Although Maciek Oleksowicz has never won any round of Polish Championships, he has always been considered to be a reliable driver. And although he returned to Polish Rally Championship for three seasons, after his foreign races, this year we shall not be seeing him too often on the track of the races.
WRC: Świdnik Rally is finished – the first round of this year’s Championship of Poland. There were five cars Fiesta R5 on the starting line, but there was your car nowhere. Does this mean the end of regular starts in rally extra class?
Maciek Oleksowicz: It looks that way. The main reason for this is lack of time. I concentrated much more on work for Inter Cars, which was founded by my father years ago. I cannot find enough time to do both these things well and also still have time for my family.
Really you resigned from racing at the end of last year – we did not see you in the finale rounds. Why?
The reason is still the same, i.e. focussing on work. Of course, if it were not for the incident from last year's Vistula Rally and Nadwiślański Rally, the decision would not have been so obvious.
This means that you completely put the helmet on the hook, or maybe we shall see you again on Polish Special Stages?
I love gravel and I have always been lobbying for more such races as RSMR. I intend to take part in several gravel races. Probably these will be the qualifiers of „Szuter Cup”. There is great atmosphere, good relation with the organizers, schedule is also very compact. Of course I shall miss longer races and special stages. Maybe at the end of the year I will manage to go to some “more serious” gravel race. What is important, this year I will not be present at Special Stages of Rally Poland. Summarizing – races this year will be just my hobby. I still have my car, but my team FastForward focuses mostly on serving customers, and also promoting and trading Pirelli tyres, ETS fuel and Ohlins shock absorbers. Surely this year FastForward will have lots of work, as there is a large number of drivers who want to take part in „Szuter Cup”
This year we noticed a revolution in Rally Poland. There is a promoter, “Rajdomania” company, which exclusive owner is your dad. Will you also take part in this project?
No. The father founder of this project was Jarek Kołtun, and my dad decided to help in this undertaking. Personally I do not take park in activity of “Rajdomania”, but I keep my fingers crossed for this project to succeed. Inter Cars marketing department will be supporting this project a lot. It assumes longer cooperation and everyone is aware of the fact that the beginnings will be difficult and one will have to wait for the effects.
Some years ago you started driving in Rally Europe, in the season 2012 you took part in the world championship. But later you came back to RSMP. With hindsight, do you think that it was a good decision?
The decision was taken by the budget and the time I could have for races. From sports point of view one season in WRC, is not enough. All drivers repeat that the first season is just composed of trainings and trials of reaching the finish line. Following this idea, the best solution would be to continue this adventure with World Rally Championship, but – as I mentioned at the beginning – there was no such possibility.
Let’s get back in time even more. Why before 2010 season you dumped Peugeot and started adventure with Ford Fiesta?
From the start I was sure I want to build my team and buy my own car. Driving the Peugeot from Tomek Kuchar, there were two mechanics in the team gathering work experience. Fiesta S2000 was at that time the most modern construction available and Mikko Hirvonen won the Monte Carlo Rally in one. Additional cooperation and customer service in M-Sport was and still is at the highest possible level. It was a very good choice, although it seems to me that on the tarmac Peugeot was a bit faster.
Latterly the top R5 racing car is Skoda Fabia. Did you consider getting into one?
We have quite close relations with Skoda, as we are delivering EST fuel for them. I have been to the factory, watching Fabia R5, but I have not driven any other R5 besides Fiesta. From economical point of view changing Fiesta to Fabia would be too expensive. We would have to build the whole stock of spare parts, realize lots of tests and learn the new vehicle. As we can see by the results of many races, staying with Fiesta was a good decision. The car is constantly being developed, and after the latest modifications it became very competitive.
You have mentioned FastForward Company. What is your current involvement in its activity?
The company is run by my two business partners, who are also shareholders of the company. Tomasz Skinder and Wojtek Palacz manage it themselves and only consult with me when it comes to more important decisions. I still have the majority of shares in the company. Despite lack of racing driver for this season in some „large” racing cycle, the company is developing fast. We are serving many customers, but priority at the moment is Pirelli tyres and Ohlins shock absorbers. We are not only selling absorbers but also servicing them, constructing full suspension systems, and lately as one of several points in Europe we got authorization which allows us to service absorbers of Peugeot and Citroen (including R5).
