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Stéphane Sarrazin takes the rough with the smooth
Letter from SWRT
14 April 2006
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The legendary Tour de Corse celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The event was quickly christened the 'rally des dix milles virages,' or the rally of 10,000 corners. It's a title the rally bears well. With a multitude of hairpin bends and sharp twisty descents, it's technical and difficult to judge for the drivers. "The stages are very, very good but also extremely challenging, especially the Vico-Col de Sarzoggiu pass that's very narrow. You need to concentrate here, otherwise it's easy to make a mistake." Subaru World Rally Team driver Stéphane Sarrazin advises.
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| Copyright © STI |
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| 2006 WRC Rd.5 Rallye de France |
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Stéphane's got the reputation of being an asphalt 'ace' and this season has focused exclusively on the sealed surface events of the championship alongside an intensive asphalt testing programme with Subaru's tyre partner Pirelli. "It's going well. We're working on set-ups which will help the performance of the team. My experience helps with things like getting the right line and cutting corners correctly - all small advantages to get better times."
The 2006 Tour de Corse will be the third of Stéphane's four asphalt events this year. He'll want to give the fans something to cheer about. "On every rally I'll try my best, but this one is special. It's a good feeling." Last year at the Tour de Corse Stéphane equalled his best-ever WRC finish with fourth place overall.
Stéphane believes his circuit-racing experience has helped his sealed surface performances. As the 2004 French Rally Champion, ex-Formula 1 driver, Le Mans competitor and GT racer he's well-accustomed to the precise lines and inch-perfect braking that asphalt driving demands. He's one of an elite band of drivers who have competed in rounds of the FIA Formula One World Championship and the World Rally Championships. Stéphane joins illustrious names including two-time F1 World Champion Jim Clark, veteran racers and Le Mans winners Derek Warwick and Martin Brundle. World Rally Champions Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz and Tommi Makinen have also set foot in F1 cars - but these all came in non-competitive environments at tests.
Stéphane's first experience of rallying was in 1995 in the famous Rallye du Var run on asphalt roads in the south of France.
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| Copyright © STI |
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finishes in the top 10 in WRC debut
2004 WRC Rd.10 Rallye Deutschland |
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After a spell concentrating on circuit racing, Stéphane returned to rallying in 2000, again in the Rallye du Var. After an absence of more than five years, he won the Group N class. The following year was even more impressive as he took outright victory in a 1999-specification Group N Subaru Impreza.
Unsurprisingly, Stéphane was snapped up by Subaru France for a rallying programme the following season in 2004. Incredibly, on his first attempt, he won the French national rally championship and finished inside the top-10 on three WRC rallies, with a career-best fourth in Spain.
Top-flight rallying and a drive with the Subaru World Rally Team in 2005 was secured, with the result in Corsica the high-point of a very impressive debut year. Stéphane will use all his experience to better the finish this year. "The asphalt driving style is different to other rallies," Stéphane explains. "It's a much smoother surface, so you have to be more precise, taking a much tighter line than you would on a loose surface. On gravel you're sideways before you even enter the corner. On asphalt there's more grip."
To help Stéphane, the specification of his Subaru Impreza WRC2006 is changed. "We set the car up differently to take the lines we need to,"
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| Copyright © STI |
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| 2006 WRC Rd.5 Rallye de France |
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Stéphane comments, "The suspension is stiffer and closer to the ground than on gravel events to help sustain the higher g-forces to hug the curves."
Lowering the suspension helps make the car responsive enough to turn into the hairpin bends at fast speed - the Impreza WRC2006 will be run approximately 60mm lower in Corsica than on a loose surface rally such as Mexico. At just 100mm from the road, you'd have trouble placing a copy of the Collins-Robert English to French dictionary under the car.
"The hairpins are so tight in Corsica, the car's steering must be very responsive and the car very stiff. You need as little roll as possible to go through. We set the car up so it's much more stable - almost like a racing car." Stéphane explains. To fully optimise steering, the suspension springs are also changed to reduce the amount of roll on the car, meaning the car moves less from side to side.
Spring rates are, in fact, more than 60% stiffer for asphalt events. "This is essential to get good stage times through the long, abrasive, high grip corners on the event." Going through the Corsican corners, the Impreza will barely even move - only two degrees from side to side. Look at the angle on a protractor and it barely even registers. "Setting the car up like this for Corsica means you can brake later and put the power down faster from the corners." Stéphane adds.
The rally is tough for the crews as the Corsican route generates far higher pressures on the driver than any other asphalt or gravel event. Through a corner in Corsica, you can expect the car to generate approximately 1.5g laterally and 1g longitudinally. That's almost double the amount you could expect from the road-going Subaru Impreza. Even on a fully wet road the Impreza WRC has an impressive grip on things. During the wet pre-event shakedown in 2005, Stéphane's team-mate Petter Solberg still recorded a lateral g figure of 1.475g - that's 50% more than the average Sunday driver could manage on the open highways.
Faster speeds and higher forces - that's when the experience counts.
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2006
2005
