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Bienvenue au WRC de Turquie et au Pirelli Star Driver 2010
Welcome to Rally of Turkey, round four of the 2010 FIA World Rally Championship, and the first round of the Pirelli Star Driver programme: a joint initiative between the Italian tyre company and the FIA, the governing body of world motorsport.
Although Rally of Turkey has been in existence since 1972, it has only been part of the World Rally Championship since 2003 – and this year it is being based in Istanbul for the first time in its WRC history.
This year’s Rally of Turkey is an entirely different event from the one that last featured in the WRC in 2008. The rally has moved 700 kilometres north from the Mediterranean coastal resort of Kemer in the south of the country right up to Istanbul – Turkey’s largest city, though not its capital.
Istanbul, the fifth most populated city in the world, is the bridge between Europe and Asia, but the all-gravel stages are in Asia. They are made up of fast and flowing gravel, with a wide variety of speeds and corners. In character, the roads are not quite as tight and technical as the stages in the south, with higher average speeds than seen previously.
The one thing that is likely to remain entirely Turkish, despite the shift to a new location, will be the weather – which will be hot.
Istanbul has been chosen as the 2010 European Capital of Culture and the start of the rally will take place in the historic Sultanahmet Square, next to the famous Blue Mosque and the Haghia Sophia. The rally cars will be transported to the start by ferry on the Bosphorus River, together with media and VIP guests.
There are 23 gravel special stages, consisting of 358.84 competitive kilometres. On Friday evening, there will be a two-kilometre superspecial in Istanbul, which is bound to be a highlight of the event.
Pirelli in world rallying
Pirelli begins its third season as the official tyre supplier to the FIA World Rally Championship in 2010 intent on maintaining its long-held reputation for performance and durability. Pirelli Star Driver programme
Based in Milan, Italy, the company has competed in the WRC since 1973, when Achim Warmbold claimed victory on the Polish Rally at the wheel of a Fiat Abarth 124 Spider.
Since then, Pirelli has amassed a further 170 wins at WRC level, securing 13 world manufacturers’ titles and 10 world drivers’ championship crowns, including helping Sébastien Loeb to the last two of his six honours.
In 2007, the FIA, the governing body of world motorsport, awarded Pirelli a three-year contract to supply tyres exclusively to cars contesting WRC events from 2008-2010.
As well as specifying a single tyre supplier, the FIA imposed a limit of two compounds for tyres used on gravel and asphalt. Pirelli has developed, constructed and supplied tyres that not only retain strong levels of performance but also withstand varying terrain, temperature and surface changes.
Furthermore, the use of anti-deflation devices was also outlawed, which placed a huge onus on durability – and took the competition product closer than ever to the road car market.
Pirelli’s engineers and technicians rose to the challenge. In 2009, of the 9000 covers it manufactured for factory teams in the WRC and those crews contesting the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship, only 19 suffered punctures.
As part of its ongoing commitment to the WRC, Pirelli is continuing the Star Driver scheme, designed in association with the FIA to unearth future driving talent from around the world by providing five lucky candidates with a fully funded drive on six rounds of the WRC.
The leading young driver from the FIA’s regional championships in Africa, Middle East and the Asia Pacific zone, plus two from Europe via a qualifying process and shoot-out, will get the use of a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, prepared by Ralliart Italia, on the WRC events in Turkey, Portugal, Finland, Germany, France and Great Britain.
Pirelli is also active in several national championships and other international rally series all over the world, including the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. In January, Mikko Hirvonen, driving a Ford Fiesta S2000, won one of the most challenging Monte Carlo Rallies in decades using tyres from Pirelli’s Sottozero range.
The Pirelli Star Driver programme is ongoing proof of Pirelli’s historic commitment to discovering and developing young driver talent in motorsport.
Working in collaboration with the FIA, the governing body of world motorsport, five young drivers have been selected to compete on six rounds of the World Rally Championship – starting in Turkey.
These five names were finalised after a painstaking selection process that, in some cases, took into account championship results or, in others, combined driving tests, psychological and fitness assessment, as well as interviews and media training.
