Vota Articolo
Sinuous Corsican roads pose a different challenge for SWRT
The French round of the World Rally Championship, on the Mediterranean island
of Corsica, is the second
asphalt rally in as many weekends and also the last tarmac outing of the 2008
WRC season. Immediately following Rally Catalunya, it forms the second half of
the asphalt double-header as the season nears its finale.
“It is perhaps misleading to look at Spain and
Corsica as two separate events, because we move from one immediately to the
next and it is so important that we continue our learning and progress across
both” said David Richards, Subaru World Rally Team
Principal. “We learned some good lessons
in Spain,
and it is vital that we carry these into this coming weekend’s competition to
take a step forward with our performance on tarmac.”
Based in Ajaccio
on the west of the island, the service park sits within the town’s shipping
port. Ajaccio and Salou, where the WRC took to
the tarmac just last week, face each other from opposing banks of the Mediterranean
Ocean.
Coming just days after
Rally Catalunya, Corsica’s challenge is also
waged on asphalt roads, but winding through the mountainous and beautifully
unspoiled countryside, they are of a very different nature.
“Corsica is a lot more bumpy than Spain so subjects
the cars and drivers to different types of loads, but it’s still a fast one and
sees the cars pull similar lateral forces of about 1.5g” said Paul Howarth, Subaru World Rally Team
operations director. “The surface is more
abrasive so tyre wear could be more of a factor.
“They’re different natured events, but the drivers
should know the cars well coming from Spain,
have good knowledge of the tyres and know the limits, so be in a good rhythm
from the off. As with Spain,
that’s what you need to be fast here. The weather can be hard to predict and
localised showers often have an impact on the leaderboard. It’s common for cars
to leave a dry service park and arrive at a rain-soaked stage.
“Operationally this is quite a tricky event as
within 24 hours of finishing in Spain,
we are in Corsica ready to rebuild and
re-prepare the cars for the start of the rally. All the teams are well rehearsed
in it though, so it only really becomes a problem if something unexpected
happens that affects the timings in place.”
The timings between the two are clearly crucial
for drivers too, as Petter Solberg explains: “Spain
and Corsica are completely different events as
the nature of the roads is different and the surface is much more abrasive. The
biggest thing though is that they are so close together.
“It doesn’t necessarily make it tougher on drivers
and it’s not because it’s physically hard, but because normally if you are fast
on one rally, you are fast on the next. You build the confidence. And if you
are slow on one rally, you are slow on the next. There’s no time for teams to
really work on the cars between the two either.”
In contrast to Corsica’s
quiet demeanour, the rally route is anything but laid back. The Rally of a
Thousand Corners is a fitting moniker for this test that certainly keeps the
drivers busy. The roads are flowing, meaning that they are also very fast, but
are characterised by the constant dance of hard acceleration and heavy braking,
cars teetering on the edge of adhesion.
“The roads are much more bumpy and narrow, so it
does demand different things from you in the car” said Chris
Atkinson. “The cars all react a lot
more to the bumps than they did in Spain,
so there is a lot more work to do in predicting and feeling where and when they
are going to bounce and move.
“I think you can definitely carry confidence from Spain
into Corsica. While it’s generally the case,
you can’t just assume that a good feeling in Spain
will lead to the same in France
though. It’s the second part of a very important series of rallies that could
set you up well for the last part of the season so you can’t take anything for
granted.”
Rallye de France Tour de
Corse is an important event for Brice Tirabassi and Fabrice Gordon aboard the
third Impreza WRC2008. Not only is it his home event, but Tirabassi made his
WRC debut on the island in 1999 and, before Spain last weekend, it was the
scene of his most recent WRC outing last year. What’s more, Tirabassi’s
long-time co-driver Fabrice Gordon is Corsican-born and lives on the island.
“Corsica is my home
event and I am very excited to be doing the rally in a works Impreza” enthused Brice
Tirabassi. “It’s a fantastic
opportunity for me, and after the experience of Spain
I want to push myself and the car a little bit harder. I’ve had more experience
of WRC cars in Corsica than in Spain,
so I hope this will help my performance. It’s also nice because Fabrice lives in
Corsica, so I think we’ll have lots of support.”
After a ceremonial start
at the Place Austerlitz in the centre of Ajaccio
on Thursday evening, competitors embark upon sixteen stages totalling 359.02
kilometres.
Entries
The Subaru World Rally
Team has entered three Impreza WRC2008s for Rallye de France Tour de Corse. As
usual, Petter Solberg and Phil Mills will drive number five, and team-mates
Chris Atkinson and Stéphane Prévot number six. The third Impreza WRC2008 number
14 will be piloted by Frenchmen Brice Tirabassi and his co-driver Fabrice
Gordon.
Between the rallies
Running back-to-back
with Rally Catalunya, there were no days off for the drivers and the team.
Departing Spain on Monday,
the team arrived in Corsica in time to go
straight into the first day of stage reconnaissance on Tuesday. It is the
shortest break between rallies of the year.
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