Sebastien Ogier says reproducing the pace that took him to the fastest time on all six asphalt-based superspecials on Rally Australia two years ago will be a tall order on this year’s world championship qualifier.
Despite switching their event to Coffs Harbour 300 kilometres south of the previous base in Kingscliff, Rally Australia organisers have once again included a mainly Tarmac superspecial in the event itinerary.
Based in the jetty area of Coffs Harbour, the 3.77-kilometre Castrol EDGE Super Special Stage will be used six times during the course of the rally, starting with two runs on Thursday evening.
However, a change to the regulations has prevented teams from gaining a performance advantage by using scrubbed gravel tyres in an attempt to provide better grip on the asphalt roads.
“Two years ago it was an interesting game to do it, to play a bit with the tyre and try to have the best one for these stages,” said Ogier. “I managed to do the best time and at that moment in my career it was nice to get. I remember I also took 25 seconds to Mikko Hirvonen so that was also important. This year it’s impossible to play with that because we must start with new tyres. But it’s the same condition for everybody.”
Hirvonen’s rally engineer Tom Fowler admitted the Ford team hadn’t been as well prepared as the rival Citroen squad for the superspecials in Australia in 2009. However, he welcomed the decision to force all competitors to use new tyres for the superspecials.
“It’s always logistically difficult and not very popular with the authorities to scrub tyres,” said Fowler. “It’s also quite a violent affair for the car as it effectively means doing donuts. The last thing you want to be doing before the rally is putting all your power through the transmission while you’re stationary. That’s been avoided here because there’s a rule imposed for this rally.”