They now have the opportunity of a lifetime before them – and six chances to get it right.
But the Pirelli Star Driver programme is not just about handing the drivers a key to some rally cars and telling them to get on with it. Away from the rallies, they have the support and backing of Pirelli to mould them into the complete professional package that modern drivers have to be.
An example of this in action was the pre-season training, which the five drivers and co-drivers completed in March before Rally of Turkey. The 10 men undertook an intensive training and education course in Edinburgh, UK, before leaving for Pisa, Italy, to test the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X they will drive on six rounds of the WRC.
The training session worked to the timetable of a round of the WRC, with the first evening simulating the ceremonial start or superspecial stage of an event. Two long days followed, before a further early start and finish just after lunch on the third day. In that time, the crews were working on a wide variety of aspects of preparation for the WRC, including: sponsorship and the business of rallying; pacenotes; performance profiling; physiology and conditioning;
fitness and injury prevention; career management; aerobic training and flexibility; media and presentation skills; nutrition; safety and incident response; heat chamber work; hydration strategy; goal-setting and anti-doping regulations in motorsport.
As well as a theoretical approach, drivers were also set tasks to take a practical look at all of the above. For example, to underline the importance of nutrition, the crews were given a set sum of money and told to go to the local supermarket to buy their lunch, which was evaluated for nutritional value.
After weeks of waiting, the theory is finally over and the real practice begins…
The 2010 Pirelli Star DriversName: Nick GeorgiouHe redoubled his efforts last year, but looked to have missed the boat again when he hit problems on both qualifying rounds. Luckily for him, observers had been following his progress through the 2009 Kenyan series and offered him a wildcard entry for the Pirelli Star Driver qualifying event, last September’s Mountain Gorilla Rally in Rwanda. Not to be outdone for a third time, Horsey and his co-driver Moses Matovu delivered a spectacular performance to grab the seat in one of the Pirelli Mitsubishis for this season. Peter led the event from the start, but was forced into second spot when he collected a final-stage puncture. He cared little because he’d accomplished what he came for: a fully funded drive on six rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship this season.
Age: 27
From: Lebanon (born Oman)
Co-driver: Joseph Matar
Won the FIA Middle East Rally Championship Pirelli Star Driver qualification Nick arrived in the sport of rallying later than most of his Pirelli Star Driver contemporaries, but like many of them, his family background is firmly in the sport. His father Tony is a former Lebanese Rally Champion and a stalwart of the Middle East rally scene.
After competing in karts early in his career, Nick then focused on a university education before returning to motorsport – and rallying in particular. His father offered him the chance to drive a Mitsubishi in Lebanon in 2006 and he made the most of it. He then contested both the Lebanese and Middle East Rally Championships in 2007 – confirming that he is, indeed, a very fast learner.
He returned to the Middle East series a year later and narrowly missed out on the Pirelli Star Driver nomination for last year. He put that right 12 months on, however, when he beat Kuwaiti Meshari Al-Thafiri to the hottest seat available to a young rally driver on the Dubai International Rally last December. Al-Thafiri’s early retirement from the event ensured Georgiou an untroubled passage to six rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship in one of the Pirelli-liveried Lancers.
Georgiou is quick to acknowledge that he’s not the driver with the most competitive miles under his belt, which is why he is using his own Mitsubishi to drive on various other events this season – he contested the Jordan Rally, finishing third in class, as preparation for his first Pirelli Star Driver outing on Rally of Turkey.
Name: Peter Horsey
Age: 26
From: Kenya
Co-driver: Moses Matovu
Won the FIA African Rally Championship Pirelli Star Driver qualification Peter came from a rally-mad family – with some of his toughest competition early in his career coming from his younger brother, Alex. It was hardly surprising the two Horsey boys would grow up such petrol heads, however, as their father David Horsey is a former African Rally Champion.
