WRC teams don’t mind rough rallies, reports Martin Holmes

The Italian round of the World Rally Championship held in Sardinia is traditionally one of the roughest events on the current calendar of WRC events.

Andreas Mikkelsen will make his Citroen debut at the Rally of Sardinia.Double-usage of stages on WRC events heightens the situation because of the way that even initially smoother stages deteriorate badly after the first pass by cars.

Whereas car wrecking rallies are obviously unpopular with private teams, factory teams do not seem to mind.

Citroen say the rebuild costs after rough rallies are not so different. A spokesperson said” “It is part of the rally scene and provides a test of reliability in this kind of condition”.

Hyundai consider that if the car is reliable, the costs are much like a normal gravel event. Any extra costs have already been taken into account at the beginning of the season.

M-Sport say that rough rallies always cost more, in Sardinia it is because of impact damage, but these costs are all part of the backbone of the challenge of the WRC.

Regarding the ranking of roughness, Citroen say the roughest has to be jointly Argentina because of the effect of high speed shocks, and Sardinia because of the damage from hitting stray rocks in the road.

Hyundai reckon Argentina is the roughest of them all, M-Sport says it depends on the weather conditions, but Sardinia has to be up at the level of roughness of anywhere.

- Martin Holmes

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