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Johan Kristoffersson Q&A: "I can always improve as a driver"

With the World RX of Barcelona-Catalunya, round one of the 2018 FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy, now barely more than a week away, anticipation is building ahead of what is expected to be another competitive season.

All eyes are on Johan Kristoffersson to see if he can follow up his record-breaking 2017 Drivers' title with a similarly comprehensive championship win in 2018.

We caught up with the PSRX Volkswagen Sweden driver to get his thoughts as he prepares to defend the coveted #1 plate on the door of his Polo R.

Q. Have your expectations changed for this season after winning your first FIA World title?

JK. "I expect that it will be hard competition this year; I expect that our team will have a good package and I expect that we be able to do some good results."

Q. There's a lot of new car and driver combinations for this season, who do you consider to be your biggest threat across the whole year?

JK. "I think it is difficult to say. I will go to win the championships, both of them, and to do that we need to beat everyone."

Q. At the official World RX tests (in France and the UK) you've had the opportunity to look at what other teams are doing with their new cars - have you paid much attention to the others?

JK. "Of course, mostly we focus on ourselves like I think everyone is doing, but at the same time for sure you're always keen to see the other cars. We are looking a little bit, but mostly because it's a new season. You cannot really learn anything in terms of pace so it's difficult to say, so you look out of curiosity, especially with the new Renault.

Q. The 2018 version of the Polo R Supercar is a development on last year's car. How much of an improvement do you think it is?

JK. "I think we haven't really tested the complete package yet. That will be basically tested in the first race. In testing there's always adjusting a few things here and there, and we try to package everything together now for the first race. But, there haven't been any major changes, we have been working on many small things that have improved. The complete package I hope will turn out to be a little bit better than last year."

Q. What do you think was the biggest area for improvement for you or the team from last year?

JK. "You can always improve as a driver, first of all. So, I have one more year of experience, but I think from last year it was very clear that we was a bit lacking in consistency in the launches."

Q. Apart from yourself and Petter (Solberg), who do you think is the strongest driver pairing in World RX?

JK. "I'm not sure, I think it's hard to tell between (Mattias) Ekstrom and (Andreas) Bakkerud (at EKS Audi Sport) and Timmy (Hansen) and (Sebastien) Loeb (at Team Peugeot Total)."

Q. You're racing in the Swedish Touring Car Championship as well this year, will it be hard for you to switch between circuit racing and rallycross on different weekends?

JK. "I'm used to it; it should be OK. I'm not worried about that."

Q. Will it be possible for you to focus on fighting for both championships?

JK. "Yes, that's no problem. It's so far in between the races, and its different weekends and so on, so that will not be an issue. But for sure the main focus is on World RX."

Q. Lastly, there are two new tracks in World RX this year - Silverstone in the UK, and COTA in the US. What are your expectations for the new circuits?

JK. "I've been testing at Silverstone, so I have a quite clear view of how it will be, and Texas we will have to see. But, the first thing I'm thinking of when there is a new track is that to have Petter as a team mate is very good because he is always quickly on learning a new track from his rally background. Then you have the right answers you need and after the first outing you can look at the data. It will be very interesting to go to the US and race there; I'm really looking forward to that."

Thanks Johan!

Zdroj: fiaworldrallycross.com