Peter and Alex shared a Toyota Corolla in their formative years, but when Peter stepped up to a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII, it became clear that he had real potential behind the wheel. He competed in the Kenya Rally Championship in 2008 and just missed out on winning the Pirelli Star Driver nomination for the 2009 season.
Horsey admits this is going to be a tough season for him. He has very little competitive experience outside of Africa; the recent International Rally of North Wales (the opening round of the British Rally Championship) was his first event off his native soil. He finished 16
Name: Hayden Paddon
Age: 22
From: New Zealand
Co-driver: John Kennard
Won the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship Pirelli Star Driver qualification;Hayden began his competitive career at the wheel of a home-built go-kart, powered by the engine from a chainsaw. After six years competing on circuits, however, he elected to follow in his father’s footsteps and head for the stages.
The 2006 season was when Paddon really made his mark on the New Zealand rally scene. He collected the Junior and Rookie titles that season and he’d collected his first maximum score in his domestic series. The 2007 season was a tough one for Paddon with mechanical troubles slowing him at virtually every turn. In 2008, though, everything went right. He won the New Zealand Rally Championship, becoming the youngest ever winner of that title – and collected 13
Last year (2009) was even better: he won a second New Zealand title and then won the race for the Pirelli Star Driver nomination on Rally Australia last September. In addition to his Pirelli-backed programme in a Ralliart Italia-tuned Lancer Evolution X, Paddon will also contest Rally New Zealand and Rally Japan in his own Lancer to offer himself the best chance of winning this year’s Production Car World Rally Championship title.
Age: 22
From: San Marino
Co-driver: Rudy Pollet
Won one of the two FIA European Rally Championship qualification places Alex Raschi, from the tiny Republic of San Marino, grew up wanting to be a footballer – his other great passion in life – but soon switched to cars after he had the opportunity to go karting when he was 14. His family are in the motor trade, so Alex was familiar with cars from an early age and made his rally debut in 2005, using a Group A Peugeot 106 on a local event close to his home.
His results instantly impressed onlookers, so he made the switch to a Group N Renault Clio in order to have the chance to compete on some Italian Championship events. He won his class on the domestic series in 2007, switching to a faster Group R Clio for the 2008 season – where he also won the class on the Swedish Rally. During the same year he made his four-wheel drive debut, winning overall on his first time out in a Peugeot 207 Super 2000.
He wrapped up the Italian Group R title in 2008 and 2009, but the highlight of his 2009 season was winning the Pirelli Star Driver nomination. Perhaps unusually for a driver who has competed extensively in Italy, he says that he feels more comfortable on gravel rather than on asphalt but he is also aware that he is somewhat lacking in 4WD experience, having only ever driven a Group N car once before on a rally.
His driving style is dynamic and aggressive, meaning that he is sure to be one of the highlights of the Pirelli Star Driver programme this year.
Name: Ott Tänak
Age: 22
From: Estonia
Co-driver: Kuldar Sikk
Won one of the two FIA European Rally Championship qualification places Having a famous driver managing you can sometimes be a hindrance as well as a help, but not for Ott Tänak. When Estonia’s most famous motorsport export Markko Märtin (a five-time world rally winner with Ford) offered to help Tänak, the young Estonian was delighted. Tänak had already started to turn heads on his own. The son of a double Estonian Rally Champion, Ott was pedalling a Lada exceptionally quickly.
The switch to a Volkswagen Golf delivered even more impressive results and brought Märtin to his door.
Ott signed to drive one of MM Motorsport’s (Märtin’s own motorsport preparation firm) Subaru Imprezas and the ease with which he made the move to the highest category of showroom rallying surprised everybody, except Tänak and Märtin.
Märtin and Tänak continue to work closely. Indeed Tänak works in the MM Motorsport workshops, tending to four Group N Subarus and one World Rally Car. Earlier this year, on the Arctic Rally, another of Tänak’s dreams came true when Märtin asked him to drive his Focus WRC on the event. The 22-year-old made light of yet another big step up the rallying ladder and delivered a hugely professional performance before the engine expired.
result on the Jyväskylä-based event, Tänak’s disappointment was tempered by the news that he had already been selected for the European shoot-out to drive one of the Pirelli-funded Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions in this year’s Pirelli Star Driver programme.
