Mads Ostberg's former co-driver teams up with Andreas Mikkelsen

This offseason in the world of Rally is marked by several crew changes. Via a press release published on his Facebook account, Mads Ostberg announced the end of his collaboration with Torsten Eriksen. The Norwegian specifies that his now ex-co-driver will join Andreas Mikkelsen next season. To replace him, the Citroën representative formalized the arrival of Patrik Barth. For his part, the new champion in WRC2 and ERC has not yet made its new association with Eriksen official. 

Although he does not hide his surprise at the departure of his co-driver, Mads Ostberg welcomes the arrival of his former teammate when he was racing in the ERC in 2017. “ Torstein and I have enjoyed a long and good cooperation since 2012, when he was part of my opening team. In Finland, in 2017, he replaced Ola Floene. We had a lot of good results together, with several podium places in WRC, but also two titles and one runner-up for Torstein in the WRC2 co-driver championship. I can definitely say that our cooperation was good from the first to the last rally, with good work, good relationship and good friendship. Torstein chose to move to Andreas Mikkelsen, after a financial offer that I cannot counter. It was a surprise, I must admit, but fortunately I have a perfect replacement in Patrik Barth, with whom I have been working since 2017. With the exception of 2020, where Patrik was in the car in WRC2 with Pontus Tidemand, Patrik was part of my team as a fly-half. He was also my co-driver in the ERC in 2017. I know what to expect, and to be honest, I’m very happy.”