MINI WRC Team Deep in Preparation

[DimON]

Team MINI and Prodrive aren’t taking any time off to celebrate their podium finish at Rally Germany. With more events to run this season, the team is hard at work getting ready. The cars are getting prepped and the drivers are staying fit while the team looks for suitable training roads to prepare the team to run both Rally France and Rally Spain. The bar has been set with the third place finish at Rally Germany, and we’re all pulling for all out victory this season. Catch the details of the prep work after the break.

[Official news from MINI Motorsport] At the team‘s base in Great Britain work continues unabated. On the one hand, directly after Rally Germany the team turned its attention to preparing the MINI John Cooper Works WRC of Daniel Oliveira for the demands of this weekend’s Rally; on the other, Technical Director Dave Wilcock and his team of engineers analysed the reams of data generated by Rally Germany in order to best prepare for the two upcoming asphalt rallies in France and Spain.

The team gained a lot of knowledge from Rally Germany’s asphalt stages, and how the MINI John Cooper Works WRC reacts on this surface under wet and dry conditions. Now the engineers need to develop the best tyre management strategies for upcoming events.

Although the next event on the schedule is Rally France, the team is already preparing for Rally Spain. Following Rally Germany a team of engineers travelled to Spain with two specific objectives in mind: First to seek the best roads for testing the MINI John Cooper Works WRC with Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke, and second, to build up a stage profile of the opening day’s special stages, which combine gravel and asphalt.

As for the drivers, they are working hard on their fitness. They both agree that even if they are not driving on all the events, it is not something you can let slip so their daily routine continues. They both do a mixture of gym and outdoor work and Kris particularly enjoys cycling.

On the way home from Rally Germany Kris stopped off at the MINI dealership in Belfast, which has a new showroom and where they were having a staff open evening. The team has many requests for the MINI rally car for displays and the next one where fans can see it will be at the Rallyday in Castle Combe on the 17th September where the team’s sponsor, Castrol, is an event partner.

In the meantime Brazilian privateer Daniel Oliveira of the Brazil World Rally Team is en route to “Down Under”. Between 8 and 11 September he faces 26 special stages making up 369 competitive kilometres. The MINI WRC Team is holding thumbs for his campaign on the fifth continent.

</img><br/></img>

</img> </img> </img> </img>

Читать дальше