Acropolis Rally Greece 2026: Ogier's statement for title number 10

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When you get three Scotsmen together on a podcast just now, you may be expecting something

rather depressing after Scotland's World Cup exit at the hands of Brazil.

Thankfully we're here to talk about the world rally championships.

We're all going to be positive and beaming with smiles.

Joining me on today's episode of SPIN, the rally pod, is Colin Clark and the return of

George Donaldson.

George, I'm coming to you first.

It's like royalty.

You're back.

After a little work time away, how are you?

I'm very kind, very good.

I was in Japan for a very short time just catching up with some old friends and looking

at various little bits and pieces out there, which was great fun.

And of course I was in Safari with you all.

Seems like a terribly long time ago, desperate to get back out to Kenya again for next year.

Of course I would go out to Kenya in about September to start raking for next year's

event if I went back to my roots, which I'd love to do.

I'd love to go out to Kenya for six months.

It was so much fun.

Colin, it'd be great.

Come on out for six months with me.

Yeah.

Let's do that.

Happy to, George.

It'd be great.

Get yourself out there.

Yeah.

OK, work on that business plan.

Colin, you weren't in Kenya at the weekend, but it's probably the closest we're going

to get all year, wasn't it, to the Safari, Acropolis, Rally Green.

So rather bruising addition of the event.

Plenty of stories and drama to talk about in there as well.

Before we get into all the various topics, one overriding question.

What's your main take?

Record us on a Tuesday, so two days after the event finished, what's your main take

away from the event?

Well, I guess the main take away.

It was a fantastic event.

You're quite right, Luke.

It was the roughest, toughest event of the season so far, including, I suspect, Kenya.

Kenya was tough for other reasons for the mud.

This one was rough and tough because of the road conditions and the rocks.

But my one big takeaway from this event is that Oji is back.

Oji is fired up.

Oji is determined.

Oji is going for the big 10.

And right now, I'm putting my money on him.

Putting my money on him.

I was hoping you would say this because to me that I would agree.

You did the interview on Sunday, didn't you?

If you actually, and here's a bit of a plug for you.

Well, if you want to hear all the interviews from Sunday's Media Zone in full head to

Club Dirtfish on Patreon.

We have the drivers uncut feature there.

And there you can hear every single thing Colin Clark asked the driver serious or otherwise.

So it's well worth having a watch.

But you're basically straight in, weren't you, Cole?

On Sunday asking the question.

And normally when this happens, you can get quite hazy.

He doesn't always want to talk about it, but he was very open, very happy to say everything.

And that in itself, I think, was interesting.

Not just what he said, but I guess the body language around it.

It really does feel like OJ is gunning for number 10.

He absolutely is.

And yeah, you were kind of played into our hands a little bit.

He was rushed as he very often is at the end of events.

There are, I don't know, helicopters and private jets to catch, I suppose.

But he was very rushed.

And I thought, well, there's no point in beating around the bush.

We've got to get straight in here and ask the question.

And yeah, you're right.

I remember poor David asked him a similar question a couple of years ago when we were

inside dinner and oh my goodness, me.

He's head off.

Yeah.

Boy, he ripped him to shreds basically.

And it was really uncomfortable to be standing listening to it.

But no, he was very open, very upfront.

He was doing Estonia.

We know he's not massively keen on that event.

He's only done it once before.

He's doing Finland.

I fully suspect them then to go on and do the two South American events.

And yeah, you know, he's not so far behind in the championship, is he?

So, you know, I think I think Elvin Evans knows that he's in

the absolute fight of his life and it will be Ojiye that presents the biggest threat to him.

George, what do you think?

Well, I think I think Colin's absolutely right.

I mean, once again, Sebastian Ojiye has had a nice easy start to the year.

He's a little bit further behind than he wanted to be, but it's paid off massively

with road position here.

He was the he was the one that managed to apply intelligence.

Together with experience and knowledge and innate skill to get a great result

and a very well deserved result in acropolis, you know, in no way was it anything except

earned hard earned, albeit, you know, with the leg up on the first, very much

it leg up on the first leg with the road position without a doubt.

But, you know,

the rest of the you know, the guys in the front Elvin

young Mr. Solberg, Sammy Pajari, you know, Sammy and Katsuta, you know, they managed

to make the best out of it, didn't they?

You know, they did in Katsuta, particularly.

He absolutely made the best out of it.

He did a great job as well, I think actually it has to be said.

But King of the Castle said Bogey and and in fact, Terry Noibull, I mean,

Neuvel, sorry, he he got a bit lucky.

Explain to me his explain problems on the last day column.

You know, he was just one of those things, George.

He came under a bit of pressure from OJ, obviously.

OJ said a great time.

He made mistakes, yeah.

He ran off the road.

Did he?

He didn't get those punches for nothing.

I thought I saw a video of it.

Maybe maybe I didn't saw him running off the road.

I think it was Saturday where it might have been the last day.

Maybe it was right at the end of it.

He'd clipped it.

I think it was through the bit you'd driven through in the key stage column.

That's what we didn't drive through it because we didn't get that far.

We got stuck before that section.

And we didn't have to say anything.

We didn't have to say anything.

We got stuck before that section.

And we gave up.

I was in absolute quivering, right?

We had to be dismissed.

You can watch that, by the way, on Club Derp, which is well-called.

Elliot, to be fair, to have got out like a mountain goat that he is trying to push the car out and everything is quite insane.

No, no, he ran away.

Let's make no mistake.

He left Colin T's feet inside a car that was likely to become a projectile down the hill.

Well done for sticking with it, Colin.

George, it was barely a hill.

It was barely a hill.

And the tyres got completely clogged with that clay-like mud.

And it just went nowhere and had absolutely no control.

And then it started going backwards.

And it spun 180 degrees like on a sixpence.

We're pointing back down to where we want to go, which is to get out of this horrible, sticky, slippery mess.

And there's a four-wheel drive coming towards us.

And I'm throwing my hands in the air going,

and the guy just absolutely evacuated the stage, up into the bush.

Good lad.

You could see my predicament.

I was reminded when I saw the video of us in Kenya on the stage,

what's that, I forget the name of that stage across the other side of Lake Nivasha,

where I got a big, we didn't realise how much control I was going down through the trees with a massive drain.

We didn't realise how much control I was going down through the trees with a massive drop on Colin's side of the car.

And I had no control for several hundred metres.

It was horrible.

That was horrible.

But yeah, it was that stage, the Nuvia.

It was the last stage on Saturday.

And he just went into your right hand, a little bit too hot, didn't he?

And he clipped the left side of the car.

I'm good.

Well, he was lucky.

It was, I think, two stages from the end of the day, but he damaged these radios.

That didn't affect him.

That really didn't affect him.

It was the Sunday morning when he had to chase Oji.

