Why the success of AVB's WRC debut won't be defined on the stages

When it comes to football in the Villas-Boas family, Porto is the team everyone unites behind. But when it comes to motorsport, that togetherness starts to fray around the edges – and it is the doing of two men. The same two men who shaped Andre Villas-Boas’s love of cars.

The father of the future Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur manager, Luis Filipe Manuel, introduced him to Formula 1 aged 11 and, as a youngster, Villas-Boas made regular visits to Estoril to witness the greats of that period – Prost, Senna, Mansell and Berger – going wheel-to-wheel at the Portuguese Grand Prix. His uncle Pedro on the other hand was more of a rally raid man.

Where Luis was happy to follow car racing from the comfort of his own home - or in a grandstand with thousands of other like-minded people - Pedro liked being part of the spectacle. Based on his Dakar experiences between 1982 and 1984, he gave off-road racing official status in Portugal with help from Jose Megre by forming Clube Aventura.

“This interest for motorsport was within the family,” Villas-Boas tells Autosport ahead of his World Rally Championship debut in next week's Rally Portugal. “The two things you dream of when you are a small kid is to be a footballer or a Formula 1 driver. But you have to have talent and I had talent for neither, but still I had my idols like everyone during my childhood.”

Villas-Boas is now at a point in life where he wants to live his dreams instead of chasing them. In many respects he is fortunate he can do so, his work as a football manager at clubs across Europe handsomely rewarded even if these spells haven’t always ended happily. He might be out of work right now having called time on his job at Ligue One side Marseille in February, but that’s not stopping him from wanting to add to his private car portfolio. Nor has it stopped him from making what he says will be his first and last WRC appearance in a WRC3 class Citroen C3 prepared by Sports and You.

Chatting to Autosport via Zoom from his home in Porto, Villas-Boas is happy to wax lyrical about his love of competition cars – especially those that have competed in the Dakar Rally. What sparks the conversation about his private collection, that has since been turned into a museum, is a picture of Randy Mamola hanging on the wall over this writer's left shoulder, which Villas-Boas enquires about.

Andre Villas-Boas, Citroen C3

“I was close to buying one of his bikes – the ex-Duncan Hamilton one – but with MotoGP bikes it is hard to get the history back. It can be a bit dodgy, so I decided not to,” he says.

What he has shaken hands on is nothing short of remarkable and includes the V8-powered pick-up he drove at the Dakar in 2018 – the one that crashed heavily over a sand dune and led to him needing to be evacuated by helicopter to the nearest hospital.

“I’ve been collecting for a few years and because I’ve driven, and I have a passion for the Dakar, I managed to buy the winning Peugeot from 2017,” he says. “I have Cyril Despres’ winning KTM and the Toyota Hilux I used at Dakar for sentiment, mixed in with a few other cars.

"I’ve no idea where we’ll stand in the overall classification, no idea. Last? Last, given the level of people who are there? Finishing would be great" Andre Villas-Boas

“My idol I have. It is the Ferrari F40 – the car we had in miniature as kids and I have a picture of me with one in the Eighties or Nineties in Portugal. I also have a Lamborghini Miura, a 2.7-litre [Porsche 911], and a few other classic cars from the Fifties.”

The collection is far from complete, however.

“With the Dakar collection, the one I was sorry to miss out on was when Peugeot sold me the 3008 DKR,” Villas-Boas continues. “I was looking to add the 205, the T16 Grand Raid, to it. Of course, it is in a museum and it belongs to Peugeot, which they are not willing to sell.

“There is another one – not the winning example – that is in the collection of a Spanish guy that I am flirting with, but it is too much money. But yeah, two Peugeots together would be nice because, growing up, you had this vision of the Dakar and it was the yellow Camel Peugeot going through the dunes. When you build a collection, I think you chase the dreams you had as a kid.”

Andre Villas-Boas, 2018 Dakar Rally

Photo by: Flavien Duhamel / Red Bull Content Pool

Villas-Boas confirms another shot at the Dakar Rally is on the cards, but exactly when that will be is unclear given that his priorities continue to revolve around football. The 43-year-old is in contact with different football federations about potentially taking the reins of a national squad after the European Championships this summer. And then there is the small matter of the Presidential election at Porto FC in 2024 – the club he grew up as a child supporting and would go on manage in June 2010. Twelve months later, after lifting the Portuguese Supercup and going an entire season unbeaten to win the Primeira Liga, he tendered his resignation to join Chelsea.

“I have already met a few people and we have discussed will it happen, will it not,” he explains. “What happens with me, I am normally a little bit more global in the sense that if something is not there in Europe, I don’t mind trying Brazil, Mexico, Japan because I like this kind of experience and I have always set up a short-term career for my coaching, so I want to be active until 2024 and I want to choose well the next one. Sincerely, I really wouldn’t mind a national team right now.

“I also have in my future becoming the President of my club of Porto because I was born in Porto and I have a special relationship with the club. I was born a Porto fan, so I have this target – this destiny, let’s say. That is in 2024 and it will also mark my 15th year in football, so maybe things will play along together, I don’t know. It depends on lots of factors because it’s political.”

