Present:
Thierry Neuville, Hyundai Motorsport
Jari-Matti Latvala, Toyota GAZOO Racing World Rally Team
Craig Breen, Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team
Elfyn Evans, M-Sport World Rally Team

Q: 
Thierry, we are going to start with you because you were our last winner in Tour de Corse a few weeks ago. Great result; do you carry that confidence now that you’re coming to Argentina?
TN: 
I’m the last winner and hopefully the next as well! Jarmo Mahonen [FIA Rally Director] has just told me that I have all the chances to win. And it’s looking good for me. I hope he’s right. He bet that I’ll win this rally!

Q: 
Statistics are in your favour because you have won so many stages on numerous occasions. Do you feel that inside?
TN: 
Hmmm…yes. This year we’ve been in good shape: good performance, fast car, two podiums, but on the other hand Rally Argentina is not the one where I have had my best results in the past. My best one was fifth if I remember well. It’s a rough rally. It’s not the kind of stages that I enjoy the most, but I’m looking forward to it. I’m confident with this new car. We have better dampers, it’ll feel less hard on the car and it may help me go faster on those stages.

Q: 
How were the stages on the opening day of recce?
TN: 
The day was a disaster with the rain, it didn’t stop. Really, really bad conditions. Especially stage number three, it was full of mud. I even spun on the recce which doesn’t happen very often. But it’s just to tell you how the conditions were. Now the sun has come out, the conditions will be drier, but nobody knows how much. The first leg on Sunday morning will be tricky.

Q: 
The Hyundai has been incredibly competitive this year. We’ve seen the cars doing great things.  How impressed are you the performance of the car specifically?
TN: 
I’m happy with the performance of the car. This year we signed with Hyundai for a few more years and I know we’ll get the benefits of the previous years. Straight from the first rally we’ve seen great performances, good feeling in the car, but we have to continue working because as you have seen, Jari-Matti was faster in the shakedown this morning. Toyota is pushing and Citroën and Ford are constantly developing the car. There is no time to sleep, we have to continue developing.

Q: 
There is no room for mistakes because everyone is, as Thierry said, so competitive. We don’t know who is going to win the next event, that’s a very good championship to be part of isn’t it Jari-Matti?
J-ML: 
It’s fantastic for the championship that all the cars are so equal, so it’s up to the drivers, how your feeling is with the rally and how your performance is, if you have a better car than the others. But the situation in which we are is great for the championship. It’s so equal. But as Thierry mentioned, the day you stop developing and working, you’ll feel it in the next couple of rallies. You’ll be slow.  You have to keep on working.

Q: 
Talk to me about this event. You’re one of the most experienced drivers here; you’ve done it nine times.
J-ML: 
Yes. I was here the first time 12 years ago. It’s been quite a long time. I remember I didn’t get to the Sunday that year. There was even snow and ice at El Condor as we saw in the recce.

Q:
You have had the ultimate success here in Argentina. What is the key Jari-Matti?
J-ML:
I won this event in 2014; it was a great really. It was more complicated for me but basically this is the toughest and roughest of the Championship. This is a nice event, there are fast sections. The second passage through the stages is hard for the car, there are rocks pulling out, loose rocks. You have to understand where you can push and where you have to back off. The key element here is to find the balance where you push the maximum and where to take it easy quite like in Rally Acropolis.

Q:
What about testing? How do you go testing for stages like Mina Clavero to know how the car is going to survive one of the roughest stages in the championship?
J-ML:
I think what you want to find are sandy roads which have hard bedrock and places where you can find that is in Portugal and also in Sardinia where we have been testing so we have a bit of conditions like that and I’m quite happy with the roads we had. This is what you try to assimilate and especially if you run the stage over and over you will see more rocks exposed and you will see how the suspension takes those impacts, and all the other parts of the car. That’s important that you try to find bad roads for testing.

Q:
Craig, this is your first time here and you have no experience at all in Argentina. What challenges do you have ahead of you this weekend? You have been to Buenos Aires with the team, you’ve come to one of the most iconic events on the calendar, what has the experience been like so far?
CB:
It has been very nice, like you said it’s the first time here. Every time I say this people are surprised, any time I was in the World Championship in the past it was with my own car, with my own team and I was driving the car around Europe and it simply cost too much to do the rally over the years so now I’m here, I’ve been to Buenos Aires at the weekend driving my Citroën on the streets and it’s been a really pleasant experience, it’s a special place.

Q:
How are you feeling given what you saw on the recce? How do you feel about the challenge?
CB:
I feel a lot more comfortable than I did before doing the recce, it was really nice, I liked it, probably a bit deceptive and a bit deceiving in places that you can carry so much more speed than you think in the recce. The weather on Tuesday was horrific and we were looking on the side window a few times on the recce car trying to keep it on the road to make good pace notes in those conditions. I’m really looking forward to the challenge, it’s different to anything I’ve ever done before, it’s going to take a bit of time to learn and get the most, but up to this point everything has gone really well.

Q:
You seem really comfortable in the car. What is your assessment of this season so far?
CB:
It’s been really good. There have been really good stages, a lot of consistency, so far we have made little mistakes. It’s been a dream, and I have been enjoying every second of it and I have the privilege to be part of the team. The car has evolved in an incredible way rally by rally. This is my first time on gravel with the car, we haven’t hurt it and everything is going in a really good way

Q:
And in terms of the objective for the weekend?
CB:
To finish the rally, obviously that’s the most important thing. I have to take the experience and be able to come back next year for a podium or whatever. I need to get more experience a couple of rallies ahead, this is one of them so I have to be patient. The other rallies that I have done this year, I felt confident and that makes all the difference. I have to be patient, I have to wait to what it may come.