Oji had put enormous pressure on him.

I think he'd taken the lead on me and picked up those punctures.

It was just unfortunate, but massive positives for Nuvia and Hyundai.

I mean, that car was every bit as good as the Toyota last weekend.

And my goodness me, we haven't said that for a very long time.

Yeah, and more importantly, the car being good and bad.

And we've had vast discussions around this, possibly disagreements even about this,

the car being good and bad.

That car can't have changed radically.

So what has changed is Tieri's approach to it,

or his, you know, his alteries techniques slightly, his alteries mental approach.

But the bottom line is he was absolutely on it from the start, you know,

and key nas and no complaints about the car,

everything on the car is perfect.

What's changed there?

What's changed?

He talked at the end of the rally about...

He changed the transmission in it, the new suspension.

Yeah, minor differential changes.

Minor differential changes.

And George, you know better than any of us, you know, how important confidence is.

And it is just those little tweaks within the parameters that you have.

And you only have certain parameters, don't you?

You can change these days with the cars.

But you're finding that sweet spot and he absolutely found the sweet spot.

And you're so right.

What was really, really encouraging was it was right up until the final day that he started mentioning,

maybe I can't quite keep the car in the line.

You know, we've heard that all the way through rallies for the past 18 months, two years, haven't we?

But he wasn't talking about anything.

The car wasn't undriveable.

It's been undriveable many times.

Wasn't jumping out the line.

It was staying in the line.

And it was great.

And it was quick.

And you'll remember for more, many stages of T-Wing, five or six stages.

Yeah, tremendous.

But he's never had the same problems as as Terry's had.

He's always been relatively, I mean, obviously not super happy with the car, but he's managed it very well.

And now all these fastest times.

But maybe, maybe we can't read too much into the pace on this column because it is a Cropelist rally.

And whilst the modern WRC, nobody's ever driving anything except pretty close to flat out.

This is probably the furthest we get away from flat out because you have to maintain that extra little bit of safety to conserve your tyres.

The tiniest, tiniest run wide.

You would be so lucky to not get a puncture.

It's not a question of unlucky.

You know, you're lucky if you don't get a puncture on the line.

If you go off the line, the luck has nothing to do with it.

You went off the line, you have a puncture.

So, so lucky if you didn't get a puncture and you went off the line.

We don't want to talk about that Luke, wasn't it?

About punctures and, you know, and the luck element and it's a bit of a lottery.

I'm not buying that.

I am absolutely not buying that.

I think these are the best drivers in the world.

They're the most capable, the most well equipped drivers in the world.

Well equipped in terms of information, of knowledge, of experience, of ability.

And you're telling me they can't work out a way of getting around those stages without punctures.

Well, Sebastian Oje, who was probably the most vocal, he worked it out.

He worked it out, didn't he?

He was the most vocal.

And that's what was done in the past, Colin.

Yeah, so that was never fast.

Well, never fast on the first day of a Cropolis rally when they were first on the road in those days as well.

But they stayed clear of punctures.

Anybody tried a little bit too hard and great.

Two things would happen.

You'd crash and everybody would think you're in a date and you'd lose your factory drive potentially.

Or you get punctures or you'd knock suspension off.

And the guys that are just being sensible and understanding the pace waiting game would wait and they would succeed.

And it wasn't boring.

I make it sound like it might have been boring.

It was far from boring because there was 45 stages in those days and probably five or 600 kilometres at least.

Not much different time period, to be honest.

It was three or four days.

And it was a waiting game.

It was a waiting game.

And that's when Seb played it perfectly.

He had the experience to do it.

He had the road position to capitalise and make sure he was in the best possible place.

More or less second, second best place.

And then he didn't lose patience.

He just kept the pressure a little bit.

And once again, as we've stopped before Colin and agreed on the fact, Seb during the recce will have identified places where the risk is much lower on sections of stages where he could push and really, really push and get away with it.

He knows that he can do that on skill, push in those areas, very low risk of puncture, but a good chance of getting five, 10 seconds.

And he did that.

And that's what enabled him to pressure Thierry.

Thierry's not quite got that now yet to be able to manage that intricate little bit of detail.

On the face of it, very simple, I think in reality very hard because you're so busy making your pace notes, trying to get the detail right.

You need incredible peripheral vision to figure those things out.

Seb has that.

I think I don't know if I'm just talking personally here, but somehow I always feel amazed when I watch this happen still.

And it's like I shouldn't be because he's Sebastian Oje's a nine-time World Rally Champion, winning our 69 events.

We all know we can do it, but watching it play out is just, it's so wonderful to see.

And I love that about any sport, but I think particularly in the WRC and particularly an event like Acropolis where strategy is so obvious.

Our upcoming events in Estonia and Finland will see the out and out fastest driver win and that in itself is also a spectacle.

But Colin, I know you feel quite passionate about this as well.

It's really important in rallying we have, I guess, these rallies that are tougher, that are harder, that do demand a strategic approach from drivers.

It's not just about being flat on the throttles, but using the head as well.

There's another sport for drivers that just want to go fast.

I do have an issue with it. I do have an issue with drivers wanting smooth roads, with engineers wanting smooth roads.

Yeah, they have a place in the championship quite clearly.

No one would ever complain that rally Finland shouldn't be there, even the likes of Estonia and one or two others.

But we can't shy away from the challenge that's rallying.

Your rally sprint is about these short, fast as you can, straight down the road stages.

That's quite exciting, but it's not rallying.

We have to have a variety. Our sport thrives on the fact that there are a variety of challenges and that the engineering brilliant stands out because these cars are capable of managing the worst of the roads, the best of the roads, the worst of the weather, the best of the weather.

It's what we're about. We're about your challenges and addressing the variety of challenges that rallying presents.

So we have to keep rallies like Acropolis, rallies like Turkey in the past, rallies like Estonia.

I remember I said it was Turkey, George, goodness me.

Oh yeah.

And rallies like...

We really speak of Finland as being dramatic.

Absolutely, like Safari. I am. I'm not against a special tyre for Acropolis. I think maybe that's something that should be considered.

But again, as I say, there were a number of drivers that didn't get any punctures at the weekend. Is that a lot? I don't think so. I really don't think so.

I'll solve the tyre problem for you right now, Colin. I'll solve the tyre problem for you right now.

Go on, Georgie.

Yeah.

Forget the nominated tyre. Open it up again. People will just bring whatever tyres you want. There's the rules. There's the tread, there's the depth. Use the rules. Crack on and allow...

And you know what? The tyre manufacturers would make developments like they did in the past. Michelin and Pirelli were in a race and it was incredible a massive part of the story. Who would win and who would do well?

Do we have the money around for that these days, George?

I don't know.

The only thing that's happening against that is that it becomes enormously expensive for testing, for development. You know, you then, as the promoter, you lose whatever it is you charge the supplier for the single tyre deal.

