Interview - Nicky Grist

Nicky Grist in his 'working place'

E.L.: First I'd like to wish you happy new year 2003. Next week you're coming to winter autoshow in Kranjska Gora - Slovenia, where you will also have a short seminar for all interested drivers. It seems that after a long time you won't participate in world rally championship (wrc). How do you feel about this?

N.G.: Having competed for so many years on the WRC, and with twenty-one victories I have no regrets about stopping.

E.L.: A lot of new, younger drivers is coming into wrc (Solberg, Martin, Loeb, Kresta, Sola …). Which of those drivers is, by your opinion, the most talented to become a new champion of world rallyjing?

N.G.:For me the one that will be there is first is Petter Solberg, he showed on the Network Q that he has the edge at this time. Although Martin is very fast he needs to change his mental approach.

E.L.: You're one of the most experienced co-drivers in the world. What do you thing, which is the main mistake made by younger co-drivers?

N.G.: Trying too hard too soon. The one thing you need to compete properly is WRC rally experience, they will always be fast but they win with experience.

E.L.:Are you planning to open some school for co-drivers if you won't find any place in wrc?

N.G.:I have thought about it, but at the moment there are so many other things happening I do not know whether I could spare the time to do a good enough job.

E.L.: Rally become more and more popular all over the world and common opinion is, that at the moment it's more popular then formula 1. But also rally 'is closing the doors' for spectators. For example, a few years ago, there was no barriers in services, and spectators could talk to their favourite drivers, get their signature, etc. Might this cost, that rally will lose spectators?

N.G.:If the sport becomes that popular then these kind of controls will be needed, because it will become a victim of its own success. The sport needs to grow, but there will be changes as it grows, and these changes we have to expect and agree with to succeed.

E.L.: Rally also become more and more expensive. It could happen, that one car will be too fast for others (like Ferrari in F1). What to do, to avoid that?

N.G.:There have been so many restrictions in F1 over the years to try and control this, but it is always the teams with the big budgets for development that are the quickest. This will be the same in rallying and its difficult to stop it, but Teams will come and go for sure over the years.

E.L.: If we are looking camera-cars of you, we get a feeling, that you are very calm during all competition. Also in case of some accidents you don't show your feelings, like for ex Giraurdet, who always say that he loves her wife. Are you really so calm, or you just don't show your feelings?

N.G.:I always felt calm, but it is important for the driver to have someone who is always in control. But we are all different, both Drivers and Co-drivers.

E.L.:We had a chance to hear your explanation about the roads of different rallies around the world. How important is for the drivers to know the type of surface of super stages?

N.G.:Super specials are only a show stages, and generally are more or less straight forward. But they are becoming more important as rallying becomes more competitive, and in the future they will as important as any special stage.

E.L.: Which is your main advice to all new drivers, which are in the beginning of their career?

N.G.: Get out and get as much experience as possible, in different countries, on different surfaces as this will help when you get the chances to go to bigger teams and championships.

E.L.: You had a chance to be a co-driver to some of the greatest drivers ion the world like Juha Kankkunen, Malcolm Wilson, Colin McRae, etc. and each of them has its own way of driving. Which was the most perfect?

N.G.:Colin was the most spectacular and I won far more events with him than with anyone else, but Juha has been World champion four times so that should speak for its self. But saying that the sport has changed so much, and Juha’s approach from years ago would probably not work nowadays, with only the top eights drivers scoring points.

E.L.: Italian company Stilo put on the market a watch for co-drivers, which was preformed by your suggestions and it's made to help co-drivers. Could you give us a short explanation about this watch?

N.G.: The watch has all the specialised functions that a co-driver needs to do a good job. It freezes the time of day at the finish of a stage to check the time card entry, stores your stage times (30) in a memory, these you can adjust to get it 100% correct, has a running total of your stage times, countdown timers which can be linked to the stopwatch or any other timer, the list goes on but I guess you get the drift. For the money it well worth it, you can get them form nickygrist.com or Stilo.

E.L.:Which is your favourite wish for the year 2003?

N.G.:To stay within in the sport, and hopefully through television be able to give a new insight into the sport.

E.L.:Thank you for you time and see you in Kranjska gora.