Sebastien Ogier has tested the Peugeot 207 S2000 on snow for the upcoming Monte Carlo. Here are the video:
Thanks to poypoy38 at Dailymotion for the video.
Posts Tagged ‘snow’
Video: Sebastien Ogier Monte Carlo test
Monday, January 11th, 2010The perfect Sweden and Norway formula?
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009It’s spelled like this:
Perfect conditions in Norway + opposite in Sweden + events dropping from the calendar = Swedish Rally in the summer?
Will arranging the Swedish Rally in the summer make the WRC better? At least it's easier to spectate a rally in the summer, allowing for better income to the organiser.
Here’s some background:
A few days ago I talked to a friend regarding the Swedish Rally. He had a great idea – to make the event a summer rally. Of course it’s not a new idea at all – I’ve heard it dozens of times, but for the first time it really makes sense. The idea is based on the fact that weather conditions are a problem to the rally – and that a few events next year (for example Indonesia) wants to get out of the championship. So, with summer events wanting to get out of the calendar, when Rally Norway that shines in meters of snow, and when Mikko Hirvonen sees no reason why Norway shouldn’t have a slot every year – why not include the excellent Rally Norway even next year (article in Norweigan here), and make the Swedish Rally with it’s excellent organisation arrange a summer round in the championship?
Here’s why it makes sense:
- First off, it’s impossible to fight the weather. Either the Swedish event would have to be changed to a snow/gravel mix, it would have to be moved, or it would have to be removed from the calendar. I don’t believe in snow/gravel, I think a move would mean losing big parts of the competence, and I don’t think that it’s a good option for the WRC to lose one of their best organisers – so… Remains to switch to a summer competition.
- Making the rally a summer event would preserve a fantastic organisation and allow for an already experienced organisation to take new steps and do a new event from scratch, allowing for much creativity to go into the event that could develop the WRC in a positive way.
- Summer rallies are in many ways easier and more cost-effective to arrange, where spectators and VIPs can easier get into the stages, facilities can be hosted in simple tents and snow ploughs doesn’t need to be used for every single parking spot. This would allow for the Swedish organisation to get back on feet economically.
- A summer rally would also mean having a rally later in the year than a winter round, which would give the organisation a little more time to improve their economy and also to prepare the switch.
- It would solve a part of the problems with the organisers wanting to cancel their WRC rounds, and make the calendar for next year closer to complete than it is currently.
Of course, it may be a problem having already having so much gravel events that Finland has a summer event on gravel, but for short, I just think it’s better to arrange a really, really good summer round than a half-bad and shaky winter round that ruins the economy of the organisation. Isn’t it?
Interview: Patrik Flodin has turned struggling into success and looks forward to Rally Norway
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009After calling Patrik Sandell and PG Andersson asking some questions regarding Rally Norway, the turn went on to Patrik Flodin. Just arrived to the hotel after a long day recceing out on the stages, Patrik answered some questions about his tests earlier this week in Lima, Rally Norway and the future.
First thing, he saw plenty of snow today:
- It’s a lot of snow, but not very much ice. I guess it will show up some gravel during the rally, but it looks wonderful at least. We had no problems at all during the recce, besides having a really long day after doing the drive down to Oslo to recce the arena stage there. Now we’re back in Lillehammer again, have just had some dinner and are going for an early night before going out on the recce again tomorrow, says Flodin.
Flodin drives for the Uspenskiy World Rally Team, based in Russia. A few days ago they were testing in Lima – just over the border in Sweden from Norway. The end was happy – but Patrik was really struggling during the test:
- The start wasn’t really good… The new tyres made everything really slippery and it took quite a while before we found out a setup that worked out well. As soon as you got a little bit off track or tried to cut corners just a little it got really slippery and I felt that I totally lost the car – and it wasn’t even a lot of loose snow. The old tyres had much more sideways grip. One things that’s sure is that it wont be fun at all to the first few WRC cars this weekend, and Loeb will for sure lose time the first day.
Present at the test were also Mikkelsen, who has stepped in as Patrik’s teammate for Rally Norway. I wondered if they compared times – but Patrik is so cool he didn’t even bother:
- I guess the team can compare us in the log, but who cares? Anyone can go fast on one single test road. We’ll see when the rally starts.
Coming to Norway Flodin gets into a real “nest of wasps”. Patrik Sandell has a car that proved really fast in Monte Carlo and Eyvind Brynhildsen among with Flodin’s teammate Mikkelsen must be counted as the main concurrents – but Flodin will look out even for other names:
- Both Prokop and Arai have made good times from time to time and the competition in my class will be really tough. I want to win the class, absolutely, that’s my goal going into the rally!
To us following rally closely, it has been quite obvious that Patrik have had a hard time for a while. Patrik does agree, but he’s also got a feeling things have changed and looks bright on the future:
- It has been tough for quite a while, but it has turned again. I think it started to get better last summer and after a good autumn and now three rally victories in a row I’ve got my self-confidence back. It feels good again!
So, with a drive secured for Uspenskiy for the rest of the 2009 season and a good feeling going into the car – how do Flodin look on his future? He has already stated that the Uspenskiy team is really good, but what about the dream of WRC? Is it still there, is he happy with group N – or is he looking for Super2000?
