Latvala gets behind the wheel of a WRC Ford

Testing under way for new season

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Finland’s latest recruit to the top flight of the World Rally Championship, Jari-Matti Latvala, realised one of his career dreams earlier this week.
      The 22-year-old driver, who has signed with the works Ford team for the 2008 season after the retirement of double WRC champion Marcus Grönholm, got his first taste of life behind the wheel on Monday and Tuesday, just a day after his appointment was made public.
     
Testing took place in France, which is where the 2008 WRC season will get under way next month with the Monte Carlo Rally.
      Latvala expects to have 20-plus days of testing for the new season, and this first stint left him with a good feeling
      "I had the chance to drive on a variety of surfaces and under very different conditions. There was snow and ice, and dry and wet asphalt."
      In other words the conditions reflected pretty closely what Latvala and others can expect in the season’s opener on January 24th.
     
This was not exactly the first time Latvala had been behind the wheel of a tuned Ford Focus rally car, but for the 2007 season he was driving in a privately-entered Focus, a 2006 model.
      He mainly noticed a difference in improved grip with the newer model.
      One rule-change for the 2008 season may mean extra manual work for the drivers.
      Next year tyres in the WRC will be supplied solely by Pirelli, and there will be a ban on anti-deflation mousse tyre inserts.
      This last means that we will see punctures and tyre-changes en route, with the result that placings in a rally could change dramatically and unexpectedly.
     
"We have to practise changing tyres during our testing programme. It is on the agenda for the next lot of tests. We have to be able to change a tyre in under two and a half minutes", explained Latvala.
      The new and less forgiving rubbers will mean changes for all drivers in that they will have to protect their tyres to some extent.
      "It won’t be possible to be quite so cavalier about cutting off bends. But even with a change in driving style, it is possible we will come up against situations on the road where victories are won and lost through getting a puncture and losing time."
     
Latvala and his co-driver Miikka Anttila will partner Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen at Ford next season.
      In 2007 Hirvonen finished third in the drivers’ standings behind Sebastien Loeb and Marcus Grönholm.
      A third Finn will also be driving for WRC points in 2008. On Monday Toni Gardemeister signed to drive for World Rally Championship newcomers Suzuki.
      The 32-year-old Gardemeister has previously driven for the Ford, Seat and Skoda teams, and in 2007 he piloted a privately-entered Mitsubishi in some rallies, finishing 12th overall. Tomi Tuominen will be his co-driver in 2008.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Jari-Matti Latvala inherits Grönholm´s seat in Ford rally team (17.12.2007)

Links:
  World Rally Championship

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