Q&A: Jost Capito

With his team in control of both the WRC drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships after the opening round, the season has certainly got off to a good start for Volkswagen’s Team Principal. Here’s what he had to say after Rallye Monte-Carlo.

With his team in control of both the WRC drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships after the opening round, the season has certainly got off to a good start for Volkswagen’s Team Principal. Here’s what he had to say after Rallye Monte-Carlo.
Q: Jost, you’ve kicked off the season with a great start - the team’s first win at the ‘Monte’.
JC: “You can’t start really any better. Monte-Carlo is an event everyone wants to win and winning it in the second year with Volkswagen in the WRC is absolutely amazing.
"That’s what we were dreaming for and the next dream is coming true after last year. All three drivers did a fantastic job and everybody achieved the targets they had been set so it’s really good for the whole team.”
Q: What was the target for this event – did you achieve it?
JC: “Sébastien Ogier’s performance was worthy of a champion, while Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen also did a magnificent job. Jari-Matti saw the finish line for the first time in 10 years! He wanted a top five and he got that and he won the Power Stage, so he was better than the target – this gives a lot of confidence for Sweden.
"This was the second time [on this event] for Andreas [Mikkelsen] and you can imagine that the first time he only did 500 metres. This time he did much more – he learned all of the stages and that was his target; without one bad luck, he could have been higher. The whole team was happy to come back after the tyre choice on the first day.”
Q: You began last year not knowing what could be achieved, and you achieved so much. Is there more pressure this year as everyone is expecting to see the same success?
JC: “Last year we were relaxed at the start and wanted to see where we were. Then we saw where we were and could develop from there and it went really well. There is no external pressure, we know what we want to achieve so it is an internal pressure and this is a very positive pressure to show what we are capable of.
"We worked hard during the winter, it was a short break, but the work we did to change the car paid off this weekend. I am pretty sure if we had not done that Seb would not have won the rally.”
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