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One year for learning. One year for victory. This is a common view within motor sports. But for Patrik Sandell and Emil Axelsson, these plans did not come into effect - they turned out world champions already year one. Bearing this in mind, the news that Renault Sport wants to keep its Swedish star drivers for one more year came as no big surprise.
There has been speculations for a while, and last Tuesday it became clear that junior world rally champions Patrik Sandell and Emil Axelsson continues to drive for Renault Sport in JWRC 2007. With the new deal, Patrik becomes Renault’s official factory driver in rally. Also, he will be the first to drive the all new Renault Clio R3.
As ruling junior world champion, Sandell belongs to the same club as among others Sebastien Loeb, Daniel Sordo and PG Andersson. So far, no one has managed to defend their title a second year – statistics Patrik intends to change.
”It stands to reason that my goal is to defend the title. Since no one else has succeeded, it is about time. Other than that, next year is about developing as a driver as well as test pilot, since we will be performing a lot of tests the coming year” Patrik Sandell says.
”In my opinion, a good rally venture is always a two- or three-year commitment, and everyone at Renault Sport are happy to have the opportunity to continue working with Patrik and Emil. It is an interesting challenge for the ruling champion team to pursue new goals in a new car” says Gilles Vandecaveye, head of Renault Sport rally division in France.
The new car follows the R3 regulations, rumoured to apply as JWRC class for 2008. The class is exempt for racing already this year and will be driven together with the Super 1600 class, but with a 2-litre engine instead of the 1,6-litre.
”I have tested the car on gravel in the south of France mid December and I got a very good feeling for it. It is really easily driven and has a good engine. I really look forward to developing this car together with Renault”, Patrik says.
The car is to be ready in the beginning of February and the aim is to perform at least two days of testing before Rally Norway 16-18 February - the first race of this year’s championships.
As ruling junior world champion, Sandell belongs to the same club as among others Sebastien Loeb, Daniel Sordo and PG Andersson. So far, no one has managed to defend their title a second year – statistics Patrik intends to change.
”It stands to reason that my goal is to defend the title. Since no one else has succeeded, it is about time. Other than that, next year is about developing as a driver as well as test pilot, since we will be performing a lot of tests the coming year” Patrik Sandell says.
”In my opinion, a good rally venture is always a two- or three-year commitment, and everyone at Renault Sport are happy to have the opportunity to continue working with Patrik and Emil. It is an interesting challenge for the ruling champion team to pursue new goals in a new car” says Gilles Vandecaveye, head of Renault Sport rally division in France.
The new car follows the R3 regulations, rumoured to apply as JWRC class for 2008. The class is exempt for racing already this year and will be driven together with the Super 1600 class, but with a 2-litre engine instead of the 1,6-litre.
”I have tested the car on gravel in the south of France mid December and I got a very good feeling for it. It is really easily driven and has a good engine. I really look forward to developing this car together with Renault”, Patrik says.
The car is to be ready in the beginning of February and the aim is to perform at least two days of testing before Rally Norway 16-18 February - the first race of this year’s championships.
“Tillsammans kan vi nu skapa en framtid för svensk rallysport, som företag eller privatperson kan ni nu bli medlem i Sweden World Rally Team och bidra till att skapa nästa Svenska Världsmästare i rally efter mig”
Stig Blomqvist, WORLD RALLY CHAMPION 1984
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