Wilson's text support for Camilli
M-Sport's rising star Eric Camilli received some mobile motivation during Rally Italia Sardegna via a series of text messages from team boss Malcolm Wilson.
Wilson was unable to travel to Italy while he recuperates from ankle surgery so instead monitored Camilli's progress from the UK and texted his verdict straight to the car.
And after a broken diff effectively wiped out Camilli's opening day, the messages got more and more positive on Saturday and Sunday as he delivered a string of top three stage times and claimed his first stage win on the first pass of the Live TV Power Stage.
"The first text read: 'really good', the second: 'really, really good' and then, finally: 'really, really, really good!'" said Camilli, who was keen to impress after a disappointing start to his season.
"I’ve only been rallying three years, mainly on Tarmac, and now we’re setting fastest WRC times on gravel. It really is incredible and we’re so excited about this performance.
"The progress that we have made is all down to experience – it’s as simple as that. Experience is the key to success.
“I need to say a big thank you to the team, and my engineer Chris and of course Malcolm. They believed in me from the very beginning and we could not have achieved this without their help and support," he added.
After the rally, Wilson said he was "extremely impressed" by Camilli's weekend and believed the stage win would be the first of many.
“We knew he was capable of this kind of performance, but we never expected it to come so soon. He has bounced back brilliantly and the level of progression over the last three events is way beyond anything I have ever witnessed before. He has the potential to go very far indeed,” he said.