Q:
Elfyn, what are your thoughts on Rally Argentina? We’ve seen good results from you here in the past.
EE:
The recce was difficult on Friday. Some of the individual stages are looking pretty rough to be honest. In some areas we’ll have to look after the car a little bit. But there are some really nice sections as well, fast flowing paths. Overall the stages are nice to drive but challenging in terms of roughness.

Q:
In terms of what you can get for yourself out of your tyres here, is this going to be an event where DMack tyres really come into form?
EE:
We certainly hope so. We already saw in Mexico that the soft tyres are working pretty well. I will say here the conditions would suit soft tyres more than the hard ones. We’re hoping it’ll come into our hands and we can end with a good result here.

Q:
It’s incredible the split in temperatures we see from the morning to the afternoon. It’s freezing when you go up in the mountains and really heats up in the afternoon. Is it a challenge?
EE:
Yes, definitely. I think temperatures won’t work in certain areas and maybe the advantage coming back to us in others. It’ll be that kind of event with the temperature range. It’ll be interesting and hopefully good fun.

Q:
It’s been a tough start. We have seen good pace coming through but there’ve been some problems along the way. What’s your assessment so far?
EE:
Yes, not really the start we would have wanted. At the start there were some positive things to take in terms of the speed and the feeling inside the car. Definitely the last rallies have been tough for various reasons but hopefully now we’re coming into what should be some of the strongest event for the package. Hopefully, I just need to bring it in all together.

FIA WRC 2 CHAMPIONSHIP

Present:
Pontus Tidemand, Skoda Motorsport
Benito Guerra, Motorsport Italia Srl

Q:
Pontus, this is your first time here in Argentina, a huge challenge. What have you thought so far of this experience?
PT:
First of all, I’m happy to be here. I hope I will come back in the future. But one time has to be the first. It is a very tough event. It is very easy to make a mistake and damage the car. I have to try to keep the concentration. We have some fast drivers in our group and it will not be easy. I have to be focused from the first metre of the rally to the finish and we will see what it will be.

Q:
I’m sure you watched Rally Argentina on TV and the on-board cameras. But when you went out there for the recce was it what you expected or was it rougher than you expected?
PT:
Some parts, yes. But we expected it to be rough. Everybody is going flat out everywhere but we have to find that balance to try to go flat out and not hit the big stones.

Q:
That is always the challenge here, especially on Sunday. Tell me about your preparation. What have you been doing to get ready for this one?
PT:
We had one small test this Monday. Maybe not the best preparation. We rolled the car one time over. It was not a big roll but we have good mechanics and they changed the roof and today the felling was good in the Shakedown. I was fully confident and the car is 110 per cent. So we are looking forward to the start.

Q:
How many kilometres did you manage to do at testing?
PT:
25…30 kilometres. A small one…That is life sometimes.

Q:
What is your objective considering it is your first time and that you have a big challenge in front of you? What are you hoping to take away from Argentina?
PT:
For sure I want to take good points and experience. But especially the points because then we are going to Portugal and there we will have all the drivers in WRC 2. So I think the competition there will be very strong. We want to be flat out from the beginning and to manage this rally you have a bigger risk to get the pace, but if you can get good points here, you can be more on the spot in Portugal. So the main thing here is to get good points.

Q:
Benito, we saw you in Mexico with your first WRC 2 event and now here in Argentina. In Mexico you told us that you were hoping to put a full season together and it looks possible now because you are here. What other news can you tell us?
BG:
We are really happy to be here. This is my first event out of Mexico in three years so it is fantastic to be back in WRC 2. I think this rally is very important for me. This was my first event out of Mexico in my whole career in 2007. I won here in 2012 in the Production group in the Mitsubishi with Ralliart Italy and I have good memories but I haven’t raced here for five years so it’s a little bit different. The stages on Saturday are different, very fast sections that I didn’t know. Our notes are a little bit different now, as well. I’m starting with a new co driver that is Dani Cué. My ex co driver has signed an agreement with Peugeot for the European Championship. Now, I’m with Dani and with Motorsport Italia. I’m happy with the Skoda Fabia R5. I will try to learn more from the car. This is my second event with this car. I will try to do my best and as Pontus (Tidemand) says this is a very good chance to get some points because in Portugal we are going to be the whole crowd.

Q:
Tell me about your new co driver. What is the relationship like so far? How much time did you have in the car together?
BG:
We only had two or three passes before Rally Mexico and then this Monday test, which was small, just a few kilometres. But Dani used to be my co driver in Spain when I won the Rally Spain Championship in the Production group in that country. So we know each other and now we are trying to feel comfortable in this kind of stages with a new car for him and for me. I think it’s going to be a great year.

Q:
What is the most challenging part of this rally? Is it the stages in El Condor and Mina Clavero or is it something else?
BG:
I think when you have to go flat out it is easier because you know when to push. But driving like this when sometimes you have to lift and you have to be very clever not to hit any rocks, that’s difficult because you are not driving 100 per cent focused on speed, you have to be focused on taking care of the car and this is a different strategy. I think we could manage to get a good speed on the weekend, to not get any big dramas with the car and try to get at the end of the rally in a good position. For sure we have to aim for a podium. After the service on Saturday we can make a strategy to keep pushing but the risk on Sunday is very high. But again our aim is a podium and good points as we did in Mexico. I hope for me and everybody else in the group to have a good rally.