ex-webby

Well, we've just finished the Monte Carlo Rally. It was very different to normal, being based in Valence, and then down for the Superspecial around the F1 circuit in Monaco on Sunday.

The Super Special was spectacular, and it was great to see the WRC cars thrashing around the Grand Prix circuit, especially during the practice run in the morning when everyone was on the circuit at the same time. It almost looked like a touring car race (but with better cars!!).

Monte Carlo normally delivers us quite a lot of snow and ice, but this year was very dry, and where it was wet, our weather crews were reporting high ambient temperatures, so it wasn't a classic Monte Carlo from a conditions point of view. Usually, we have to deal with the complications of snow tyres and difficult strategy decisions around different set-ups, etc.

This was useful for us, as we've known for a while, that the current car isn't yet a match for the performance of the Ford, or especially the new Citroen, but we did produce three fastest stage times, and at a point where everyone was still pushing hard. It will be interesting to see what happens later in the year now.

We've learnt a lot working with BF Goodrich, the new tyre manufacturer. This was quite a challenge, as we only had four day's testing prior to Monte Carlo, and in snowy, icy conditions, because that's what you normally test for.

There was a massive amount of spectators on the event (apparently many of you "ScoobyNetters" as I understand you're called!) which is great for the sport.

ex-webby

In all, I'm pleased with the event. Chris finishing 4th and beating Mikko on the last stage was brilliant. In our management pod in service park, we have a live feed of split times and GPS tracking, so its always tense in there when there's a nail-biter like that.

I'm very happy for Chris. He drove very smoothly and consistently, and showed impressive pace.

Petter drove consistently, and well, but struggled with some of the tyres in some parts of the event. This will all work itself out in the next few events as the learning curve settles down.

Strategy
We are maintaining a strategy over the next three events where we keep consistency, until we can start pushing and look at the performance of the new car. We're not basing everything on that, but if we start the championship without a lot of points, we're going to struggle. I'm optimistic, and I think we'll surprise a few people later in the year.

Team
All in all, the team worked very well in Monte. The cars were all very reliable, and we coped well with the new regulations to have less mechanics this year. On top of this, the Monte Carlo cars now have to do Sweden and Norway, and the engines will have to do two more events this year also - so it isn't as simple as a mad sprint to the finish line.

What next?
Now our attention is on Sweden and Norway, which are back to back - Petter's home events. Like I say, we're looking for consistency, but I'll come back and give you a report after those and we'll see where we get to.
Paul

In future Blogs :
Paul will be telling us some of the inside info on what happens behind that smoked glass management pod window, and why :

• How often does Petter want a split time update in stage, and how does he use the info?
• How do we decide what tyres to put on, and how much of a difference does it really make?
• What would you have to do, and how much would it cost to turn your Scooby into a fire breathing WRC spec car?
• What happens in testing?
• and much much more...