Motorsport: Aussies full bore for Monte Carlo

Midweek motorsport reportJanuary 17, 2007

Atkinson and co-driver MacNeall are entering their third season with Subaru's world rally team but it will be only their second start in the Monte Carlo Rally -- one of the most demanding and unpredictable rallies of the year.

The terrain is mountainous and weather conditions can change rapidly. Ice and snow is common, making the roads treacherous, while there is always the threat of high winds and dense fog.

Top manufacturers Ford, Citroën and Subaru have unchanged driver line-ups for '07, but Citroen -- now a full factory team again and wanting to regain the manufacturers' title it won in 2003, '04 and '05 -- is introducing its new C4 to WRC competition at the season opener, replacing the Xsara that has been a dominant force for four years.

Citroën's triple world champion, Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, is back after missing the final rounds of last season with a broken arm. "I have yet to recover all my strength and I still have difficulty making certain movements. I'm still a little stiff," Loeb says.

"But it's getting better all the time and I only feel pain when I make sudden movements. I was able to get in a lot of kilometres during testing and my injury didn't prevent me from being quick. Anyway, I intend to go into the rally as though nothing was wrong and see how it goes."

The Aussies were sixth on the Monte Carlo last year -- an exceptional result in a mainly asphalt event for a pair who grew up on gravel rallying. Even Atkinson's vastly more experienced and higher profile teammate, Norwegian Petter Solberg, has never done better than sixth in six starts in this event.

Organisers have revised the route for the 75th anniversary to include some classic stages not used for many years. The rally is based in Valence, in south-east France, for the first time and most of the asphalt stages will take place on roads in the mountainous Ardeche and Vercors regions.

The event comprises 328.54km of competition in 15 stages -- two at night. The first of those is tomorrow (Thursday) and the other a 46.02km stage on Friday. The last stage is around the harbour section of Monaco's Grand Prix circuit.

After the "apprenticeship" of the 2005 and '06 seasons, Atkinson wants to be challenging the WRC leaders this year, but the team won't have its new Impreza until Rally Mexico -- the fourth of the 16 rounds in the championship (which has no Rally Australia this year).

Atkinson already has one podium finish to his credit, but his aim for this season is more of them -- and consistently. However, he -- and indeed the whole Subaru team -- has to adapt to BF Goodrich tyres after years on Pirelli rubber. Atkinson says smart tyre choices helped last year and will be just as crucial this time.

Atkinson and Solberg were upset that Subaru lagged in technical development last year and, with the new car still some time away, team managing director Richard Taylor director says diplomatically that "consistency rather than change has been the message" over recent months.

"If we can get some good points on the first three rallies (before the new car) it would be great, but we want to be up there fighting with the leaders, not just being happy with fifth," Atkinson says. "We want to be pushing if we can and putting our rivals under a lot of pressure."

"We were second at the end of the opening day of the Monte Carlo last year and, OK, we slipped back on legs two and three, but we never expected to be that high on our first visit to the rally because it is such a specialised event.

"Sixth at the end of the rally was a result that we never expected. On the final day of the rally we began to take time off the guys in front of us, which again was very encouraging.

"We improved on the asphalt rallies last year and I also think we got a lot more consistent during the season. Sometimes we weren't as high up the order as we would have liked, but if we can carry on making some improvements to the car, hopefully we can be consistently challenging higher up the order."

The Subaru team's operations director, Paul Howarth, says: "The aim with Chris (this season) is to continue his ongoing development. We expect him to deliver a high level of consistency throughout the year.

It's a very important year for him, because this is his third year with the team and there's probably a little bit more pressure on him to deliver results and move forward in his experience." 

Solberg, who is starting a new three-year contract with Subaru, says: "2006 was a difficult time for all of us, but I feel like we are able to get back on track now. It will be a tough challenge, because we do not exactly know where we are compared to our main rivals, but some things have been improved on the car that we will use in Monte Carlo, and that should make us a lot more competitive.

