The French round of the World Rally Championship, on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, is the second asphalt rally in as many weekends and also the last tarmac outing of the 2008 WRC season. Immediately following Rally Catalunya, it forms the second half of the asphalt double-header as the season nears its finale.
“It is perhaps misleading to look at Spain and Corsica as two separate events, because we move from one immediately to the next and it is so important that we continue our learning and progress across both” said David Richards, Subaru World Rally Team Principal. “We learned some good lessons in Spain, and it is vital that we carry these into this coming weekend’s competition to take a step forward with our performance on tarmac.”
Based in Ajaccio on the west of the island, the service park sits within the town’s shipping port. Ajaccio and Salou, where the WRC took to the tarmac just last week, face each other from opposing banks of the Mediterranean Ocean.
Coming just days after Rally Catalunya, Corsica’s challenge is also waged on asphalt roads, but winding through the mountainous and beautifully unspoiled countryside, they are of a very different nature.
“Corsica is a lot more bumpy than Spain so subjects the cars and drivers to different types of loads, but it’s still a fast one and sees the cars pull similar lateral forces of about 1.5g” said Paul Howarth, Subaru World Rally Team operations director. “The surface is more abrasive so tyre wear could be more of a factor.
“They’re different natured events, but the drivers should know the cars well coming from Spain, have good knowledge of the tyres and know the limits, so be in a good rhythm from the off. As with Spain, that’s what you need to be fast here. The weather can be hard to predict and localised showers often have an impact on the leaderboard. It’s common for cars to leave a dry service park and arrive at a rain-soaked stage.
“Operationally this is quite a tricky event as within 24 hours of finishing in Spain, we are in Corsica ready to rebuild and re-prepare the cars for the start of the rally. All the teams are well rehearsed in it though, so it only really becomes a problem if something unexpected happens that affects the timings in place.”
The timings between the two are clearly crucial for drivers too, as Petter Solberg explains: “Spain and Corsica are completely different events as the nature of the roads is different and the surface is much more abrasive. The biggest thing though is that they are so close together.