That, of course, is all in the future. Back to the here and now and the focus is very much on Rally Portugal. When word got out that his name was on the entry list alongside seven-time champion Sebastien Ogier and 2019 title winner Ott Tanak, a tsunami of news stories quickly followed.

It promises to be a huge step up for Villas-Boas. After all, Rally Portugal will be only the second time he has steered a 282bhp Rally2-spec car, and only the second time he has driven using pace notes. To help prepare, he entered Rali Vieira do Minho last month with team-mate Goncalo Magalhaes. The Portuguese duo certainly did not disgrace themselves in front of an adoring crowd that lined the route, placing 10th of the 18 crews that made it safely to the finish. Despite lacking seat time, Villas-Boas has a sound appreciation of what is required of a rally driver.

“I found out you need to be precise on the stages – very precise – but the braking is astonishing,” he says of the Citroen. “Getting the braking right so you can position the car on the correct line is important. The problem for me is getting acquainted with pace notes and the importance of good pace notes. We are learning about this, me and Goncalo. You know, the first pace notes we took out with us when we started testing, they were simply, ‘Left right, left right. Left, left, left, left!’

Andre Villas-Boas, 2021 Rali Vieira do Minho

Photo by: AIFA

“Now we understand a bit more, we have the degrees method from six to zero and that is working quite well. OK, we did a big mistake on this rally because we took the notes down on a SSV [side-by-side vehicle] and of course it is much lighter, more stable and direct, so everything looked fast. I ended up telling my co-driver, ‘This stage is quick – it is smooth and flat!’ But this is how you learn and we will take a proper car to recognise the stages at Rally of Portugal.

“Result-wise, I want to finish,” he adds. “I’ve no idea where we’ll stand in the overall classification, no idea. Last? Last, given the level of people who are there? Finishing would be great and raising a little bit of awareness and donations for the causes along the way. In the end, that is the reason why I’m doing the rally, to make sure the charities get a good kick-off. So yeah, it is probably going to be the first and last time – unless I can get a good result and I am invited by Toyota back again!”

For someone who is so success-driven, how Villas-Boas performs on home soil is going to have to take a back seat and it is the taking part that carries greater value than ending up with silverware. He knows that the gravel event – which runs out of Matosinhos, north west of Porto – is a gilt-edged opportunity to heighten awareness of Race For Good, a charity that uses motorsport to garner support and money for social causes.

"My goal is to achieve something parallel to what Juan Mata did with Manchester United and that is the 1% rule. So, say 1% of the funding that goes to a team then goes to Race For Good. It is ambitious but it is where I want to get in the next few years" Andre Villas-Boas

He has used the time he would otherwise spend on the training pitch and prowling his technical area to plot a way for Race For Good to achieve its goals, and the same applies to Ace Africa - of which he is a patron and has already graced the WRC stages on the bonnet of Eric Camilli’s Citroen at the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally.

“You raise awareness of Ace Africa and speak of the institutions, but there is not a lot of transfer in donations,” he says. “So now, in this first year of Race For Good, I want to let people see what it stands for, set everything up – trademarks, websites, logos – and get approval from the government as being an NGO so that I can hold auctions, car experiences or visits to my museum.

“For now, I think Rally of Portugal is a good thing to do. For the event, I’m going to sell my image to brands who are going to pay 100% to the foundation. I will take my car out for Race For Good and a few businesses, and this way I can generate more money. Already, within a few days, we’ve raised €30,000 because people are interested in my image, and the benefits I can bring to them.

Andre Villas-Boas, 2018 Dakar Rally

Photo by: Enrique Castro Mendivil / Red Bull Content Pool

“I think this is the greatest victory. If I did this race with my car just decorated in Race For Good, Ace Africa, Laureus Sport and the institution for disabled children that I’m a patron of, it would raise awareness but it wouldn’t translate into what they really need, which is funding.”

What will undoubtedly help is the expectation that, after a false start last time out in Croatia, at least some fans will be allowed to spectate at a WRC counter for the first time since last year’s Rally Estonia – something that is not lost on Villas-Boas.

“I have heard the public is going to be allowed at 30% allocation,” he says. “I’m honestly not sure how that is going to be controlled because people are crazy about [rally] cars over here in Portugal, so it is going to be hard. But yes, for sure, that is going to increase overall awareness and raise the interest levels.

“I do not want to bother people. The last thing you want is for people to bother you – I know this feeling – but with a few connections, then we can try and make reaching our funding goals for the charity happen.

“My goal is to achieve something parallel to what Juan Mata did with Manchester United and that is the 1% rule. So, say 1% of the funding that goes to a team then goes to Race For Good. So, 1% of Microsoft’s backing of Toyota is set aside for Race For Good. I hope to convince the FIA, the big brands, or the professionals. It is ambitious but it is where I want to get in the next few years.”

This is one cause people can unite behind irrespective of sporting loyalties, AVB’s family included.

Andre Villas-Boas, 2021 Rali Vieira do Minho

Photo by: AIFA