By Paul Evans
This is the car that Elfyn Evans hopes will carry him to FIA World Rally Championship glory this year – a 380bhp, four-wheel drive, 1.6-litre turbocharged, flame-spitting, EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta RS WRC, built and run by M-Sport.
The 13 round season starts this weekend with the Monte Carlo Rally, an event that’s as predictable as a roll of the dice, and where strategy, skill and luck play an equal role. It’s not uncommon for the same stage to have sections of dry asphalt, water, snow, ice, low cloud and bright sunshine as it meanders up and over a summit and back down into a valley, meaning tyre selection is often a lottery and usually a compromise.
Such changeable conditions is why M-Sport will have 22 team members solely responsible for reporting the weather and the state of the road surface back to base – including Newtown’s Phil Mills, the 2003 World Rally Champion Co-driver.
Co-driven by Daniel Barritt, Evans has acquired a fair amount of Monte experience, as this is his fifth attempt at an event that he has never failed to finish.
Can the 29-year old driver from Dolgellau win? Well no professional rally driver goes into an event thinking he won’t or can’t win, and Evans, who finished a career-best sixth last year, certainly has a good chance. But like his rivals, he’ll need the rallying equivalent of a royal flush to help him on his way.
“Rallye Monte-Carlo is one of those events that every driver looks forward to,” admits Evans. “I’ve always said that it offers some of the best Tarmac roads in the world, but at this time of year the conditions make it a true challenge and the ultimate test of strategy. To do well, you really do need to get absolutely everything right.”
Casino Square will host the start ceremony on Thursday, and from there crews will head into the first two night stages – including the famous Sisteron stage, which will be run in the reverse direction for the first time and in the dark – as the WRC stars make their way to Gap for the first overnight halt. On Friday the action is south of Gap, with the longest day of the event covering two loops of three stages, with the Roussieux-Eygalayes and Vaumeilh-Claret stages new this year.
Saturday is another long, but this time largely familiar, day and takes the crews back to Monaco for the overnight halt. Sunday’s final leg includes the iconic Col de Turini and La Cabanette-Col de Braus stages, the latter being new and doubling up as the closing Power Stage – for which extra WRC points are available. All that remains is the most glamorous of WRC prizegivings, in front of Monaco’s Place du Palais Princier.