- I’m more looking at Super2000 than the WRC. This year is really important to me, to show that I can do great results for the team all the time. Then I guess you’ll have to wait and see what happens. There seems to be many teams going into Super2000, so maybe one could get a drive next year for at least a reasonable amount of money.
So, conclusion after this interview is that we hopefully will see Patrik doing good results in the PWRC – and maybe a Super2000 drive next year. Personally I think that it went to fast for him a few years ago when he outpaced the concurrence in the Swedish Championship and then went straight on into an international career and a few WRC drives. Now he have had time to gain some experience and cool down, and hopefully he can get the flow back – but now on a higher level. He is just 24, so there is no need to hurry!
Pirelli’s trucks stopped in Norway – because of too bad tyres
Sunday, February 8th, 2009A funny incident happened today in Norway, where a heavy snowfall causes some traffic problems. The Pirelli trucks with destination Rally Norway where loaded off their ferries in the Oslo harbour, but they soon realized they couldn’t go out on the roads with their truck tyres. They had to gear up with snowchains etc. before they could continue their journey – which they also did.
Quite funny, considering they’re a tyre manufacturer…
Video: Patrik Sandell’s first Fabia S2000 test
Sunday, February 8th, 2009Patrik Sandell tested the Skoda Fabia Super2000 on snow in preparation of Rally Norway today. He describes the first feeling of the car as very good and is happy with the first day. The team started the day with a setup close to the Skoda’s gravel setup and has then made modifications based on Patrik’s input. Tomorrow, Sunday, the test will continue.
For a picture of the car, follow this link.
Here is a video, posted by Patrik himself, of today’s test:
Rally Ireland preview
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009Rally Ireland get’s closer and closer. The shakedown is to be run tomorrow, Thursday, between 08-12 local time on a 2.87km stage before the start ceremony in the evening in Enniskillen. The rally covers a total of 366.75 km divided into three legs. SS1 starts on Friday at 8:13 local timeand the last stage – a town stage in Donegal – starts at 13:10 on Sunday.
I think a few things are extra interesting regarding this event:
- How’s everybodys shape? This is the first of three races (Ireland-Tarmac, Norway-Snow, Cyprus-Gravel/Tarmac) that will show a sign of what everyone is up to on different surfaces.
- How will the Stobart guys and Citroen Juniors perform? What does Atkinson think about the C4, is Ogier’s good flow over or may he be a new Loeb? Will Henning charge now that he is said to have the best possible Ford backing – or will he wait for Norway?
- Will the temperature stay well over zero? After the difficulties in Wales and Japan last year with ice and snow, Pirelli has now made sure to bring their SottoZero tyre (no studs) to Ireland as a backup. If weather would change towards ice and snow the event will become really interesting and tyre choices will be crucial.
- And of course… Who will win? Sebastien Loeb is – as always on tarmac – a big favourite for sure. But you should not remember that the tarmac on Ireland is not like anywhere else. It’s twisty, narrow and bumpy and not at all like Monte, Germany or Corsica. The narrowness also makes one single mistake very likely to be fatal. Can he keep up the spirit?
But maybe most important…
- Can competitiors, Rally Ireland organisers, FIA and ISC together make the event interesting? I followed the IRC season opener Rally Monte Carlo last weekend and many people with me – and what I saw was stunning. Top fights in almost every stage, amazing live coverage on TV/web and an interesting strategy game with tyre choices, different levels of attack, etc. They set the level – and it is high!
How does the wider snow tyres affect Rally Norway results?
Monday, January 26th, 2009One interesting thing for the upcoming Rally Norway is the new, wider snow tyres (15″) that will be used. To reduce team costs, the tyres are no longer special narrow (16″) ones that can penetrate deep into the snow and find grip. Instead, the new tyres are the same dimensions as the wider gravel ones – which of course means more problems to get through the snow and get grip.
After Ford’s test in Sweden in December Jari-Matti Latvala told that the new tyre provided more grip than he had expected under braking – but that he doubted that it would work well if the snow was really deep. The Rally Norway regions are often quite snow rich, so that would mean that the tyre could cause problems there. And that would for sure mean that you should avoid to be first out on the stages to sweep the road.
The concerns are confirmed by Pirelli’s rally manager Mario Isola:
- We’ve tested the new tyre and it’s met all our expectations. It also fulfils our brief from the FIA to slow the cars. The wider tyre does not bite through the snow as effectively, so the cars slide more. The wear might also increase, but we will see.
So, this means a slower but probably more spectacular Rally Norway. And it sends a clear message to all drivers: make sure to position yourself in the standings not to be first on the road. Which means; avoid to lead the championship after Ireland (ok, maybe we can make exceptions here) – and don’t even think about being 15th after day one or day two. 
Anyway, it will be interesting to see if the new tyre makes a visible difference or if it’s just same to everyone…
Video: Ford pre-Norway test in Jämtland
Monday, January 26th, 2009Just before christmas the Ford team visited Kall, close to Östersund, in Sweden to test the Ford Focus WRC for the upcoming Rally Norway. There hasn’t been a lot of info from the test, so it’s amazing to now see a video of Mikko Hirvonen testing the car in snowy conditions. Video courtesy of Aeropibben.
