25 Dec 12

My Christmas.
By Andreas
Mikkelsen

The 2012 FIA World Rally Championship season may have only recently come to an end, but have you ever wondered what rally drivers get up to over the festive period?

As part of a regular feature on WRC.com, we have been asking stars from the WRC where they will be celebrating Christmas this year. Today, we speak to Volkswagen Motorsport’s new recruit Andreas Mikkelsen.

“We are celebrating Christmas on 24 December in Norway and when the proper holiday comes I will be going to stay in the mountains over the New Year before I begin testing with Mikko [Markkula] on 4 January,” said Mikkelsen.

“It will be nice to be back in Norway after spending so much of the year away. There will be a lot of snow where our cabin is so I plan to do some skiing but I will also be watching the Christmas cartoons, that’s for definite.

“The food we have is proper festive food with a lot of fat but for one week it’s allowed and I am looking forward to it. We have ham, lamb and Christmas ribs but I don’t do the cooking, I only do the eating.”

Mikkelsen says signing to drive a Volkswagen Polo R WRC on 10 rounds of next year’s world championship is the best present he could have asked for but he does have his heart set on one other gift.

“A factory seat in the WRC was first on my list and I crossed off that one,” said Mikkelsen. “Now I really wish for an iPad. I never had one of these things so that would be nice.”