I don't know. I think there's an equally easy solution and that is to invest in a safari stroke Acropolis-style tyre. You know, make them a little bit more durable and with a little less performance.

Yeah, exactly.

How hard is that to do in terms of, you know, a regulation? Very easy. Very easy to do. I don't know whether Hankook have the capability to do that but I'm sure they will have it.

100% George. I tell you what, Hankook and again, you know, I'm no mouthpiece for Hankook but they did take us to Korea and we did have a very good trip with them.

And what we saw out there was the most remarkable facilities, the most remarkably high-tech facilities. The R&D centre was like nothing I've ever seen.

Their headquarters was like nothing I've ever seen. The test track was just wow. It was a motorsport.

Why are we denying them the opportunity to apply all that massive investment on rally where they could do massive developments which would massively benefit road tyres as well?

So we're denying that rally's been denuded of that opportunity. And that's a shame.

That's a question. I suppose it's a question we should ask the FIA.

There's no point in asking the FIA that.

Why aren't you asking? What would be the argument against offering another tyre?

They'll not even entertain it will they?

Why not?

They're on a track because they won't. I mean, because they've followed the track they're on. It would require a U-turn.

So we've got snow tyres, specific snow tyres for Sweden. We've got specific tyres for Monte Carlo. We've got a hard and soft tyre for gravel.

Why can't we have a specific tyre? Why can't we have a... We could do that. There's no reason why we can't. So why are they not doing it Colin?

Why are they not doing it Colin?

Yeah, exactly. Because it's too hard or too expensive.

But it's not too expensive because frankly, you know, I'm sure Hancock didn't come along with the WRC to make themselves look bad.

As you've said, they've invested massively in technology, applying that technology to come along with a rally that's just about the toughest environment for tyres you can possibly imagine.

And certainly the most varied but for an environment and they're denied the opportunity to deliver.

I would walk away if I was them to be honest.

That was very...

I was going to say, what's the point?

But I have to say...

What's the point? You're making me go and making me look bad. What's the point? What is the point?

I felt uncomfortable at times for Hancock at the weekend. I felt uncomfortable.

You're some failure.

They're on a no-win kind of situation. They're on a no-win situation there, aren't they?

Yeah, they're put in that corner by who? The FIA or the promoter or the greed of somebody or the desire to save money. What's the point?

They did choose obviously to take on the deal, didn't they? They weren't forced.

Yeah.

I don't hear what you say.

It's been tougher than they thought and that's fine. But give them the opportunity. They've got all that development ability.

They've got the basic core of the tyre. How hard would it be for them to make it more puncture resistant?

No, not hard at all, Josh.

Not hard at all. Why do they deny the opportunity?

I don't know and I'm going to ask that question. I am going to ask that question.

That's a great question to ask. Why are people being made to look bad?

What doesn't astonish me but you've got to kind of balance that a little bit.

If you'd put the best gravel tyre that we saw from Michelin in the championship, if you'd put the best gravel tyre that would seem from a hard gravel tyre, would seem from Pirelli in the championship,

if you'd put them on the cars this weekend, you'd have had exactly the same issues, maybe even more issues.

Who knows? Who knows? We can't make a comparison right now.

We can because we just have to look back and listen to some of the comments when Pirelli were last there.

What we have to remember with Hankook is that they're only a year and a half into the WRC contract. They are making big strides.

So I think it's a little bit unfair criticism they get.

I think it was money well spent taking you to Korea because despite what you said you are doing them up, you're doing them proud.

I look at the options for where we might go. It's a three year deal.

I believe the tender might even be open now for 28 I think it is.

Who are we going to get? Michelin coming back with BF Goodridge or Michelin or Pirelli coming back.

There are one or two other tyre suppliers out there. Sometimes it's back to the devil.

If I was in charge of Michelin or Pirelli and I wanted to come back in, I would be coming back in on my terms.

I mean I might have to pay money to come in whatever but I want to be able to showcase my tyres correctly.

I will make the right tyres for these rallies. I will not be made to look.

Let's find out what the hurdles are to introducing a specific tyre for the rough gravel events.

We will get on to that and ask a few questions.

Interesting. Thank you.

What I am curious to know as well Colin is obviously as one of the three of us that was at the event last week,

what did you make of some of the changes against to the itinerary?

The key one being the move back to Wutraki which if I am not mistaken it is the first time in the World Championship's 2013

which is the last time we had the event before it came back in 2021.

You obviously spent the night on the ferry as well on Thursday which is a little bit different.

You and Elliot sharing a little cabin together and got a ring to Oliver Solberg.

Did you not have a suite Colin?

We didn't but right opposite us was Oliver Solberg, the Lux rooms.

We are on the right hand side.

Literally the doors on the left hand side have got the numbers and the words Lux underneath them.

They had nothing underneath our number.

It was perfectly comfortable I have to say but having seen Oliver Solberg's suite,

we just felt we were missing out a little bit.

I loved it. Listen George, I missed you out there because some of my best memories of rallying are with you

and remember my dad used to love it out there as well when he came out with us.

I took Elliot to sit at the Corinth Canal.

You know that wee cafe where we would sit and drink coffee and eat ice cream.

What's the Suvlaki eating contest?

Well with a little bridge that drops down when the boats come through.

We sat there one evening and it was late because we got a nice little Suvlaki place there.

It was very late, it was nearly 10 o'clock I think, quarter to 10.

We were just heading back to our apartment and I said let's go and sit just by the canal and grab some Suvlaki from there.

It was late and they were open.

Lo and behold as we were sitting there the bridge goes down you at the canal.

So there's a boat coming through.

Oh it sinks down. It sinks down and the boat goes over the top of it.

It goes over the top of it. Look it's tremendous.

So I'm going to look at the size of this boat that's coming through and he's looking at it.

He's going, come on that's not that big boat.

I'm absolutely wetting myself laughing.

I'm going, you're the size of it Elliot.

And he's looking at the tugboat. Didn't see what it was doing.

All of a sudden this enormous ship appears being towed by the tugboat.

The bulk carrier going with the...

But I did sit there George and think oh my goodness me this is absolutely George Donaldson territory.

I love this. He absolutely loves it.

Oh you're making jealous and I've got the images all falling in the Suvlaki, the ice cream, the lovely coffees.

And boats coming through the canal.

And the heat.

But you know I think, okay the traditionalists will say you need to go further north.

You need to go to Lamia. Lamia is no good as a base for the rally.

There's hardly a single hotel in Lamia.

The service park itself was looking very, very shabby.

And all the towns was being demolished I think and rebuilt.

But it's no good. It's absolutely no good as a centre.

You know when it was the centre in the past they used to go all the way up to that beautiful beautiful monument.

You know three hours north of Lamia and it did open up the northern stages but they're not going there anymore.