"Monte Carlo is always difficult for us, with the snow and ice on the roads, but we tested with BF Goodrich in December and I was very happy with the performance of the tyres. I think we could be much stronger on the asphalt events this season." 

Subaru has won the Monte Carlo Rally three times -- with Spaniard Carlos Sainz in 1995, with Piero Liatti in '97,  the first WRC victory for the Impreza, and Tommi Makinen first time out on the event in 2002.

BMW wins Dakar stage, Mitsubishi leads
BMW has scored its first stage win in this year's Dakar Rally, but Mitsubishi -- traditionally dominant in the event -- is now running one-two.

Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah, of Qatar, won the rally's 10th stage -- a 366km loop around Nema, a desert oasis in Mauritania -- in a BMW X3CC after the frustration of a 42-minute penalty for having earlier sped on roads in Morocco. Al-Attiyah finished the latest stage 28 seconds ahead of the Mitsubishi Pajero of Japan's Hiroshi Masuoka while American Mark Miller was third in a Volkswagen Touareg.

However, France's Stephane Peterhansel is the overall leader, almost 10 minutes ahead of defending champion Luc Alphand, of France -- both of them in Mitsubishi Pajeros.

France's Jean-Louis Schlesser, winner of Monday's ninth stage, is third overall in his Ford-powered buggy, ahead of Al-Attiyah, Masuoka and Miller, while VW's early leader, Portugal's Carlos Sousa, is seventh, ahead of American Robby Gordon in his Hummer and Belgium's Stephane Henrard in a VW, with Spain's dual world rally champion Carlos Sainz -- another early leader -- in 10th.

Sainz lost time with electrical problems on Monday, which also saw the demise of his South African teammate Giniel de Villiers, whose VW caught fire while leading.

Portugal's Helder Rodrigues won the motorcycle section on the 10th stage aboard a Yamaha, but KTM bikes still fill the top five spots overall, with Spain's Marc Coma still 54 minutes ahead of France's Cyril Despres, with another Frenchman, David Casteu, in third, ahead of American Chris Blais and Norway's Pal Anders Ullevalseter, with  Rodrigues sixth.

Competitors have half a day's rest today, then take a 280km liaison stage towards Ayoun-el-Atrous in Mauritania, from where they head for Kayes in Mali tomorrow. The 15-stage event at Dakar in Senegal on Sunday.

BMW spells out its F1 ambitions
In F1, BMW is hoping to be on the heels of the top teams this year, winning grands prix next year and a world championship contender by 2009. The F1.07 model it unveiled at Valencia in Spain last night is the first wholly-designed since BMW took over Swiss team Sauber a little more than a year ago.

It has a shorter, higher nose with a revised cooling system and bigger radiators, while the rear end has been slimmed with a seamless-shift gearbox that is becoming standard among the leading F1 teams. The chassis was done at the factory Sauber has at Hinwil in Switzerland while the powertrain and electronics were done by BMW in Munich.

BMW-Sauber was fifth in the championship in its first season since amalgamation, a jump of three places on Sauber's effort in 2005, but the 36 points last year was still 50 less than fourth-placed Honda. However, big things are now anticipated, which is a worry for BMW motorsport chief Mario Theissen, who says: "Expectations are rising faster than the team can develop."

BMW-Sauber technical director Willy Rampf says aerodynamics are the single most important factor in the performance of an F1 car, especially now that all the cars are on the same (Bridgestone) tyres -- and those tyres will have less grip than last year, to cut cornering speeds.

The team's senior aerodynamicist is Willem Toet, who grew up in Australia, worked at Ford's Melbourne plant and drove in hillclimbs. He has previously been with the Ferrari and Honda teams. The Hinwil wind tunnel has been ramped up from one shift a day to two and, since the end of October 2006, three.

BMW-Sauber has a young but exceptionally talented driver line-up, with Germany's Nick Heidfeld and Poland's Robert Kubica in the race seats and Germans Sebastien Vettel and Timo Glock as its testers.

