Rally New Zealand a "level playing field" for WRC teams - Moncet

Round eleven is going to be a thorough examination of everything they know – or think they know – about the Auckland-based round, which makes its return to the World Rally Championship roster for the first time since 2012.

As is normal practice, testing from earlier in the month has kept crews fresh and allowed them to get some miles under their belts – although this has not taken place on New Zealand’s fast and flowing roads due to current rules that prohibit such long-haul exercises for cost saving reasons.

That means M-Sport Ford, Toyota Gazoo Racing and Hyundai Motorsport must rely on intuition, archive data and – if they are in the fortuitous position – sit their drivers down and ask them to reach as far back as a decade in their mind and see what they can remember from back then.

Both Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville competed against one another in 2012; the former crashed his Ford Fiesta RS WRC into retirement and the latter went on to take fifth position alongside his former navigator, Nicolas Gilsoul, at the controls of a Citroen DS3 WRC.

Now team-mates, bBoth accept the need to have a stable car that responds to inputs in a way that imbues confidence and allows them to commit to their notes and attack the stages – something that has not been the case for large parts of the current campaign with the I20 N Rally1 car.

The first idea teams and crews will get if their post-event groundwork has been successful will come on Thursday morning’s shakedown stage when it is believed many of the Rally1 crews will complete more than the customary three runs to help acclimatise to the roads on the  country’s North Island.

“I have good memories of the event, so I’m looking forward to going back,” said Tanak, the 2019 World Rally champion. “I have been watching videos to refresh myself and the roads look fantastic; they have a lot of positive camber and seem as if they were made for rallying.

“As it is in a far corner of the world, we have not been able to test on similar roads, meaning getting the right set-up will be difficult. We will just have to do our best to learn from the shakedown and adjust as we go. Hopefully we can get 100% from the car and achieve a strong result.”

As for Hyundai Motorsport’s Deputy Team Director Julien Moncet, he reckons Rally New Zealand is an exciting addition to the schedule for the simple fact it creates “a level playing field for everyone”. The Alzenau-based team arrive with momentum on their side, of course, with three of their four victories in 2022 coming on gravel. The other was achieved on the asphalt roads of Ypres Rally in Belgium.

“Despite us never having competed at Rally New Zealand before, we travel to the event with great confidence and belief after our first-ever 1-2-3 finish in WRC at Acropolis Rally Greece,” said Moncet. “Rally New Zealand is another gravel event [and] although it will be difficult, as the level of competition is very high, the event will be a level playing field for everyone and reliability of the cars will be key. It is our hope that we can continue our strong form and fight for the victory.”