drive at home. I just enjoy life and I run some businesses, a hotel in Milieu, a French island. And after I just do some sport.
Which one?
Bicycle, to come fit here.
What would you think if the organizers created a Legend section within the race to attract more highly regarded drivers such as Carlos Sainz, Armin Schwarz, Sébastien Loeb and you?
It’s fantastic. I run three race of Rally Legend, for example, and people really like to see all the legend drivers, all the cars, but it’s always the same: to bring a very good car here and it’s very expensive, but sure!, if it’s possible I would agree with that.
“Toyota will come back to Rally World Championship in 2017; it’s fantastic y Ove Andersson would have been very happy”
Is the Legend Race a thriving competition again?
Yeah, I don’t if the race is a bit down today, but it’s different, it’s not possible to compare with what we did last year. Before drivers were fighting more and you can see big legend drivers, Juha Kankkunen, Makkinen, so many, and I think everybody was very happy to come back for the race, not in the same philosophy, but we were always fighting in the car, I don’t know if we now drive so well, but we still like the fight.
What is your opinion on the current World Racing Tour?
We are very lucky, we have a French driver still very fast, Sebastien Loeb, so it’s good for us, for sport in France, but of course, what we can see it’s a big gap between him and the generations behind, so that is bad for the fight, but what can we do? I don’t know, we have a very young driver and I’m sure he goes very very fast, but he doesn’t still have budget, and now the sponsors are very important to bring people to the top than before. If you are a young driver, if you are not on the top, and if you have big money, you have a factory car (the official car of Toyota or any company, the race car, a limited series, not a private car, it’s not a standard one, before it was Lancia, then Toyota and this sold it to a private car. You can build the car yourself, buy your piece from Toyota). That was not like that before.
So is there more support now?
It’s more important. No, before we were always three or four factory cars and team, if you were looking at being top driver, we don’t bring sponsors just like before. So it was a different way. Sure, if you look for the drivers’ money, it will be never as a top, sometimes.
And last but not least, what do you make of the return of Toyota to the Rally World Championship, a brand that you actually know quite well, because you drove for them.
Yes, in 2017 I think they will come back. It’s very fantastic. I have little memories of Ove Andersson, because it was my boss for many years and I’m sure if he had been still here, he would have been very happy to see the fight of Toyota back in the race. What I hope is that more money comes back like Volkswagen. It’s always the same, it’s not possible to come back on the top: money and driver.