How did your cooperation with Michał Kuśnierz start? This year – especially looking at his starts with Tomek Gryc – will you be driving together?
After 2012 season, when I finished racing in World Championship, I was looking for new co-driver. I talked to several experienced co-drivers, but we only had test drives with Michał. We just clicked. This year Michał will also go with me. We do not know what we shall do if there is a conflict of some dates of we will both take part in the same race. Probably Michał will go with the one who is higher in the general classification.
Are you considering following e.g. Tomek Kuchar, i.e. dumping rallies for the benefit of other discipline, e.g. rallycross?
I thought about that for some time. I do like cross country. Many racing drivers want that way. Thanks to courtesy of Marek Dąbrowski I had a chance of driving his Dakar Toyota – the car drives and behaves like a rally car. Gives the feeling of total impunity. Just like one could drive into any hole at any speed. Of course many experienced the fact that it is not true. But the limits are much further than in any other racing car.
You mentioned your work for Inter Cars Company. What exactly do you do there?
Mainly setting development strategy of IT division. We have branches and warehouses in 14 countries. Quite a lot IT systems have never been planned to be used on such scale and internationally. For example, our main ERP system in Poland was planned to be used on 20 branches. Currently we have 200 branches only in Poland. I also take part in managing the company. Some time ago Inter Cars underwent a transformation from owner controlled company into a company managed by specialists and managers. This allowed the company to reach such a size. Now there are further steps to be taken. Management and strategy creation is not done only by Polish people, but also by international teams.
Let’s get back to rallies - don’t you think that Polish Rallies, especially those on tarmac, lack diversity?
I am not a supporter. But I think that it is not the selection of special stages that influence the whole spectacle, but competition that takes place on them. If we have many teams, competing for the victory, doing their best, taking risk, we can talk about an interesting spectacle. Overseas the cars keep going in circle and no-one says they lack diversity.
What is your favourite rally?
Enormous emotions were in New Zealand Rally. Everything there was absolutely different from what we know from European Rallies. I also feel very positive about Turkey and Croatia. In Poland there was a great gravel rally by the sea and of course al the special stages in Mazuria.
You have driven in many cycles for many years, but you have never won the highest crown, in WRC 2 or Championship of Poland or Europe. Do you feel some insufficiency because of that?
Yes, I do I have always wanted to be the fastest, to win. What was missing? Season after season I thought I knew it. That it was just to correct some things, change some and I would be the fastest. Now I have accepted the fact that I will never be the champion of the world, Europe or Poland. I have gone through many great moments, learnt a lot, being accompanied by great and dedicated people. I am trying to look at it this way.
You mentioned people. There were some rumours that your car was not tuned perfectly and that influenced your results in a negative way…
I was selecting people who worked for me. The settings were suitable for me. I suppose that the main difference was that we always said directly what was wrong with the car, what failed and what was to be corrected. In other teams they often hid malfunctions, people tried to build opinion analysing in detail what was worth saying. Being aware of these gossips I have analysed in detail the malfunctions of my car and tyre selection. I can boldly say that surely we made no more mistakes as a team than our competitors did.
As one of not many racing drivers you can be considered to be an expert in foreign races as well as in RSMP. How would you comment on the saying „greener grass where there is no us” – i.e. the opinion promoted by many that Polish races are rather weak in comparison to foreign ones?
Rallies in Poland are not weak. Weak are some people organizing them. What I could say bad about Polish rallies are questions of safety. In most countries there are no stages where we are driving 170 km/h on a tarmac road with holes, and there are huge trees on both sides of it. On Italian or French asphalt roads generally crashes end only with a broken wheel.
And just to summarize, tell us if with hindsight, would you do anything differently in your career?
From a sports point of view, I should have stayed one more season in European Championship. One season in WRC was a great sacrifice taking into consideration its organization, time and financial aspects. It was a great adventure, but in sports sense gave me no progress. I can say that I even learnt to drive slower. Races were so long and difficult, and we, as a team not prepared enough, that I had to pay too much attention to reach the finish line, and not enough attention to drive fast on every special stage.
Interview led by: Wojciech Garbarz
source: Świat Rajdów