2010 Pirelli Star Driver Events
1. Rally of Turkey, April 15
Turkey has been a regular on the World Rally Championship stage since 2003 but this year’s edition is all-new for the bulk of the WRC fraternity.
Previously based on mountainous roads above the Mediterranean resort of Kemer, the event has relocated north to Istanbul following a one-year absence from the WRC under the calendar rotation system.
While Turkey’s largest city and cultural and commercial epicentre will host the ceremonial start close to the spectacular Blue Mosque, the gravel stages are located across the Bosphorus River in Turkey’s Asian countryside.
Although they’re new to the WRC, the stages have been used on rounds of the European Rally Championship and Intercontinental Rally Challenge in the past and are characterised by their wide, fast and smooth nature.
Service is located adjacent to a bus terminus in the district of Pendik, a short distance from Istanbul Park: the venue for the Turkish Grand Prix.
2. Vodafone Rally de Portugal, May 27
A founding member of the World Rally Championship in 1973, Portugal possesses a rich rallying heritage, although the country’s current WRC qualifier bears little resemblance to the gruelling contest of old.
Once a mixed-surface epic, the rally was popularised by its demanding roads in the north of the country, but also by the hoards of fearless spectators who flooded onto the stages. Unfortunately, there was little crowd control, which culminated in a tragic accident in 1986 when a car plunged into a group of spectators, killing three and injuring many more.
After losing its slot on the WRC calendar following a rain-hit 2001 event, the rally switched to a new home in Faro in Portugal’s Algarve in the far south of the country. Based inside a stadium built for the Euro 2004 football tournament, the rally runs all gravel stages with the exception of the opening and closing Tarmac-based superspecial run inside the stadium.
3. Neste Oil Rally Finland, July 29t
Regarded as the fastest rally on the world championship schedule, Neste Oil Rally Finland turns 60 this year and features a revamped route crammed into two days of competition rather than the traditional three, with a rare Saturday night finish.
Once known as the 1000 Lakes Rally in deference to Finland’s numerous lakes and waterways, the ‘Finnish Grand Prix’ provides an awesome spectacle with flat-out commitment essential for testing fast stage times.
But flat-out driving in Finland requires extreme bravery because connecting the long, tree-lined straights, which are littered with heart-stopping jumps, are numerous high-speed crests located on blind corners.
Using smooth and compacted gravel roads, the event takes years to master and few non-Finns appear on the list of winners. Indeed six-time world champion Sébastien Loeb described it as one of his greatest achievements when he won in 2008 after eight previous attempts.
Rally Finland is hugely popular among spectators who turn host city Jyväskylä and the surrounding countryside stages into one big party.
4. ADAC Rallye Deutschland, August 19
One of two asphalt rallies on the Pirelli Star Drivers’ schedule, Germany’s world championship qualifier has been dominated by one man – Sébastien Loeb – since it joined the global series in 2002. The Frenchman remains unbeaten on the Trier-based event and will be a favourite to win again when the event returns to the WRC fray after missing out on a round in 2009.
But this is an asphalt rally like no other with each day running on a different sealed surface.
They range from narrow tracks in vineyards through to uncompromising roads in the Baumholder military ranges and smooth country lanes, while the final superspecial stage runs through the heart of Trier’s historic streets.
As well as varying road surfaces, the weather can also be unpredictable. Although its August date guarantees sunshine, the threat of rain is a constant menace for the drivers and teams, plus the fans that turn out in their thousands each year thanks to the event’s central European location.
5. Rallye de France, September 30
It’s all change for France’s world championship counter in 2010. For years the rally was based on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. But a desire to switch the event to the mainland in the hope of attracting a larger fan base resulted in the country’s motorsport authorities spending the event’s year off from the WRC in 2009 formulating plans for a new rally.
