Posts Tagged ‘france’
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
As most of you know, Petter Solberg tested his car in Finnskogsvalsen yesterday. Here are two video clips of it, one is an interview (in Swedish/Norweigan) at the start – and one is a clip from SS2. I’ve made a summary of the most important things said in the interview below the clips.
Driving on SS2:
The interview:
Quotes from Petter’s interview:
- “This is most a way to test on many stages and get back to the feeling again”
- “I have one goal this year, and that is to beat Sebastien Loeb. I’m a privateer now and that’s tough, many people probably regard it impossible, but I will try my best and I have a 2009 spec car that should be at least almost the same as the one Loeb will drive. I will do my workouts,eat good and try to get more testing than Sebastien. He will do 15 test days this year, so I have planned 26.”
- Asked on the differences between Petter’s car and the 2010 Citroen works car, Petter says: “Sebastiens gearbox is 4 kg lighter than mine. I could get it, but it would cost me 8M NOK (ca €912.000) more, so I thought I’ll have to lose 4 kg’s myself instead.”
- Talking on when Petter left Subaru, he says: “I had a good time with Subaru and we had many good years, but it came a time without that right philosophy, and then you’ll have to do something. They’ll probably come back some time – but when you don’t fight to win anymore you can’t do anything else [than leaving]. Now it’s Citroen and times have changed, but that’s life. It changes and you can just look forward.”
- “The Citroen and the Ford is very similar cars, but I have a feeling the Citroen is better. Especially since this year’s WRC has many asphalt rallies, where the Citroen is clearly better.”
- “I have one team in Torsby and one in France. The French team is currently preparing my other car for Mexico, and it will be loaded on the containers on Monday. At the same time, Pernilla is working on clothes and other things. Everyone in this team is working all around the day now, very hard.”
- “This is the life of my family and also my wife Pernilla’s family. We all want to win and we’ll try to do it…”
Tags: 2010, citroen c4wrc, finnskogsvalsen, france, gearbox, interview, mexico, petter solberg, privateer, pswrt, rally sweden, sebastien loeb, subaru, summary, testing, torsby
Posted in Rally testing, Swedish Rallying, WRC | 1 Comment »
Friday, January 15th, 2010
According to French site PlaneteMarcus, Citroen Sport will test their upcoming World Rally Car – the Citroen DS3 WRC 1.6T – in Southern France this weekend. Sebastien Loeb will test during Thursday-Friday and Dani Sordo on Saturday-Sunday.
I guess this means that we will soon see both more photos and videos of the car during the next few days. Lovely!
Tags: 1.6t, citroen ds3wrc, citroen sport, dani sordo, daniel sordo, ds3, france, sebastien loeb, test, Video, WRC
Posted in Rally testing, WRC | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
Kimi Räikkönen, Citroen C4WRC, Photo: Citroen
Kimi Räikkönen did his first Citroen C4 WRC tests yesterday in Citroens test track outside their factory in Satory, France. The test covered around 50km’s and was successful. Afterwards, Räikkönen talked to Autosport and told that he enjoyed meeting the team. He also stated he wants to get back in the car soon:
- It was good to try out a few different things; I was very interested to see how the car reacted when you changed some of the settings. Now I’m really keen to get back behind the wheel of the C4 again, Räikkönen said.
The good thing for Räikkönen then is that his competitive debut, as known, will be already in the Arctic Rally in Finland later this month – as a preparation for Rally Sweden. I also guess that more tests are planned before that rally.
Kimi Räikkönen in the Citroen C4 WRC, Photo: Citroen
Tags: arctic rally, citroen c4wrc, formula 1, france, kimi räikkönen, rally, rally sweden, satory, test, testing
Posted in Rally testing, WRC | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
Cato Menkerud, former co-driver of Henning Solberg, joins Eyvind Brynhildsen in his S-WRC assault this year. Until now, Brynhildsen has been co-driven by the experienced French co-driver Denis Giraudet, who seems to have been set aside when Menkerud got free. Menkerud will join the young Norweigan starting with a test already next week, and then in the next Norweigan Championship round, Mountain Rally, on the 23rd of January – and will then continue during he S-WRC season.
Obviously the recruitment will be a major boost for Brynhildsen. He has already had an experienced co-driver in Giraudet, but he will now have a fellow countryman, speaking his own language and with heavy experience alongside himself. Also on the marketing side, I think Cato will be good with contacts and his familiar face to media. The only negative aspect I think is the important contacts that Denis Giraudet has, especially since he’s a frenchman – and it’s widely known that the French guys in rallying appreciate to work with their countrymen. This means that Brynhildsen (this is on a very inofficial basis) loses some contacts and goodwill among the French actors in rallying, that Cato maybe cannot weight up.
No matter what, it will be really interesting to see what the Norweigan duo can do. Both are real talents and under the right circumstances I think they really can surprise!
