Allan McNish Q&A

Absolutely. I went to Sanremo last year and this year I wanted to go to Gap [the town, not the clothes shop - Ed] on Friday because a lot of Toyota guys were going there, but unfortunately I was testing in Barcelona so I couldn't do it. But I went up on Saturday and had a look at the second stage - thankfully not the first, which was cancelled. We landed just outside a little village and there was a double lefthander through the centre of the village then it exited down the mountainside. I wouldn't say it was necessarily one of the quickest parts of the stage, but it was great seeing the acceleration of the WRC cars darting away. You could definitely see the difference between those drivers who were on it and looking to try and win the rally and those who were a little off the pace.



Marcus Gronholm looked pretty smooth and tidy - he was probably the tidiest of the lot of them - Burns was pretty quick and in the Citroens, Loeb looked like he was starting to pick up the pace. It was great to be so close to the action and not having to queue up since six in the morning to see the stage! Also it was nice just to have a little wander around the service park and meet up with some old friends. Motorsport is quite a small world and people are moving between circuit racing and rallying so it was nice to catch up and say hello to a lot of the people."



In some ways yes, and in some ways no. It is one of these big questions. Ultimately, yes. It is an unknown challenge. I sat with Alister [McRae] in the Michelin Race of Champions a few years ago. It was the first time I had sat in a rally car. We were coming up to a water jump and in my mind I was thinking 'This is fun, now you are going to brake, downshift the gears.' But he didn't downshift, he kept it flat and we went bouncing through this water jump. At which point I thought 'Ahhhh, sugar!' And I realised things were slightly different in the rallying world! It always surprises me that circuit drivers - when they do try to do a rally -always go to one of the most difficult events they can do, like Rally GB or something. Why not do a tarmac rally? Something which you have some sort of knowledge about!



They are two different disciplines. But I'm pretty sure that the top rally drivers, if they hadn't gone into rallying, would have gone into circuit racing. And circuit racers would have gone into rallying. I remember Carlos Sainz driving the Toyota GT-ONE [a Le Mans prototype sportscar] in Barcelona. And his first laps were quite funny. I was just coming into the pits and he was darting around everywhere because he wasn't used to the responsiveness of the steering. But by the end of the day he was only about a second and a half off Martin Brundle's time, which I thought was a pretty sterling effort. Martin in one of those things was very, very quick. So I think Carlos did a very good job. It did prove to me that the two sports were very, very different; you hone your skills in a very different way. But at the end of the day, if you can drive, you can drive. I would say that rally drivers have a wider car control than racers, but racing drivers know how to get to the limit more consistently.



Basically, I had a quick run in the car in Barcelona. It wasn't an intentional run, but Jarno [Trulli] had a bit of food poisoning and couldn't make the test. So I went for a quick seat fitting and had 10 laps just to see how things were. But I'm testing at Barcelona again next week and that will be the first chance to find out what it is actually like. But the initial feelings are good. I know a lot of the team because they have basically stayed as one unit for a long time and I have tested with Benetton in the past, in their previous guise. So I am really looking forward to it.



It's two things. In this circumstance it has changed the test driver's role. Come the race weekend my part in it as a test driver is to a greater extent more important than in any other time. The Friday morning will keep me completely up to date with everything and, as you say, if you are doing a good job and Renault are going forward it will reflect well on me. I'm looking forward to getting onto the circuit at Melbourne!



I think sometimes things have to be pushed forward a little bit. It is good that the FIA are taking control and laying down the statute book. I think that now they have clarified when certain elements are going to be brought into play that is very important. People now have timescales to work to. Ultimately I don't think it will reverse the grid order. But there will be a shake up every now and then. If you remember when launch control was first activated there were a lot of problems, especially with McLaren, which made for some interesting races. It might have the same effect but in reverse.