They haven’t entirely started from scratch but instead opted to take over an existing event, Rallye Alsace-Vosges, which was once a round of the French championship but will now form France’s WRC future using a mixture of narrow and winding stages.
Based in the Alsace region of France close to the German border, the all-Tarmac rally runs through the heart of Sébastien Loeb country. While the finishing touches are still being put to the rally’s route, a base close to the picturesque city of Strasbourg is being planned.
6. Wales Rally GB, November 11th -14 th
The traditional curtain-closer of the World Rally Championship, Rally GB continues to be based
in Wales with the headquarters and permanent service park once again housed in the principality’s capital, Cardiff.
Rally GB holds the unique record of being a WRC counter every year since the series began in 1973, although that sequence was almost interrupted last season until a funding dispute between the rally’s promoters and backers was resolved at the 11
The event, which first took place in 1932 and is now one of the world’s oldest rallies, features long, fast and demanding stages held on undulating tree-lined forest roads and military land. Since 2008, organisers have taken advantage of remote servicing in order to extend the route into mid-Wales and vary the stage layouts, a trend that will continue this season. Inclement weather is often a factor on the event, with fog, rain and wind – and sometimes snow showers – a regular occurrence.
Pirelli’s presence in Turkey
Pirelli’s WRC tyres are manufactured in Turkey
Pirelli, the official tyre supplier of the World Rally Championship, not only passes on its experience and knowledge accrued in motorsport competitions for more than 100 years to the world’s most successful rally drivers, it has also put its trust in Turkeys manufacturing facilities and expertise.
The Türk Pirelli Lastikleri A.S. Izmit facility is the Pirelli Group’s largest factory and utilises advance technology and highly-skilled employees to manufacturer tyres for road and competition use. This makes Izmit’s factory one of the centre of excellence of Pirelli’s research and production for Motorsport applications.
The motorsport section of the Izmit factory, which began producing rally tyres in 2006, has a production capacity of 240,000 tyres per year. The factory’s total area is 340,000m2 and 130,000m2 is dedicated to its motorsport activities, which employs 110 personnel to provide rally drivers around the world with high performance and durable tyres for gravel, asphalt and snow conditions at the best possible price.
Turk Pirelli Lastikleri A.S. is proud to represent Pirelli in the production of WRC tyres.
Izmit factory data
Motorsport division employs 100 personnel
Capacity of motorsport tyre production is 240,000 units per year
The Izmit factory is 130,000m2 in size
Motorsport tyre production takes place in an area of 10,000m2
Pirelli’s rally tyres
Pirelli has a three-year contract with the FIA to produce three different types of rally tyre, for gravel (the most common surface on the World Rally Championship), asphalt and snow.
Gravel tyres
The Pirelli Scorpion gravel tyre is design to be strong and adaptable, in order to cope with the huge variety of gravel surfaces tackled by the World Rally Championship. It leads a hard life, as it is required to deliver consistent performance on hard and compact ground as well as in mud or on soft and sandy terrain.
The latest WRC regulations do not allow crews to cut the tyres in any way so the tread pattern must be correct from the start in order to satisfy usage conditions that are as diverse as they are extreme – from the hot rocks of Mexico to the flat-out rollercoaster roads of Finland.
Anti-deflation mousse has been banned since 2008 (the first year of Pirelli’s three-year contract) meaning that the tyres have to be extremely strong, with a rigid construction.
The depth of the block grooves has been increased to guarantee longer tyre durability and the pattern is specifically designed to help turn-in and maximise lateral grip even on unstable surfaces. Another important function of the carefully designed Scorpion tyre pattern is to disperse mud, stones and water in the most efficient way possible, in order for the tyre to provide a good and consistent level of grip.
The Scorpion tyres are available in two compounds: hard and soft. The hard compound is used for the hottest and roughest surfaces, the soft tyre for milder conditions.
Asphalt tyres
Just like the gravel tyre, the Pirelli PZero asphalt rally tyre is derived directly from Pirelli’s ultra high performance road tyres – and the lessons learned from motorsport are fed directly back into road tyre design, constantly improving the product for the everyday motorist.