The track here for me is the place to be.

It's an hour and a bit from Athens. It opens up the Peloponnes stages which are properly challenging.

You've got a myriad of stages around Lutrachy itself.

And you know we went up to Atea on the ferry.

All classic Acropolis stages as well. All stages that have been used for 15 years.

And the boat was a tremendous innovation. It really was to take us all to Atea.

Absolutely. That wasn't that one. But all Lodits to the organisers for that. I loved that.

You know you put in things like that and you introduced another element of risk in terms of the itinerary.

And we've seen it failing in the past.

We saw it in Argentina that year where they took them all down to Buenos Aires for that.

I think it was in the most of stadium that was the football stadium. The famous football stadium.

What's it called Lut? It's the football stadium.

It's what we talk about in Argentina.

Yeah in Argentina.

I can picture it and I know it's a Boca Juniors stadium.

So they took them all down there and then they all got stuck.

Didn't they the drivers? Because Ford by airport didn't have assisted landing.

That was a disaster. And then you know we went to Mexico and they had that fantastic super special stage in Mexico City

and it was the biggest square in the world.

And that was a disaster because the cars didn't get back. There was a massive accident on the motorway.

So you know these are elements of risk that the organisers introduced.

Sometimes work, sometimes don't work. The boat I suppose was also an element of risk.

But it was brilliant. It was brilliant. The images, the stories.

Everyone stayed on the boat.

Everyone stayed on the boat. We all had dinner, we all had breakfast.

And just coming off in the morning to Itea and just literally driving George five minutes to start a box-site.

Yeah a box-site way. It was magnificent.

It was magnificent.

So yeah, full of food.

I'm so jealous. And box-site way, what a stage.

What a stage.

The start of it is just like, you know, for people that have not watched it.

The start of it is like Thousand Lakes, almost a cross between that and something else.

So fast.

And so smooth.

So gorgeous.

The only thing I would say is Saturday for me, there were some great stages on Saturday,

enjoyed the stages. But you know we had a hundred kilometres competitive and we had 700 and total 600 kilometres of liaison.

The drivers were away. I think we left it like quarter six in the morning and didn't get back back at ten at night.

And you know, Taka-san made the point, you know, because it was so late we couldn't go and speak to the fans in the service park.

You know, one of the other journalists made the point, you know, we're in the media zone at ten o'clock, 1015 at night.

He said, what's the point in this? You know, we've got to go and write the stories. Everyone's in bed.

And then, you know, the news is all by the time they get up in the morning.

So that for me was the only thing they have to look at.

I guess we went all the way down to Tripoli probably because the local government around Tripoli were putting some money in.

But other than that, it was a magnificent, magnificent event.

And I thought they organised us to the great job and we're tracking for me.

The service park again is a little bit small, on the scruffy side, but it works. It absolutely works.

So I'm all for Lutraki.

Yeah, yeah, it's definitely a fun place.

And, you know, perfectly easy to get to as well, you know, airport access just tremendous, motorway out.

But what a fabulous, it's a holiday destination, but for Greeks, it's where all the people from Athens go when it gets too hot in Athens.

They all decant into the edge of the Peloponnese, Lutraki, and so many houses up in the hills.

You're never far away from a domicile, of course, Colin, but nobody minds a rally car coming past their house.

It's fabulous.

No, they love the rally in Greece.

So, you know, it's, it creates excitement and it was great.

It was great to be back in Lutraki because the Lutraki people absolutely love the area.

I could solve that problem.

I thought about that problem you've got about the drivers being very tired at night because I feel for them so great.

I have no sympathy for that.

So what to do is get rid of the service park and move again.

So just, you know, go linear with the rally.

It used to work.

It wasn't a problem.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't have problems with them being tired.

Mobile service parks again.

What's the problem with that?

I think it's one service park a day.

One service park a day.

What's the problem?

It's not like we're doing anything special there and it's not, it would be very unusual if an itinerary would allow a single service park all by all means, you know, if you've got 30 kilometers out and you've got a series of three or four stages on, you know, on some clover leaf design, really do it.

But if you've not, then, then, you know, again, locking events into this format, you're going to end up with problems like that.

I have an even better answer, George.

I mean, a better answer is, you know, a day and a half, two day rallies, because you could have an intense two day rally around the track.

Intense, you know, the fact is we had to go down in triply for whatever reason, for money or for stages.

I don't believe it was because they were running out of stages.

I did ask why they didn't run that stage.

Remember the stage where Loeb, 2009, where Loeb came perilously close to not winning the championship that year.

I think he hit a tree stump in Poland.

You got a penalty in Australia and had a massive crash in Greece.

Remember that stage?

Is that above Magara?

Above Magara, is it?

Yeah, it's just it's not far, not far.

Kind of on the way across to see that thieves.

I think maybe you're right.

I can't quite look at the map actually.

Just south, just south of the track, you remember where they were.

You know, I asked why.

I don't know, okay, so it's a different one.

It's a different one.

I don't know where you are.

I asked them why they weren't including that this year and they said, well, you know, wind farms, they paved a lot of the roads.

They've tarmacked a lot of the road around there to access the wind farm.

So they've obviously lost a bit of stage kilometers, but I'm pretty certain, you know, when we go to Estonia in a week or two,

Stymie, they're running a different sort of itinerary.

You know, if it is proving too difficult to get enough kilometers close to a single service,

but make it a day and a half, two day event and put as many gates.

That's another reasonable solution.

I could argue hard against that, but it's a perfectly viable solution, I suppose.

It's too hard to go to rallies if you're going for too long.

I mean, let's cut it down a day, half a day.

Let's just talk about it on the podcast.

Let's not bother going.

It's the thing.

It's when we've talked about rallying, you know, it's variety that keeps rallying real,

that keeps it, you know, different, that keeps it entertaining and engaging.

You know, variety then of the type of service, like let's have a variety of different rallies.

You know, the understanding is that there are so many rallies that are ready to come into the calendar.

Next year, we're talking about rally US, we're talking about rally Scotland.

We are going to have to lose one or two rallies.

There's no question about that.

You know, the following year, I'm hearing talk about various other rallies that are on the point of perhaps announcing that they're bidding for the championship.

So, you know, we might have to go to 16 rounds, 17 rounds.

And in that case, we do have to look at, you know, a fair percentage of those rallies being way, way more concentrated.

Well, they could be way more concentrated.

They could be a different type of event altogether.

As long as they've got good sport, they have Eeper, just fabulous.

I'm not a big tarmac fan, but Eeper, having been team manager there, I think three or four times in one every single time,

albeit because my drivers have been fabulous, but we have made some great strategic decisions.

I'll take some credit for that as well.

I do like that rally because you won there every time you went.

Eeper's quite fun, actually. Eeper's quite a fun place.