McLaren's new drivers -- Spain's dual world champion Fernando Alonso and British rookie Lewis Hamilton, at 25 and 22 respectively the youngest line-up among the 11 F1 teams -- entertained a massive crowd, including F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, around a floodlit temporary street circuit at Valencia's futuristic arts and science centre.

The launch was telecast live on Spanish television, with Cirque du Soleil and violinist Vanessa-Mae performing before fireworks as the MP4-22 car was revealed.

"Today is really about not just showing the car and the drivers, but more about our effort to practically demonstrate the commitment to F1," Dennis says. "Don't see it as just a glitzy way to reveal a car. People wanted a dynamic F1 that reached out. This is our effort to satisfy that need. We are trying to live and demonstrate that we are committed to helping people, mainly young people, aspire and to chase their dreams."

McLaren did not win a race last season, for the first time in a decade, and has not won a constructors' championship since 1998 or a drivers' title since 1999 (Mika Hakkinen).

However, Alonso says McLaren is as good a chance as Ferrari or Renault to be No. 1 this year. He says McLaren will benefit from all teams being on Bridgestone tyres after Michelin's withdrawal.

"Bridgestone tyres help the McLaren performance, because in the last three tests of last year the McLaren was very quick," says Alonso, sporting a new, short haircut that he insists is nothing to do with McLaren's attempt to project a more youthful image.

More driver movement in A1
Narain Karthikyean, who raced in F1 for Jordan in 2005 and is now a Williams test driver, will join India's A1 Grand Prix team at this weekend's sixth round of the "World Cup of Motorsport" at New Zealand's upgraded Taupo track. Karthikeyan says he has fielded offers from America and Japan recently but that his Williams testing role remains his priority.

Former Jordan technical director Gary Anderson has joined Ireland's A1 team, which has Japan-based Richard Lyons in its race seat. Series-leading Germany, whose team is run by Michael Schumacher's manager Willi Weber, is bringing 17-year old Christian Vietoris in as its rookie this weekend. Vietoris is the reigning Formula BMW champion in Germany. That's a title Germany's A1 star driver, 19-year-old Nico Hülkenberg won in 2005.

Lots happening in F1 world
>> Malaysia's Sepang circuit is aiming for a 12 per cent increase in attendance at its F1 grand prix on April 8. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will be attending.

>> Singapore's Today newspaper keeps reporting on the prospect of a night-time F1 race on the island in September next year. As it's a government-owned publication, its sources may well be on the right track. Two wealthy businessmen are vying to be the promoter, although they would still need government money behind them to avoid incurring massive losses because of the costs of staging a GP, especially on a street circuit.

>> Despite having only a one-year deal now for the United States GP, and being badly "bitten" by the six-car race in 2005, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Joie Chitwood says the Brickyard is the rightful home for F1 in America. "We have invested a lot (for F1)," Chitwood says. "If F1 wants to succeed in the US, Indianapolis is the right place."

>> The chairman of the Shanghai circuit in China, Mao Xiaohan, says the track has not been tainted by the corruption scandal involving its former general manager, Yu Zhifei, who has been under investigation for three months over misuse of 3.2 billion yuan (about A$500 million) from the city's pension funds last year.

>> The value of F1 television rights in Germany was expected to dive after Michael Schumacher's retirement, but instead it has apparently become a fierce contest. RTL has the free-to-air rights, for which it is reported to be paying US$100 million a year, and Premiere runs a pay-per-view but time-delayed service, for which it is said to pay about US$60 million a year.

Three other operators -- Arena, ARD and Sat 1 -- are reportedly interested in rights from 2008, while Premiere is said to be keen to get all rights. That is precisely what car manufacturers competing in F1 have feared -- the sport becoming essentially a pay-TV product. F1's Spanish rights are also expected to be worth a lot more now that Fernando Alonso is a two-time world champion -- with the prospect of more success at McLaren.