Pirelli’s PZero rally tyre also has to cope with an almost infinite variety of surface and weather conditions, particularly now that it is forbidden to cut or modify the tyres in any way. This puts the emphasis on the standard tread pattern to disperse any water in the most quick and efficient way, in order to avoid aquaplaning.
A characteristic of asphalt rallies is corner-cutting, when drivers go deep into a corner in order to take the quickest possible line. This leaves the sidewalls of the tyres vulnerable to sharp stones, so the PZero tyres are especially reinforced to prevent damage to this vulnerable area.
The asphalt rallies tend to be amongst the quickest in the championship, so the PZero tyres have to cope with sustained high speeds, often on old or abrasive surfaces.
In most forms of motorsport, competition tyres are specially developed for competitive use, but the PZero tyres are so closely-related related to Pirelli’s standard products that they are even homologated for road use. They are also available in hard or soft compound.
Snow tyres
Since 2008, specialised narrow-dimension tyres have been banned – so the Pirelli Sottozero tyre is now the same size as the asphalt tyre. It can be fitted with studs that protrude out by about a millimetre, enabling the tyre to cover long road sections without damaging the road surface.
The structure of the Sottozero is more flexible than the asphalt Pzero, precisely because this tyre must perform on very variable road conditions. In addition, Pirelli has reinforced the tyre’s shoulders, in order to offer even more resistance to punctures.
The compound and the tread have been developed to perform at their best with or without studs, as they have to remain effective in a huge range of winter conditions. Just one compound is available.
For rallies with full snow, such as Rally Sweden, drivers use the Sottozero Ice tyre. This is slightly narrower, being the same size as the gravel tyre, to guarantee greater pressure in the footprint area. The tyre is covered in nearly 400 longer studs, with smaller tread blocks to hold the studs in better – which is fundamental to guarantee grip on completely icy surfaces. The studs are actually inserted into the tyre during its construction through a process patented by Pirelli, to ensure a high level of stud retention. The sidewall is reinforced in order to guard against punctures.
All Pirelli tyres have exceeded the latest environmental standards since 2008, with no aromatic oils used in their construction.
Four questions to Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director
Q: How important is the Pirelli Star Driver programme to Pirelli?
PH: “It’s an absolutely vital part of our strategy and also integral to our core values of giving young drivers a helping hand in the sport. Unlike circuit racing, rallying does not have a real structure in place to help young drivers climb to the pinnacle of the sport, and the Pirelli Star Driver scheme goes some way towards filling that gap. For many years, even the most talented drivers from the FIA regional championships had nowhere to turn if they wanted to make the step up into the World Rally Championship, and recent economic conditions have made finding sponsorship harder than ever. With the Pirelli Star Driver programme, we’re giving young drivers a helping hand just when they need it most.”
Q: How have the different events been chosen?
PH: “We wanted to give the drivers as wide a variety of conditions as we could, so that they would be able to show the full spectrum of their capabilities to their prospective employers. With gravel being the most prevalent surface on the World Rally Championship, it’s obvious that the bias is going to be in that direction, but I really think that we’ve got a good mix this year. Starting in Turkey is very important for us, as we’ve got important historical and commercial links to Turkey, thanks also to our factory that is located in Izmir, close to Istanbul. There’s a lot of innovation on Rally of Turkey this year, making it a great fit for the Pirelli Star Driver programme.”
Q: What do you think about this year’s pool of young drivers?
PH: “It’s very intriguing, and from what we can see so far they’ve all got great potential.
However, one of the things that makes this programme so intriguing is that we don’t really know what their relative performance will be until they are up there against the established stars on the world championship. It’s not a competition though: our objective is for all the drivers to be proving themselves and furthering their careers through this innovative scheme.”
Q: What are the biggest challenges about being a control tyre supplier?
