MEEKE’S 2017 RIDE NEARLY READY TO GO
French firm’s 2017 challenger starts testing in April with all drivers included
Citroen is expected to begin testing of its 2017 World Rally challenger in the next month according to team principal Yves Matton, in what will be the Versailles marque’s first experience of the 2017 rules package in action.
Volkswagen has been running a test mule since 2015, but none of the other manufacturers are understood to have tested the cars – which will feature more power and exaggerated aero, plus more technologically advanced differentials next year. The C3 WRC – the replacement for the current DS 3 WRC – is ready to roll at Citroen Racing’s Versailles factory.
Citroen set
Despite speculation that Citroen’s new car could be in action this week, Matton told MN it’s going to be next month. Our understanding is that the car will be running at the team’s test track in Satory in the first two weeks in April.
Matton said: “All I will say is April. We have a shakedown test planned at our factory and then we will begin with gravel testing, which will also be in France.”
Citroen’s test driver Alex Bengue will be the first person to drive the C3 WRC, but Britain’s Kris Meeke will lead development for the rest of the season.
“Kris is the leader because he has a lot of experience for this type of job,” said Matton. “We know he can do a really good job. After that, we have Stephane [Lefebvre], Craig [Breen] and Alex. Alex is the driver who does all of our shakedown work; he is the first to drive every car coming out of the factory and he will be this time. In the general testing, we will use all of the drivers.”
Matton added that Citroen would be running two test teams in parallel to build as much information as quickly as possible.
“This is the normal process for Citroen,” said Matton. “We will be doing that again this year. The second test car will, of course, be the evolution of the first one. The first car, the one we will use in April, is maybe not the one close to the homologation [specification], but the second one will be close [to that].”
Polo players ready
Sebastien Ogier and Jari-matti Latvala are expected to get their first tastes of the 2017 Polo R WRC soon after next month’s Rally Argentina.
Initial testing will be completed again by Dieter Depping and two-time WRC champion Marcus Gronholm.
“We know it’s going to be the spring when we test the new car,” Latvala told MN. “Hopefully, it’s coming soon. It’s very exciting to get the chance to see and to drive what’s the next chapter for Volkswagen. I am sure Marcus has done a good job, I spoke with him a little bit and I am very confident that the car will be ready.”
Gronholm added: “The team has been making small improvements all of the time. I’ve been doing different tests and I have to say, it’s looking very good. But, you know I can’t say more than this.”
A team insider confirmed the new car was primed and ready in the Hannover factory, with a roll-out and shakedown test expected imminently before the car goes straight into gravel testing.
While the actual 2017 car is getting closer, Volkswagen continued its work on asphalt testing with the mule Polo earlier this month.
The others
Tommi Makinen has already outlined the intention for the Yaris WRC to test next month, but there is no confirmation on a precise date. The Finn insists the car remains on target and on time.
There is speculation that the production of the Yaris could be shifted to the Baltics, potentially with a factory being set-up in Estonia or Latvia. Asked about where the cars would be built, Makinen said: “There’s no decision on this yet.”
M-sport and Hyundai are still looking at the summer for the first outing for their new cars.
Hyundai team principal Michel Nandan said: “We are looking at the last week in June. We are still in the design phase, but we have parts on order. For us, this is not such a big change – we made our big change from last year’s car to this year’s. Next year’s i20 will be based out of what we have now.”
M-sport’s position is very similar to Hyundai, with much of the computer-based design work nearing completion in Cockermouth.
There were lots of options for these words this week: Hayden Paddon’s benevolence, Ouninpohja the wrong way. They can wait. Haverfordwest called on Friday afternoon. Everything stops for David Llewellin. Especially when it’s a Circuit story. His 1986 tale will be told in full in next week’s MN.
In the meantime, let’s let Dai talk us through the first half of 1986, his first year with Austin Rover Group, second season as professional driver.
“The season started with the National Breakdown,” he says. “I hadn’t done a lot of testing with the Metro before the start of the season, but we had Tony [Pond] in the team. Tony was fantastic, with so much advice; don’t forget, he knew everything about the car – he’d been in it since it was born!
“It was really snowy on the first event and I was fighting with Hannu [Mikkola, driving an Audi Sport quattro]. We were really close at the start of the penultimate stage. I said to Phil [Short, co-driver]: ‘Do you know this one?’ He told me he knew it quite well, he knew the bad bits. ‘Well shout them out,’ I said, ‘we’re going to push on this one’.
“We took the lead off Hannu in there. We’d had a really good run. Unfortunately, things didn’t go so well on the last stage. We spun at a hairpin. I stalled and the thing just wouldn’t fire up again. We weren’t, of course, but it felt like we sat there for a minute. Hannu beat us by 12 seconds…
“We won the Circuit, then it was the Welsh. I was sure we could win that – especially after being so close to Hannu in Yorkshire. I was pushing hard when it all went wrong in Brechfa. I can still remember that road so clearly. We weren’t on notes and Phil had told me this section wasn’t as map. I was on my own, but I was sure the corner was OK. Then it tightened. We were only going about 30mph too quick and if we’d been in the forests, I’d have got away with it. But we were on a bit of a farm track with grass down the middle of the road. I threw the car sideways, but off we went.
“The first part of the accident was quite soft – we were rolling through the tops of the trees. Then we bounced off the road below and carried on rolling. When we landed, we were then trapped in the car upside down with fuel leaking on us from the tank. This was three days after Henri [Toivonen] and that fire. I’ve never been so glad to see spectators. They ripped the doors open and got us out.
“I asked if we could get it back on its wheels. ‘Let’s see if she’ll fire up…’ One of the boys looked at me and said: ‘I don’t think so, boy, there are only two wheels left!’”
Until next week…
Opel Motorsport and Vauxhall Motorsport will both take three-car Adam R2 efforts to this weekend’s Circuit of Kerry in preparation for the Circuit of Ireland Rally.
The German-based Opel team run Adam R2s in European Rally Championship’s Junior category, which is out for the first time on the Circuit of Ireland after the class missed the first ERC round on the Canary Islands.
Brit Chris Ingram is hoping to lead the team this year – taking the seat of last year’s champion Emil Bergkvist who has moved on to WRC2 – and believes that Opel’s entry into the Kerry event proves its dedication to giving the drivers everything possible to succeed in the ERC.
“The week before, to take that many cars out so early is fantastic and shows how serious this team is about winning,” said Ingram.
“It’s massive that they’re bringing the other cars over. WRC teams don’t even do that most of the time.”
Ingram – co-driven by German Katrin Becker – had his first taster of the car last week in Germany before he joins team-mates Marijan Griebel and Julius Tannert in Kerry for the event.
“Considering that it will be my first rally in the car I don’t know where I’ll be compared to Griebel,” explained Ingram. “But we’ll use that time to get on his pace before the Circuit.”
British Rally Championship team Vauxhall Motorsport will be spurned on by Killarney driver Robert Duggan this weekend, who won last year’s Road to Wales prize in the Northern Irish Rally Championship. The Irishman suffered a difficult BRC opener in Mid Wales – still adapting to gravel rallying – but he hopes to be back on form for both the Circuit of Kerry and Ireland.
“I haven’t driven the car properly on Tarmac yet so we wanted to do the event as a warm-up,” he explained.
Duggan is joined by regular BRC team-mates Mattias Adielsson and Arron Windus on the entry.