For me, it's a temple, George. And again, it's not possible for every rally to run nearly 300 kms in 48 hours, 36-48 hours.

Eeper can and other rallies.

It used to be 24 hours, I think they did it.

I think it was 24 hours they did it in.

It just ran 24 hours. It didn't stop.

There were no breaks or anything.

Talking of which, rough gravel events, I'm going to just jump off the rails here now a little bit because we're kind of detracted from the event itself, which is good.

It's interesting for me to get my fix again.

This makes me nervous, though, as the man is meant to be.

You want to be nervous. I've already caused you all minor problems. I know that and I'm quite happy about that.

But the Saudi Arabia, I've seen the images of Dakar, Colin, you've been there.

I suppose you're probably better off not being there to see all the images that you get to see on the TV.

Fabulous. The most amazing countryside.

And then I watched last year's WRC event and I might as well have been watching a rally cross and a gravel pit.

How did we get that so wrong? And I hope that the remedy that this year, I want to see how fabulous the country is.

I want to see rally cars going across Vistas, not in little gullies and gravel pits.

Look, Saudi Arabia has got a 10-year deal. So let's not push them too quickly to do these things.

They've got some massively innovative plans for Saudi Arabia.

The biggest problem last year was that we were in that car park, that Formula 1 car park, in the centre of what's the town called again?

Jeddah.

And what does that do? Well, you've got to go 20 k's, 25 k's till you're out the city.

So it then restricts this kind of stages that you can choose.

There are some unbelievable mountain stages that are not so far from Jeddah.

Now, when I was there, I was asking the question, they have an unbelievable football stadium on the outskirts of Jeddah.

It's got the biggest car park in the world.

Perfect, absolutely perfect for a service park.

It's got all the facilities you could possibly want within the stadium.

It's state-of-the-art stadium.

Did you give them a free console called?

Well, George, what it does do is it then takes us half an hour out of town, so half an hour closer.

Yeah.

Opening up the stages.

So the reason they didn't use it this year or last year was to do with the football calendar or something like that.

There was some reason.

OK.

But I suspect things will be OK.

Hopefully this year it will be OK.

You know, we, you know, I am a fan of motorsport in Saudi Arabia because I've seen the positive effect it's had.

And I'm very happy to sit down and debate with anyone this claim of sport washing.

You know, sport washing, if you're not seeing positive effects, then yeah, I'll take your accusation of sport washing.

I see enormous positive effects and it's not positive effects for the upper class elite.

It's positive effects for the everyday person in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

And this is like Hile.

It's a young generation that are inspired by what they see.

It's a young generation that are demanding change because they're seeing, because of Dakar, because of Formula One,

and hopefully in the future because of the World Rally Championship, they're seeing what is possible.

And they're demanding that they have access to that.

And fair play to the government.

They're giving them it.

You know, when I first went to Saudi Arabia, it was an absolutely shocking situation where women weren't allowed to drive.

You know, that's almost been forgotten about now.

You know, everyone, everyone within reasons allowed to drive now in Saudi Arabia.

I mean, I brought that up because I'm passionate about seeing, I want to see our fabulous rally cars on that event,

which I know can be fabulous.

And I refuse to accept a compromise that would take us away from it.

So you've already made my fears.

I work as an active spectator, at least in spirit, if not physically getting there.

I would go to Saudi Arabia this year on the 10 years hope that we're going to start to get the picturesque stages.

Fantastic.

We will get on that.

Thanks to Crap Out in Me.

And as for Saudi Arabia being accused of sport washing, honestly, the people that say that are just a little bit sad, really.

Well, I don't know if they're sad, but they just need to do a little more digging, research and be a little more open.

They have a little bit more open in their thought processes.

And, you know, what we must never do is continually condemnation for the mistakes and the bad practice of an older generation.

And that's what it is.

You know, the young generation in Saudi Arabia.

We've gone political now.

Have we gone political now, Lou?

You know, I've not gone political, but it's something I'm absolutely passionate about because I've seen it and I've heard the accusations and it frustrates me.

It really, really, really frustrates me.

Well, I 100% agree with you on that.

But as I said, let's get back to the rally.

Let's get away from the politics.

You're right.

You know, we had a situation, I think the opening stage on the Sunday morning was basically through a tip on the outskirts of town at the start of it.

And I said to the guys, you know, there were people who'd been out there for six months advising on the part of the promoter.

And I said to them, how did you allow this to happen?

How did you know that these are the images?

You know, the photographers are here.

We're there.

Dirt Fisher there.

These images are going to go around the world.

It's not the image you want to put out of, you know, of drivers, you know, doing their pre-event warm-ups in the middle of a tip.

I mean, it was it was bizarre.

There were some mistakes made.

But as I say, it's a 10-year deal.

There's a whole load more to come.

And let me tell you, within three or four years, they'll be doing things in Saudi Arabia that make you go wow, wow for rally.

Oh, that's a good way.

Absolutely.

And I'm so looking forward to that.

I'm so excited about it.

Your people think this was a way to do that.

I'll maybe try to do that.

I'll maybe try and do that because I've got the luxury that I can just slot in with you guys and go and see a few different things.

And get some access.

So I'll look at doing that at the end of the year.

People ask me very often which events I would recommend they go to.

There are some that you should always vote for like Finland.

But I'll tell you, you could probably do Saudi Arabia on half the price, half the budget of Finland.

You can get really cheap flights out to Jeddah.

Car has very reasonable fuels, very cheap accommodation is remarkably reasonable.

Eating out is very reasonable as well.

Stop telling everyone this call.

You get unbelievable access to the stages.

I know, I'm on my watch.

You want to hinge every one of them.

How did we get into Saudi Arabia?

How did you allow this to happen?

That was my fault.

It's me.

Sorry Luke, it's nothing to do with you.

It's everything to do with me.

You've kept me in a closet for the better part of three months, four months.

Guess what?

I come and burst out with all my nonsense and passion for our sport.

And passion for new events.

I was a big fan when Saudi Arabia was announced.

I was a big fan for that.

When Acropolis came back in, I was totally delighted.

It's in the past already.

It delivered just as it normally does.

Acropolis for me was absolutely as per...

Colin, you can explain one thing to me.

Danny saw those retirement.

I understand the comment that they made.

They retired them so that they had plenty of time to repair the car or parts for the next gravel events, honestly.

It's not time, George.

It's not time.

It's three and a half weeks.

You know how it all works, George.

Link components.

Link components on the car.

If you retire a car from an event, then it gives you a little bit more freedom in terms of your turbo.

You can only set number of turbos.

They're linked.

We know that engines are linked.

I think gearboxes as well.

So it gives you as a team a bit more freedom to change parts.

If they hadn't retired, Saudi would have got a result.

That car goes with those parts to its next linked event.

