And the previous two WRC occasions have given Hyundai Motorsport president and crew principal Cyril Abiteboul meals for thought relating to one in every of rallying’s inevitable elements: punctures.
“We’re within the course of, to present you just a little little bit of an inside story, of reviewing a little bit of cut-off – the cut-off being mainly the kilometer, the gap at which you determine to proceed, to hold on, or to alter your tire,” Abiteboul informed DirtFish.
It’s an attention-grabbing admission made all of the extra fascinating with a dose of deeper evaluation.
Sometimes it should take a WRC crew round 1m30s to alter a tire in a stage, however varied elements can clearly have an effect on that. Every WRC crew will subsequently calculate information for every stage, figuring out at which level (in kilometers) it’s extra time environment friendly to proceed on the broken tire than cease and alter.
Thierry Neuville exemplified this in motion on the fourth stage of Acropolis Rally Greece, the place he elected to proceed on with a puncture (19km into the 26km take a look at) and dropped simply 39.5s as an alternative of over a minute.
“I feel it was a great resolution,” the world champion fairly rightly mirrored afterwards.
