OSTBERG TO MISS ’19 FINLAND OUTING
Mads Ostberg will miss next month’s Rally Finland for the first time since 2005, preferring instead to work on the development of Citroen’s C3 R5.
Runner up in Jyvaskyla last season, Ostberg has told MN how much it hurts to miss what would have been his 14th straight year competing at the season’s fastest event.
“Really, it hurts a lot,” he said. “I wanted to do it, I want to do it, but we are not prepared for it – simple as that.”
The Norwegian praised Citroen’s early season work with its R5 car, but with improved reliability he is now pushing for more speed and improved aerodynamics at the front of the C3. Given the high-speed nature of the next round of the series, the concern is for front-end grip as the air gets underneath and lifts the car’s nose over the jumps.
“We need a lip at the front of the car,” said Ostberg. “This would help, but I have been talking about this since Sweden. I said back then that it would be difficult to do Finland if we didn’t have this work and it hasn’t come, so we don’t go.
“I was supposed to do Finland, but I’m pulling [on] the brake a little bit now. I don’t want to commit to doing more unless we do more work with the car. The car is getting older and the others are coming with new cars and we need to work on this; I am trying to change the philosophy with the car to make it quicker, but now we see if they listen to me or not.”
The 31-year-old, who is second in the WRC 2 Pro standings, admits he’s also concerned about his own career in rallying.
“I’m not here to drive slowly or medium speed,” he said. “I’m here to push to perform on every stage. I’m not willing to take the caution – it’s not my point to take second place because we don’t have the performance.
“It’s better for me not to go to avoid falling into the same holes. Taking time out and working with the car is good for Citroen and for me, we can’t carry on wasting time – the schedule was so tight earlier this year, this will give us time to improve.”
Ostberg did try to convince Citroen to run him in a third C3 WRC – the car he used to lead Rally Finland before finishing second last season – but those negotiations failed to bear fruit.
His next WRC 2 Pro outing will be Germany, followed potentially by Rally Turkey, Wales and Spain.