It will go to its next linked event now, but it will go to its next linked event with the option to put new parts.

That's the reason for doing it.

It wasn't new.

Another foolish rule.

Potentially.

It wasn't new and it wasn't particularly innovative.

It's a rule that's migrated its way in.

I understand the reasoning for it, but it's not sound reasoning in my book.

So that's why he dropped out.

Of course, he wasn't necessary for points for the team, so that was fine.

No.

I'll pitch a topic change though, because there is one time where I think we should talk about, given when we got about 15 minutes left of Colin Clark.

So we'll get this in one place around.

All the Solberg sadly.

Another mistake, another day ending mistake, another time the dirt for Schema found him at the side of the road.

It's the fourth time in five rallies.

This is happening for Solberg.

I'll come to you first George, because you've known Oliver your entire life, haven't you?

You've seen him grow up.

Except for some of us.

Some was a baby.

Yes.

What do you make of what we're seeing?

Because we know the talent is there.

That isn't the problem.

Something isn't working out.

This is absolutely something's not working out, but it's okay.

It's what happens.

And it's a learning and a growth process.

And either he's a clever guy, he thinks about it.

Maybe a little reset.

You just need to be able to go to Yari Mati Latvala now and speak to Yari Mati Latvala.

Now I used to speak to Yari Mati Latvala a lot when he was still as an active driver.

I worked with him when he was relatively new in the sport as a production championship driver.

And I was trying to explain to him about the waiting game, the applying event strategy, event tactics.

And he now says, I wish I had listened to people or been able to apply what was being said to me.

He said he can hear the voices.

He can hear himself being told, Yari, don't do that.

Do this.

Just take your time and that will come to you.

And he wishes he applied it.

He would have been world champion several times over if he'd just done that.

And he couldn't because he was too impatient, too impetuous, too enthusiastic, too confident,

not able to trust himself or trust that the event will come to him.

Not many events ever came to Yari.

Nearly all the events he went and won from the front, Colin style, Tommy style.

And this event came to Sebastian.

He played that waiting game.

He targeted very small things, enough to rattle to Yari and then bingo away it goes.

Listen, all of us all, you know, you say it's what for in the last five events, you look at the massive off in Monte Carlo.

He was magical in Monte, absolutely magical.

But he wrote his luck.

You know, you look at Sweden where he got a result, not what he was looking for.

He got a result.

Roadie's luck there as well.

He was in some very, very peculiar situations there.

It's been a tough year.

And you know, I completely forgive all of us all bug making mistakes like the Canaries.

Wasn't the Canaries in the fight with OJ?

Yeah, but this was very different.

This was very unforced.

Inexcusable.

I remember Henry Tovenham doing something similar back in when I went there in 1986, sorry, 1984 or something like that.

Henry Tovenham was driving a Lancero 37, I think.

I think that was the year it was either 1984 or it might have been the following year, 1985.

And I wasn't there for that.

But Henry Tovenham was very quick.

He got a couple of fastest times on the first four or five stages just out of Athens.

And then he was gone.

He binged it.

Yeah.

The thing we should all go on this one.

What couple this is about.

The thing we saw about Keogh was don't forget that, you know, we went on the boat to Itaia.

He gets off the boat, he goes into the opening stage of the morning, stage two of the rally, and he picks up a puncture.

So, you know, why that happened, we don't know.

What that means is that his approach has to change.

You know, he can, as you say, when it's from the front, George, he has to be clever.

He has to make sure he gets through every stage.

When the final stage of the day, it was a very straightforward sequence of corners.

You are a relatively quick right-hander into a slightly tightening left-hander.

And again, the car was, it was hard to scratch on the car.

Yes, it lost the top plane of its rear wing as it kind of went at right angles through the bushes.

Other than that, the car was, the car was practically undamaged.

It's a very, very small mistake, but it is the circumstances of the mistake that you question.

Nothing to drive for, needs to get back to service.

And he wasn't capable of doing that.

Now, just let me finish this one point, George.

You know, Sallberg, at the side of the road when we got to him, he was completely lost and the poor guy.

And I do feel for drivers at these points, but you know, the other boys that go out there that take the glory,

they take all the plaudits that were willing to throw at them when they're winning,

and they understand that when things are going badly, when most of them understand, they have to face up to it.

And Sallberg, I felt desperate for him. Still a young man, and he was broken.

What encouraged me was his attitude on Sunday morning.

We spoke to him after the opening stage on Sunday morning, and he kind of got it, George.

He said, look, you know, and he took responsibility, he was owning it.

He knew it was a mental thing. He knew he'd have to change, and he was very, very positive.

I just liked the sound of his approach on Sunday morning and the fact that, yeah, this healing process,

this process of getting over, and I'm sure it was devastation, of Friday.

I think he's done that many times.

Well, yeah, but George, I felt something slightly different, and he knows he has to find.

Something different. He knows that the approach that's given him this shocking run of form is not working,

and it has to be changed. He is, without any question, the outstanding talent of his generation,

and he will win many rallies, he will win many titles.

Are we pushing him a little bit too much right now? Maybe he did.

I agree that he's very early in his career, but so he's still learning.

I remember what I was wanting to say there was a recall doing strategy with Petter

and discussing inside the team and with Petter directly where he was having a problem,

and Petter's problem wasn't terribly dissimilar.

Now, his driving technique was radically different to Tommy's, and I've discussed this with everybody here before,

but Petter's speed into corners was enormous, and he sorted it out on the way through the corner.

His exit speed was invariably much slower than Tommy's.

So Tommy got speed all the way down the next straight, but that's not what we're talking about here.

The thing with Tommy's approach was it was relatively risk-free compared to Petter's,

and Petter would very often, even on his championship year, he was making mistakes on the first day in the morning.

He was too impatient, he was pushing too hard, he was cracking on through,

and if he just took that one stage time away on multiple rallies, he would have won that championship much more handsomely than he did.

And we managed to persuade him and make him understand that and go out on the morning of the next rally.

Eventually, it took two or three rallies, I can't remember which rally it was that we managed it on.

Go out, take it easy, take your time, you do not have to read this rally from the start, you only have to read it on the last stage,

and you've really got to play that game, and who played that game well here in Acropolis?

Of course, Sebastian Oje in Spain, absolutely brilliant.

So, I remember eventually the penny dropped with Petter, and he then played the strategy, and it was fabulous when he did him.

It was very rewarding to have been part of that discussion, part of the analysis within the team,

and then part of the discussion within the team, and then relaying that to Petter, and then convincing him, convincing him, showing him on paper, on graphs, on video.

This is what you cannot do. Look at this, you know, here's a corner.

