Five wins, five questions: An interview with Markku Alén

His five wins are a record for Rally Portugal: Markku Alén, known as “Mr. Maximum Attack.” The Finnish rally legend won in Portugal in 1975, his first ever WRC win, before repeating the feat in 1977, 1978, 1981 and 1987. As Sébastien Ogier can match his Portugal record with a victory at Rally Portugal (19 to 22 May), we invited the ex-champion for a chat.

Mr. Alén, our driver Sébastien Ogier needs one more win to match your record. Is this a problem for you or no big deal?
Markku Alén (laughing): No, I don’t have a problem with that at all. Seb is fantastic, I like the way he drives. Furthermore, he is a great guy. I like him a lot, on a personal level. Seb is a fighter, who always wants to win – I like that. If he wins this year, we will both hold the record with five wins. And we can talk about this again in a year’s time.

15 out of 49 previous winners at Rally Portugal come from Finland. Can you explain why Finnish drivers are so successful in Portugal?
Alén: It is a bit crazy really. I competed in Portugal 15 times and won the rally on five occasions, while never having to retire early either. So it seems to be a lucky place for me. Why Finnish drivers are so successful there? When I was driving, Rally Portugal always took place in February or March, and normally in the northern part of the country, and since 2015 this is again how the rally is scheduled. Maybe the layout in this region just suits our Finnish driving style. There aren’t too many bends, and there are plenty of fast sections that are great to drive. I loved driving there – it is a great rally and always a great show.

What did you like most about Rally Portugal when you were competing there?
Alén: I have a lot of great memories of Rally Portugal. In the 1980s, we drove some night stages on asphalt in the Group B cars. There were loads of spectators and it was just brilliant. You could compare it a bit with the special stage on Col de Turini at Rally Monte Carlo – but at night. In northern Portugal, however, the weather conditions in February and March were always very difficult. We had to deal with thick fog, lots of rain and very muddy special stages.

You experienced the era of the legendary Group B cars. Some changes are planned to the WRC regulations in 2017. Are you looking forward to the new generation of World Rally Cars?
Alén: Absolutely! The World Rally Cars are already fast. These changes will make them that bit faster – and louder, which the spectators will love. I think that the new regulations in 2017 will help to put on a really good show.

What do you think will be the new challenges facing the drivers in the 2017 cars?
Alén: The new cars won’t really be a new challenge as such. If you are a professional rally driver, you don’t have major problems with changes like this. The cars have 60 or 70 HP more under the hood, and the top drivers won’t find this difficult to deal with.

Source:
www.volkswagen-motorsport.com