EVANS: RALLY MEXICO SUCCESS WILL BE CRUCIAL
M-s port man aims to bounce back on rally mexico
Elfyn Evans needs to kick-start his World Rally Championship challenge in Mexico this week after what the Welshman admits has been a ‘rubbish’ start to the season.
The M-sport Ford Fiesta star is looking to ignite his WRC challenge after two difficult rounds so far.
Evans was hit by a puncture on the Monte Carlo Rally and again on Rally Sweden. He is only 10th in the points table. Evans said: “We have a really good chance on Rally Mexico, and we need to take it.”
Elfyn Evans is looking to reverse what has been a miserable start to the season so far by targeting victory at this week’s Rally Mexico.
The M-sport Ford World Rally Team driver has struggled to make any impact on his return to the World Rally Championship’s frontline after a brace of punctures spoiled his chances of a result in Monte Carlo and Sweden. Evans arrives in Leon 10th in the table on eight points after recovering to sixth on round one in Monte Carlo and nonscoring in Sweden last month.
On both events, Evans’ early problems left him at the front of the field running in adverse conditions. The same cannot be said at Mexico this week, where he and co-driver Dan Barritt will run eighth on the road.
“When it’s hot and dry there’s always going to be an element of road cleaning,” the Ford Fiesta WRC driver told MN. “Running first on the road is certainly not going to be great [for points leader Thierry Neuville] – the second pass will be a challenge as well. We saw this in Mexico last year. It’s important we get a result this week and we’re going out there to look to change things around.”
Reflecting on his start to the season, Evans offers a blunt assessment, adding: “It’s been a rubbish start to be honest. We showed we had the speed in Monte, especially later in the event. We have to stay optimistic, the puncture in Monte was, I think,unlucky. The [puncture] in Sweden? OK, there was no rock there on the recce, but we took quite a big cut. Sweden was a so-so event. But now we’re looking forward.”
Last time Evans competed in the Americas, he lost a Rally Argentina victory by 0.7s to Neuville. He knows a win is needed to lift him back into a title race where he already languishes 33 points behind the table-topping Belgian.
“Realistically, we have to go out there targeting the win,” Evans said. “We’ve talked about this so many times and I’ll say to you again that it’s very easy to sit here and talk about winning a round of the World Rally Championship, it’s something else going and doing it. We have an opportunity in Mexico and we have to take it, but a lot of things have to fall into place for that success to come. We’re going with the view of doing the best job we can and I don’t see any reason why we can’t [win]. We need to get the season going, this is a good place to go and kick-start our year.”
Evans scored his first WRC win on his penultimate event with the DMACK team last year on Wales Rally GB, and this week will be his first time competing on gravel in a Michelin-shod, current-spec World Rally Car. Having twice finished fourth on the roads around Guanajuato, Evans admitted he was looking forward to his first time on the loose as number two to Sebastien Ogier in M-sport’s main team.
“Mexico’s an event I enjoy,” he said. “Last year was a tricky one, we had an engine penalty [fiveminute penalty for changing his Fiesta WRC’S engine ahead of the first stage] early on, but I’ve had some pretty good results in Mexico. The stages are quite technical, but they flow nicely and they’re quite quick.
“This year managing the tyres could be quite tricky. We were able to use the soft [compound] tyres on the morning loop last year, but I don’t think it’s going to be anything like as cool as it was last time.
“The temperatures are looking set to be around 30 degrees, so maybe it’ll be a case of using them as part of a crossed [with hard tyre] package. We’ve got less tyres than last time, so we’ll have to be careful, but with 16 hard tyres, there’s enough to take four hards on Friday and Saturday afternoon and possibly a full set on Sunday.”
Evans tested both compounds for Mexico in Spain last week and was the only M-sport driver to enjoy two full days of preparation before winter arrived in Almeria ( see sidebar).
The route for Rally Mexico has evolved in recent years and Evans is sorry to see the decline of some of the longer-length stages. Two years ago, crews tackled the 50-mile Guanajuatito test and last season there was a 35-miler in El Chocolate, but this time the longest test – a shortened version of El Chocolate – doesn’t even make 20 miles at 19.53.
“I like the variety of stages,” said Evans. “I know it doesn’t help everybody having a lot of long stages, and it’s not necessarily the best for fans trying to spectate on the events. But it’s nice to have them, there was always that endurance element about this event and that seems to be missing a bit this year. It’s nice to have different challenges.”