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 2006
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 2005
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2004
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2003
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2002
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Pierre Genon told us
The way to success with launch of SUBARU IMPREZA WRC2005 Letter from SWRT 18 March 2005
After its impressive victory of last event with old machine at Sweden, SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM(SWRT) headed to Rally Mexico, launch of New SUBARU IMPREZA WRC2005. As Petter Solberg had dominated this event from start to finish, it gave SWRT brilliant victory with newly introduced machine perfectly. With sensational demonstration by Chris Atkinson, now SWRT is seemed as one of hottest rally team within WRC registered manufacturers. We have got opportunity to ask Pierre Genon, SWRT Chief Rally Engineer about the victory of new machine at its debut event.
Tell us about your job
Working as Chief Rally Engineer, I' m responsible for engineering all the SWRT cars on rallies and tests. I decide the car' s specification; its base set-up for each event and tyre selection. I run a department of four engineers, and am also responsible for testing. I create a test plan every season, which includes all the development and pre-event tests. Do you have involvement in the development of the new cars?
No, I don' t have responsibility for the development of the car, but I' m interested of course! How did you feel going to this year' s Rally Mexico with a new car?
Going to an event with a new car always raises more questions than a normal event, and that was especially true in Mexico as it' s such a difficult rally. The main thing was to ensure reliability before getting there although it' s very difficult to find conditions that are similar to Mexico in Europe in the winter. We therefore had to make do with gravel stages in Sardinia, but FIA regulations (which prevent teams from testing outside of Europe) meant it was the same for everyone and there was nothing much we could do about it. You naturally expect more problems with a new car, because more things are unknown, especially in Mexico, which is hot and high altitude. In Mexico, we showed that the car has been designed properly and is very reliable.Were you excited about the launch of the car?
Yes, it' s always exciting to introduce a new car. When you get to the second half of a season, there are less new technical aspects to concentrate on so you focus more on the event and on fine-tuning tyre selection and the car' s set-up. Going to Mexico, I knew there would be new things to do.Did a new car in Mexico mean more work for you?
You have a bigger checklist to work through and on the set up side of things it' s slightly more complicated. The new car is wider than the old one, which changed things in the geometry, while we obviously had a more limited experience of the set-up. As the first half of the calendar includes all the rough events, we focused on ensuring the car was reliable and that took up most of our test time. It was definitely the right strategy, but meant we didn' t have the best understanding of how to get the most out of the set up that ahead of Mexico. That showed a bit on the event, but we made some changes after shakedown and Petter went out and won the first stage. That which demonstrated the car' s potential because even at that point Petter wasn' t 100 per cent happy. We continued to make changes as the rally went on and they all seemed to be in the right direction.How did you feel at the end of Leg two last day, when Petter was leading by 29 seconds but there were still two stages to go?
What about when Petter won the event?
It felt great to win the first rally with the new car and it' s a brilliant success for the team as a whole, for the design people, the test team and everyone who put so much effort in. It was especially good to win in Sweden with the old car and then on this event with the new car.It' s also the first time in recent years that we' re leading the Drivers' Championship at this early point in the season. In the past we' ve been playing catch up at this stage, but now we have to manage being in the lead. That throws up some issues like being first on the road in New Zealand. It' s a disadvantage, but one that I hope we have to get used to! What did you think about Chris' performance overall?
Very exciting. I think the potential he' s got is huge. He got caught out at the same place that Loeb retired last year, which proves that even with a far bit of experience you can make the same mistake. If you look at the speed he registered before that, it was exceptional. I' m not sure I' ve never seen anyone come into the sport and be so quick.Any predictions for New Zealand?
I think we have the potential to win, but we' re first on the road and we have to bear that in mind. There' s no point complaining and I hope it' s a situation that remains until the end of the Championship! We will try and have a good a first day and regain some positions from there so watch this space! |
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