WRC teams clock up the testing kilometres

By the time the cars get to Monte Carlo the pre-event car testing will have reverted to normal levels of activity, but not before thousands of kilometres of testing around the world.

Elfyn Evans during his pre-Monte Carlo Rally test in the Dmack Ford Fiesta WRC.Citroen Racing reports that they have covered 9,500 km in the course of 10 sessions held in France, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Wales, Italy, Sweden.  

Kris Meeke was their main driver, and for the last day of each session Craig Breen and Stéphane Lefebvre each had one day.  

Hyundai had been progressively developing their 2017 car in stages, using converted existing rally cars.  They started testing in April 2016 with the new i20 Coupe car, and since then they had “several” test sessions (they do not communicate a specific number as it would not be straightforward), but confirm the total test distance was over 6000km, mainly in France, Spain and Germany, on gravel and tarmac.  

M-Sport state that at the end of 2016 they had covered 6,392 km, in France, Spain, Italy, Finland, Sweden, North England and Wales, the majority of the testing being conducted by Ott Tanak, Eric Camilli and Matthew Wilson, while others to have driven the car in testing included Malcolm Wilson, Martin Prokop, Elfyn Evans and Mads Østberg.  

Toyota Gazoo report that there has been 18,240km of testing in their 2017 car, with main test locations being Finland, Spain, Portugal and France, but it is not clear if this total includes the testing of pre-217 specification World Rally Cars by the Germany based TMG company.

- Martin Holmes 

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