The time is now. If Mads Østberg is to become European Rally champion for the first time, he knows he’s going to have to start winning rallies.
Halfway into the eight-round season, Østberg is third in the title race with a second, a third and a fourth-place finish plus a point-less 16th in the Canaries. But no victories.
The bigger worry though is the Norwegian is yet to beat championship leader Hayden Paddon on a single round. With dropped scores considered, the gap between the pair of World Rally Championship event winners is 20 points as they buckle up for this weekend’s Royal Rally of Scandinavia in Sweden.
Østberg is aware of what he needs to do to reduce that: start winning.
“Yeah, that’s no doubt,” he told DirtFish.
“I think to be honest that was my thought all the way from the beginning, that we need to win rallies and we haven’t been in a position to do that yet.
“We are trying to improve step by step, building a bit more experience also with the new [MRF] tire that we are using this year.
“Also I haven’t been in an international championship last year so we are building speed back up and also trying to develop the car a bit, which was not really working so well I would say in the beginning of the year – just trying to get the setup and everything up-to-date and trying to get some help from Citroën Racing to improve the car on gravel, and I think now they are starting to do something which can hopefully help us.
“But I felt at the beginning of the year that we didn’t feel competitive from the car side, and we had work to do basically, and I think everyone is working on that now which is good for us of course and it’s also good for Citroën in WRC2 where they are also struggling a bit on gravel.”
Østberg wouldn’t be drawn on where specifically the C3 Rally2 needs to be improved, but admitted work is ongoing to the suspension and differentials as “we are searching to find the right balance of the car, basically”.
After a positive test in Sweden on Tuesday, he is hopeful that he’s now in a position to fight for that all-important victory.
“Yeah, I think we are to be honest, we are in a position to win. But there are, again, so many good drivers there. It’s a really strong field.
“Obviously it’s the home event of Oliver [Solberg] so I think he will be one of the strongest guys this weekend. Hayden has always been fast even in Sweden when it was winter-time and Mārtiņš Sesks has been on fire in the last rallies, so there are four, five maybe six drivers who can do really well.
“[Mikko] Heikkilä as well will be more comfortable I think on these roads which are more similar to his home rallies, so it’s difficult to say.
“We had a good test, we have some new parts on the car, we never know what to expect – especially now when we are trying now to bring the car quickly forward, we have to take some risks on our development on the suspension and things like that, so hopefully we are hitting the target.
“But you never know until you are starting the rally.”
Of those six contenders Østberg pinpointed, he expects local boy Solberg to be the biggest threat – but he is welcoming the challenge, even if the young Swede ends up taking ERC points away from him.
“If he does then he’s better,” Østberg simply said.
“It’s just the way it is, it’s a part of this game.
“I think it’s really nice that we have him here. For sure, both on paper and in reality, he is the strongest competitor for this weekend, so I think it’s great to have him there for the home event and it brings the interest up for the rally and I think that’s what we need.
“If he then takes points off me it means he did a better rally, so I can’t blame him I’ll blame myself then.”
Previous experience counts for little
Royal Rally of Scandinavia is an all-new rally, but it runs in familiar territory as the Värmland region had played host to Sweden’s world championship event for decades up until 2022 when the event moved north to Umeå.
Several drivers on the entry list have experience of the Rally Sweden stages, but none as much as Østberg who has started the event an impressive 14 times.
However, he doesn’t feel any of that experience will be of any use this weekend – firstly because the stages are on gravel not snow, but mostly because most of the tests are brand-new to him.
“It’s a brand-new rally,” Østberg said.
“None of the stages are the same – basically just Colin’s, the powerstage. Apart from that none of the stages as far as I know have been used in Rally Sweden, at least not in later years.
“For me I’ve seen some onboards from the stages in national rally five years ago but it’s all new stages to me.”
But the big question remains: will the roads be faster in the summer, or in winter?
“I think it will be faster now to be honest. But OK when you have the studs on proper winter conditions it’s also quite fast so it will be… I think to be honest I’ve never done a rally in winter and summer on the same stages, so I haven’t really any experience to compare it to.
“But normally the road can be a bit wider in the summer so in that sense it should help, but the grip is lower.
“I don’t know, I think you can make a bet for that!”
Østberg ended up 14th quickest after qualifying on the opening day of the Royal Rally Scandinavia, while Solberg set the fastest time
