You must have felt honoured to get the first drive of Volkswagen’s new World Rally Car?
“Yes, for sure I was really happy to drive the Polo for the first time, it’s a great honour. Also, you know, I’m really happy for Volkswagen and for the sport in general that finally another new car and another new manufacturer is coming into rally. So it’s a good day, a great day and a happy day.”

Before this test, when did you last drive a World Rally Car?
“Honestly I think it was the Citroen Xsara WRC [Sainz campaigned in 2004]. After that I’ve been doing some driving in Dakar and some circuit racing with the Scirocco in the 24-hour race at the Nurburgring. The most recent rally car I have driven, a few years ago, is the Skoda S2000.”

And how did the Polo R WRC compare?
“Well you need to have in mind that we are at the very beginning of the Polo. This is the first Polo WRC - we call it the zero - so it’s is not 100 per cent what the ‘real’ car is going to be. But for me it was the first time with the 1600cc turbo engine and with the new [world rally car] regulations. In general it felt good. You know with a 1600 engine I was expecting it to be worse than I actually found. I had an idea about the transmission because the Super 2000 car is running basically this system. As a new generation world rally car it felt good. I will say you always want a bit more power and less weight but that’s what every rally driver will say.”

What was the most impressive aspect of the Polo WRC R?
“I will say the fact that everything was running properly. For the first time driving a new car everything was working fine and that’s the most important thing. This was a first step and the main thing was to start working and collect data. We were able to get working straight away.”

Did anything about the car surprise you?
“Probably the engine. As I said, it was my first time with the1600cc turbo and I was probably expecting it to be worse than it was. Actually the times were not that far away from the old [two-litre] world rally cars. The weight has been reduced a little bit too, which is good news, and hopefully in the future we’ll get them a bit lighter - but this is something for the FIA, nothing to do with the current situation.”

Did this experience make you keen to do more testing?
“At the moment it’s planned I will drive one more day [in Trier] and then I will probably wait for the first proper Polo world rally car - the one we are going to call number one - which will be really close to the finished car. I think I will probably drive that car from time to time. I don’t have the test driver’s role, this is clear, but I always said if I can help the team from time to time to give some feedback and some ideas I will do it, and I am prepared to help as much as possible in every aspect.”

Volkswagen is evaluating a number of young drivers in the WRC this year, any chance we’ll see you competing in a Polo WRC?
“Competing? No, nothing planned. At the moment we are concentrating on the testing. Around the middle part of next year we will decide how we can evaluate the car - to find out how far away from the top teams we are. At the moment there are no plans to drive in any races.”

How worried should MINI, Citroen and Ford be about the new Polo?
“We are going to enter the championship in 2013 as newcomers and knowing that there are big teams already there, so we are going to try and arrive in the best possible way. I know that I am impatient, so I would like to see the car doing well as soon as possible, but I know at the same time that teams like Citroen and Ford are very strong and it is going to be very difficult to match them. But we are going to try and do that as soon as possible. For the future the target is very clear; we would like to win, but obviously this will take some time.”