Petter, you're 40 kilometres an hour faster here than Tommy, but Tommy's three seconds quicker than you at the end of the stage,

because look, here's 50 metres after the corner, Tommy is 10 miles an hour faster than you, or 10 kph faster than you there,

and a kilometre down the road at the end of the straight, or the end of the section, he's still going to be 10 kph faster than you,

which means he's won three seconds on that one kilometre section, just because he came into that corner too fast.

So, re-figure this out. It's quite a big step. It's very, very hard as a driver to do, and I can relate to that.

I can totally relate to that. But I believe that Oliver is learning all the time.

Yes, okay, four events in a row. Four events is nothing in the career.

And his career is going to do 250 events. Yes, it takes us four events, horribly expensive for the team.

The team's got enough collateral in place to stand it, so I don't think he's at any risk at all.

Who would even think that it was at risk, not an issue at all.

But he does need to solve those problems, and he will solve them, and he'll be admirable when he does.

And then he'll be unstoppable. I'm almost happy that he's making some wee mistakes because it's keeping it open.

But if it comes good towards the end of the year, that is fine. Absolutely, George.

If he comes good in the next three rallies... Who's that going to help?

Who's that going to help? He's going to help Elfin, isn't it?

Well, I guess it is, but he's the sort of driver who is very capable of putting a run-up wins together.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

And if he does win two or three in a row, or two or three out of four, he propels himself back into the title fight.

So we talk about OJ being, for me, the firm favourite.

Maybe that's a little bit dependent on whether Solberg does actually manage to turn things around.

He will turn things around, but if he can turn it around quicker...

Yeah, absolutely.

It is an interesting situation.

Not all drivers turn it around, Colin, to be honest, not all drivers do.

No, no, no. I think he will, though. I'm sad he will.

I mean, career-wise, he's got a fine career, but...

You know, Yari Matty Latvala was never WRC champion.

Mika Hervin was never WRC champion.

Not necessarily in either of their cases because of mistakes they made, or ongoing errors, such as we're talking about now.

But it's not impossible.

So he does have to act on it. There is a little bit of...

There's no pressure to do it. I think it will come.

It will come with experience as long as he allows himself to keep developing and doesn't go into some form of doom loop.

And honestly speaking, you know, the doom loop thing is an easy thing to enter.

If we just put some maths on it, just now, because I'm just currently looking at the challenger table to remind myself,

and obviously, Elvin Evans' points score actually went up after the event concluded, didn't it,

with those penalties for Josh McElhane and Adjan from OJ.

He currently has 162 points. OJ was on 125.

So there's a 37-point gap between those two.

You've got Taka Katsuta in the middle. He's only 11 points off Elvin.

Solberg is 59 points behind. So, it's a what?

It's 22 points behind even OJ.

So that does, you see, for the next couple rallies, well, he's close to Sammy,

but certainly Estonia is fifth on the road.

Now, we know role position isn't as important there, but that's his advantage, isn't it?

Now, OJ is, the ring goes in. He's now got more access to that benefit.

Solberg has all of it. We know he's got the speed.

So it is quite, I like the point about actually, if he comes on form, this guy can actually be a bit of a weapon in Revans.

Oh, he could. I mean, what he could do is, you know, if you're knocking people off,

you know, if you're winning the event and getting five on five,

you know, you're knocking a massive opportunity for Seb to erode that difference to Elvin.

You know, and then, you know, and Elvin's not going to be sitting on his laurels.

Taka Katsuta will be lifted by the fight. Sammy Pajaris in there, Terry Noyvils and Adrian Formole,

very, very capable of interfering with that.

So, yeah, I think a lot to still come. A very, very interesting champion.

I mean, that completely open. I wouldn't say that anybody's favorite.

I couldn't, I personally couldn't say anyone's favorite, other than obvious Sebastian Oji has got the experience and Raleigh's all about experience.

He's the one that is in the Ascendant right now.

Elvin didn't manage to rescue as much from that as he might have done.

Taka did a better job. That's where Elvin should have been, you know, there or, you know, he should have been,

he should have managed to get back to the podium, not fifth.

But you can see the difference.

What's interesting with you, George, is you mentioned seven drivers there.

And I would agree with you. I think actually even, and granted, the points don't look great.

So, N'Vill and Formole are both level now on 95.

So, that's 67 behind Elvin, which is a fair, it's a fair gap.

But what we don't know is how, because this is the first time I think ever in WRC history,

the entire second half of the season has been on gravel.

So, if Elvin remains the guy that's out front cleaning the roads, he's going to constantly be at disadvantage.

So, everyone else is in theory, catch a club.

Constantly at disadvantage, if the weather stays fine, you know, the other thing that may affect the game is going forward.

Rain in Finland, rain in Finland and encroaching rain in Finland, and I'm sure Estonia would be exactly the same.

And either of those events would just plain to the hands, but most of the time it's dry.

So, you know, he's maybe got a 20% chance of getting an advantage over those two events.

And you want it on the first day, so that reduces the opportunity.

But yeah, he's got a good chance of doing it. So, I'll cross my fingers for him.

I'd like to see him. I'd like to see him. He's done such a brilliant first half of the year again,

when it's kind of, there's a bit of equity there. So, you know.

So, here's my position.

There's another change to the champion.

I'm going to say that we will go to Saudi again. I think this time with three drivers in contention still.

I think that's the, the brilliance of this calendar. You know, it's not good.

It's not brilliant for Elvin Evans. You're quite right.

But I think the fact that there's going to be, you have anyone overtakes Elvin before the end of the year,

they'll have a bit of a penalty to play in Saudi. I think there could be three drivers in with a chance of winning the title when we go to Saudi.

Maybe four.

Are you going to break off the guess who?

Obviously, I'm going to say it's Elvin. I'm going to say, obviously, OJ.

I'm going to say Takasan, because I think Takasan is due a bit more luck in Estonia than he's had in the past.

Remember, he led Estonia a few years ago at the end of Friday.

Yeah.

I think he's due a bit more luck there. And I also think he's due a really, really good result in Finland.

Takasan just needs to keep chipping away, away.

So, I'm going to say Takasan will be there.

The fourth, it could be Solberg, Nuvill, Formot. It could be Pairi.

It could be Pairi, but I think there'll be four.

I think the way the calendar is working, there could be four going to Saudi Arabia.

And how much fun would that be?

Yeah, absolutely amazing.

Absolutely amazing. Yeah.

I mean, you look at that from, I mean, I would say from, even from Pairi and Adrian,

they've got that massive road advantage going into these next events.

They've got five and six cars in front of them on the first day of these events.

That's a potential massive leg up.

And that could entirely reverse that.

You know, we could go into Saudi with 67 cars within five points, calling it.

It could end up being like that.

It's not impossible because I think the advantages are and disadvantages are just that massive,

unless the weather kicks in and circumstances help Elfin and Taka and Noseb a little bit too.

But already by car three on the road, you're in the rain, like in Finland, you're starting to,

you're already in a quagmire.