PH: “Undoubtedly it’s the requirement to provide tyres that are equally quick, consistent and reliable on all the cars in a huge range of variable and extreme conditions, but without sacrificing performance and durability. But it’s a challenge that we actively embrace, as this is exactly what we do with our road tyre business, and it enables a lot of technology transfer between the two areas. Rather than developing the ultimate tyre for motorsport, we can just concentrate on developing the ultimate tyre that works everywhere – and our customers are the people who benefit most in the end.”
Four questions to Mario Isola, Pirelli’s Rally Manager
Q: What’s the thinking behind the Pirelli Star Driver scheme?
MI: “Pirelli has a long history in assisting young, up and coming drivers and, as a company, we
have always sought an opportunity to do this on a global scale – and what better way to do it than the Pirelli Star Driver scheme. The spread of drivers from across the world is fantastic: we have New Zealanders, Kenyans, last year we had South Africans, a Lebanese driver and, of course drivers from Europe. And they are all the most promising drivers from their territories.
It’s a genuinely exciting and worthwhile programme for Pirelli to be involved in.”
Q: Last year was the first season for PSD. It wasn’t all plain sailing though, was it?
MI: “It was the first year of a completely new programme, of course there are going to be teething troubles. It’s not as straightforward as just running a team in the World Rally Championship. We had to create a new team which would run five cars on six rallies – that was a big undertaking. And, let’s not forget, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X was still a new car when we agreed to take it. There were some issues with the car earlier in the season, but Ralliart Italia worked incredibly hard to get the car right. As well as the odd problem, it’s worth looking at what we did with the drivers. Look at the pace Jarkko Nikara showed, he’s certainly a big star of the future. And, as well as that, it was really satisfying to see the improvement a driver like Jon Williams from South Africa made from when we took him into the Pirelli Star
Driver scheme to the end of the year. It’s great to know that Pirelli made a real difference with these guys.”
Q: We’re at the start of a new season and I believe the preparations for the Pirelli Star Driver
programme are already underway. Tell us more
.
MI: “The five drivers and five co-drivers met for the first time in Edinburgh last month. They were there for three and a half days of training. During this time, former world champion co-driver Robert Reid and other pioneers in the field of sports science took the guys through some intensive fitness work – including riding a bike flat out in a heat chamber at 40 degrees – and seeing how important it is to drink the right drink and eat the right food. As well as that, they worked on other areas like avoiding injuries while training, lots of incredible things which these guys wouldn’t have had access to away from the Pirelli Star Driver scheme.”
Q: And the cars…
MI: “Straight after training, they went to Italy, close to Pisa, when they tested the Mitsubishis for the first time: one day on gravel and one day on asphalt. It went really well. The cars are all, essentially, brand new for the first round, the Rally of Turkey. Ralliart Italia has stripped the cars to the shell and rebuilt everyone of them like new.”
Q: What are your feelings for 2010?
MI: “Hey, it’s going to be a great year. We have five more excellent drivers and some fascinating rallies ahead. Turkey is a step into the dark, the unknown, we don’t really know what’s coming there – or in France later in the year. But, around those two we have incredible rallies: Portugal, all the drivers love these roads; Finland, all the drivers
really love these roads! And then there’s one of the toughest asphalt events in Germany and Rally GB – everybody knows what a challenge that will be at the end of the year.”
Production of motorsport tyres begins in 2007Turkey takes on added significance for Pirelli this week. Not only is it the venue of round four of the FIA World Rally Championship, it is also where the company produces its rally tyres from its Türk Pirelli Lastikleri A.S. factory in Izmit near Istanbul.
th hour.th – October 3rdth-22ndh-31stth-30thth-18 th
Name: Alex Raschith overall on his home round of the FIA World Rally Championship.th overall and fourth in class. He would remain in that car for the next two years, but was then ready to make the step up to a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. He made a near perfect transition from natural aspiration and two-wheel drive straight into a top-line Group N car, complete with total traction and turbo charging. Through his first season in the Lancer (2005 – he was 18), he set 11 fastest stage times and led four events. th overall in Wales, driving his own Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X and hopes to contest more British rallies;to further his experience of the car.
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