Tags: 2010, cato menkerud, denis giraudet, eyvind brynhildsen, france, french, henning solberg, mountain rally, norway, rally sweden, s-wrc
Posted in National Rallying, S-WRC / WRC Cup, Silly season, WRC | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Mikko Hirvonen has been on the run again testing for the upcoming Rally Monte Carlo in Ardeche, France. Here is a video from the test that took place today:
Thanks to Stephdu07 for the video.
Tags: ardeche, ford fiesta super2000, france, mikko hirvonen, rally, rally monte carlo, s2000, test, Video
Posted in IRC, Rally testing, S-WRC / WRC Cup, Video | No Comments »
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Skoda seems to be doing their homework good. Here is a new video of Juho Hänninen testing in Col de l’Able, France. It also features some nice night driving in the end.
Thanks to rallyelange.
Tags: 2010, col de l'able, france, juho hänninen, rally monte carlo, skoda fabia super2000, test, Video
Posted in IRC, Rally testing, S-WRC / WRC Cup, Video | No Comments »
Friday, December 18th, 2009
Norweigan driver Eyvind Brynhildsen will do S-WRC 2010 in a Skoda Fabia S2000 for Rene Georges Motorsport in Belgium, financially backed by the Norweigan Skoda dealer. Brynhildsen appeared in the Skoda already this year, winning his class in Spain and also competing in Wales. His co-driver from 2009, the highly experienced Denis Giraudet, will also stay with the Norweigan in 2010.
Brynhildsen will start the year by doing the local events Sigdalsrally and Mountain Rally and then continue with the S-WRC season in Sweden, Mexico, Jordan, Portugal, Germany, France and Wales.
Tags: 2010, belgium, denis giraudet, eyvind brynhildsen, france, germany, jordan, mexico, mountain rally, norway, rene georges motorsport, s-wrc, sigdalsrally, skoda fabia super2000, skoda norway, sweden, wales, wrc cup
Posted in National Rallying, S-WRC / WRC Cup, Silly season | No Comments »
Monday, January 19th, 2009
With IRC season opener Rallye Monte Carlo coming up this week, Kris Meeke has recently tested his Kronos Racing/Peugeot England Peugeot 207 Super 2000 on snowy roads in Saint Auban, France – 60 km’s north of Nice. In the test also Sebastien Ogier took part, partly driving the car of Kris. Check out this video:
Kris and Sebastien are just two good drivers among others starting the Rally Monte Carlo this week (Ogier has been chosen to start in a single outing for the BFGoodrich Drivers Team). The IRC entry list is really impressive compared to the starting field previous seasons, and IRC is really becoming a championship to respect. I’ll get back to this later this week with a more detailed preview before the rally begins.
Tags: bfgoodrich drivers team, france, IRC, kris meeke, kronos racing, nice, peugeot, peugeot 207, rally monte carlo, saint auban, sebastien ogier, snow, super 2000, test, testing, Video
Posted in IRC, Rally testing, Video | No Comments »
Saturday, January 17th, 2009
A few days ago Chris Atkinson got his first impressions of the Citroen C4 WRC at a test in northern France, getting to grips with the car in wet, dry as well as frozen conditions – and even in darkness. The test covered 180 km’s intended as a warm-up before rally Ireland, the only rally the Australian is confirmed to drive in the Citroen Junior team. However, as I’ve previously told, Atkinson will probably do more rallies in the C4. Speculations talk about 9 rallies this season in the team, while I personally have believed that Atkinson will manage to seal a full season in the Citroen. Now that seems impossible as Atkinson is not entered in Rally Norway, but I continue to believe that he will do the rest of the rallies this season – now besides Norway.
In this video you can see an interview, the test with and even Atkinson taking notes for the test:
Atkinson himself, who has previously spent all his WRC career in a Subaru, was really impressed by the Citroen. We’ve heard it before regarding both the C4 and the Xsara, that you can attack hard into turns and still have very good control and balance of the car – facts that Atkinson immediately agreed on and told the journalists.
Looking forward to Ireland, Atkinson is probably happy to have done a full day of testing on roads that he thought were representative of the roads back in Ireland. The last time he went out of a rally car before that was in Wales, were he crashed badly and was transfered by helicopter to hospital – luckily unhurt though. Anyway, it must have been a psychological relief for him to manage to do some good testing between the accident and the rally – especially considering what happened with Subaru and that he’s now getting into a totally new car for him. After all the years struggling in problematic Subaru, it will also be really, really interesting to all of us to see how Atkinson can perform in Citroen.
Finally, just as a parenthesis, I think it seems more and more obvious that Atkinson is not planning to do just one rally in Citroen. Considering the fact that he’s launching a new website soon, he has started a Citroen branded YouTube user, he promotes the Australian Citroen dealer in his YouTube movie and other things – it seems unlikely he would do everything just because of a one-time rally. If he’s not doing a full season (except Norway) in the C4 – I at least expect that all rallies he manages to start in this season will be in the Citroen.
Tags: australia, chris atkinson, citroen, citroen c4 wrc, citroen junior team, dry, france, rally ireland, test, testing, wet
Posted in Rally testing, Silly season, Video, WRC | 1 Comment »