It can be huge.

I mean, you could, you could, if it rained encroaching rain in Finland on two or three stages could give Elfin

a minute and a half, two minutes advantage after day one, you know, it could, it could happen like that.

And it has done and it will do again, whether it's this year or not, we don't know.

Very exciting.

I'm excited now.

You have.

You've made me all enthusiastic.

Very well, George.

Not that I wasn't excited last year.

But now I'm really excited.

And that is the potential issue.

As we said, there's so many different ramifications there.

You know what to do if you want to hear us talk more about it.

Make sure you have subscribed to Spin the Rally Pod on your chosen podcast provider, whether that's Apple,

whether it's Spotify or anywhere else, you get podcasts at all sorts places.

So we're everywhere.

Make sure you do that to hear us.

Thank you very much, George and Colin, as always.

Thank you for your time.

It was a great chat, some diversions as usual, but you've come to expect that.

You didn't click on this episode expecting anything else.

Colin's taking me to Saudi.

Is it business class or economy class?

You're taking me, Colin.

It's, it's, it's, it's absolute.

It's easy jet class.

I'll still go.

I don't care.

I don't care just for your company.

It's worth it.

It'd be a lot of fun.

Certainly will.

I'm saying will.

It's not would be.

It's will.

It's positivity.

I'm going to make a promise to George.

If there are four drivers in contention in Saudi Arabia, I'll personally take it to Saudi Arabia.

I'll go and look underneath the sofa, find as many air miles as I can pull together and I'll take it to Saudi.

Right.

WRC drivers, if you want to listen, if you want to hurt Colin Clark's wallet, you know what to do.

I don't, think, I think Colin would actually have, have a stroke if he had to do that.

If he had to, had to pay for me to go to Saudi.

I think you don't have a stroke.

I'm not worried about your health.

So I'm going to decline that offer.

No, I've got a few spare miles.

I'll take your amount.

It's too concerning for me.

It's too concerning.

You're, you're, you're filled with all those, what is called those,

those, all these, it's not, you said that.

Air miles and sharing a room, you know, okay.

You snore like a blimmin' Harley Davidson motorbike sitting in the corner.

I'll never forget.

I'll never forget in Germany.

Honestly, I thought I was sharing a room at one point in Germany where the Harley Davidson was being revved in the corner.

A gift, a gift Colin, all manner of free travel, free hotels, look after them, give them a rental car

and he comes back and abuses me.

I mean, it's a form of do this for self-flagellation.

I can remember.

I can still visualize that room.

I can still visualize it.

The worst room sharing experience we ever had was in Dubai.

Dubai was great.

Dubai was great, but the problem with Dubai was it was dead posh.

So Dubai, George, and I will always, always remember that because you took me out there.

It was my first event after my pretty serious illness and you looked after me beautifully,

but it was a partial tell with one of those glass baths.

No.

It's great.

It's a very completely glass.

It's great.

If you're a partner or whatever.

We went into the room and the pain of us just dissolved into tears of laughter when we saw it.

We made it right downstairs.

The arrangement was happy days.

Dubai Rally was a lot of fun.

2009, it was a lot of fun.

A long time ago now.

But you know, going to Germany was a big modernist hotel on the outskirts of Triere.

There's about three stories high and we were in a corner room and George's bed was right in the corner

and I was on the other side of the bed.

It was a nice big room, I'd have to say, but it was quite a little ceiling.

It was quite dark and it was very, very echoey.

And it was like a blooming Harley Davidson in the corner at like two in the morning.

He never mentioned it to me at the time, you know, that's how he sees it.

In case anybody's thinking he's being horrible to me now, he is being horrible to me now.

But he never said anything at the time.

He never gave me a chance to solve that problem for him.

I could have thrown myself out the window for instance, Colin.

That would have solved your problem.

I would have done that for you.

However, you didn't do it, but no, no, you kept it.

You kept your powder dry and 16, 17 years later, yes, throw it back in my face.

I feel so small and awful now.

I don't know.

Are we still recording?

I was so grumpy.

The next morning that I genuinely considered sleeping in the car the next night.

I told you that.

Well, I told you that.

We had, we had, we had a pair of minis with drop heads and Colin.

I spent a night around Sierra, around all the ropey areas with the top down.

It was very fun.

It was great.

It was a lot of fun.

Except for the fact I was going down the Autobahn at 190 kph.

It was great fun.

Yeah.

I just do listen.

Have you ever felt like a third wheel?

That's why I feel right now.

It's like couples.

Sorry.

No, it's a great.

It's fascinating.

I'm a baby then.

Yeah, I would have.

We'd have you along in a second, Luke.

We'd have you along in a second.

Yeah, I'll take it.

Get out there and make, get out there and live it yourself.

You get out to, well, I mean, obviously dirt fish will have some spare bucks because Colin's

paying for me to go to, to Saudi and, and it's cheap to go.

Let's just go.

I'll split my fare with you and then, and then you'll go.

We've cracked it.

That's it.

We will check out the vistas, the grand vistas in the, in Saudi.

And if I go a day early, I can go out and recce where they should be having the stages.

If I'm not satisfied with where they are, and I'll let them know.

Good.

I want to see those fabulous vistas that Saudi offers us.

It's the most beautiful country, the most picturesque grand place.

And I'm desperate to see it.

I had the joy of flying over Saudi when I, on my way back from Japan because I came back

via Dubai in between rocket attacks and the Emirates.

I'm allowed to say that when I'm not in it, but we left there and we flew right over the,

the northern part of Saudi, right down to the Red Sea, right down to the Red Sea.

Beautiful.

It's just fabulous.

I'm thinking of myself.

Yes, please let me explore this place.

Let me have a WRC rally here.

I suppose I could just do that.

Get your bags, George.

We're going out.

We're going out and whenever we're going out.

My bags are packed.

My Ray-Ban sunglasses are sorted out.

I put my different glasses on and I can put my Ray-Bans on top of them.

Great.

All sorts.

I'm ready.

I'm ready to go.

It's all very organized here.

Look, it is.

Absolutely.

It's as much as well.

Okay.

If you want to say any Ray-Ban, there are, of course, other WRCs to come in the interim

and you know what to do again in that time.

Make sure you're following Dirtfish because all of our various channels, YouTube, social

media, the website, Club Dirtfish is all there for your enjoyment and consumption.

So get on it and we'll see you on Spin the Rally pod very, very soon.

Thank you very much.

A minute's away.

I hope I get to come back.

Look, I've not been too bad this time.

Thank you everyone.

Bye, George.

See you, Luke.

Bye, Luke.

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Oliver Solberg

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differential

pace notes

Hankook

Loutraki

service park

liaison

linked components

Henri Toivonen

Lancia 037

Dodge Challenger

road cleaning

Mini Convertible

About this episode

Original notes