The Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo takes place this weekend and that can mean only one thing - the start of the 2007 FIA World Rally Championship.

Just 46 days following the end of the 2006 season, the new season is already upon us. The event is the oldest, most prestigious and glamorous on the calendar and this year it celebrates it 75th anniversary. To commemorate that the organisers have revised the route and it now includes some classic special stages which have not been used for many years.

For the first time the rally is based in Valence, near the river Rhone in south-east France, and most of the asphalt stages will take place on roads in the mountainous Ardeche and Vercors regions, which hosted some of the most famous Monte Carlo stages in the past.



Special notes:

The inland special stages are away from the warming coastal influence experienced in the traditional tests in the Alps above Monaco, home to the event in recent years. Temperatures may dip lower at night and take longer to warm up in the day. Although recent weather has been mild, the forecast arrival of a cold snap next week may bring patchy snow and ice on the bleak and inhospitable higher sections of the rally.

Essentially an asphalt event on technically straight-forward roads, unpredictable weather can make Rallye Monte Carlo hugely difficult. Drivers can face bone dry roads, streaming wet asphalt and treacherous ice – always with the threat of snow on the highest ground. They can often encounter all on the same stage as the route climbs and descends mountain cols, switching from southern facing roads sheltered from the extreme weather to exposed northern ones.

The rally can be won or lost on a good or bad choice. Each group of stages can contain tests which offer vastly different conditions that must be tackled on rubber chosen more than three hours before the action begins. There is no perfect tyre choice for such weather and frequently the secret for success is selecting compromise rubber which loses least time in the 'wrong' conditions. Reliable weather data from team personnel in the mountains and accurate condition checks from safety crews, allowed to drive the stages before competitors, are the key to the right tyres.

This year's opening leg will be held entirely in the dark, another challenge on a rally already regarded as one of the most difficult of the season and certainly the most unpredictable. It is the first time an entire leg has been held in darkness for more than 10 years.


FIA World Rally Championship news:

The big news prior to the event is that Sebastien Loeb is still struggling following his mountain bike accident at the end of September. The Frenchman will not be at 100 per cent in Monte Carlo and it remains to be seen how this will affect things.

“I have yet to recover all my strength and I still have difficulty making certain movements,” he confirmed prior to the event. “I'm still a little stiff. 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.”