Some stuff will go back down to road cars and it does sometimes, but it is limited because all development budgets in motorsport facilities are probably a 1000 times, if not 10,000 times smaller than the development budget of a proper road car manufacturer. A road car manufacturer can spend billions let say to develop a new ABS system. Where as our budget is nowhere near that for the whole operation. Overall it is difficult today, although there are still some returns.
Crash.net:
For the future, what do you think of the use of bio-fuels and so on? Is that the way forward?
CL:
It is a very political question. Yes we need to look at the environment and we need to make an effort and show that motorsport looks after the environment. But is bio-fuel the right thing? I don’t know. When you look at the bio-fuel everybody will tell you if you look at it at a proper scale where it would make a change on the environment it is not viable because we could not supply it. So it is a bit more of a PR thing than a real solution.
I think the real solution will be more like the hybrids and things like that. What they are doing in
Formula 1 allowing people to store energy and to restore it later to save fuel is interesting.
I think an interesting concept would be the one that they have got in
MotoGP. Effectively there everybody is given the same fixed amount of fuel for a race and then you need to use that the most efficiently possible because obviously if you want more power you have to make it out of the same fuel and the only way to do that is to improve your efficiency. So if each team is given ‘x’ amount of fuel to do a rally and everybody has got the same amount that would really force people to look at efficiency and overall efficiency of the car. I think that would bring a solution that could go back into road cars and would be a clever way for the future.
Crash.net:
How important is it for the WRC to go ‘green’ and embrace more environmentally friendly technology?
CL:
I am sure it is important for the WRC because it is important for everybody and the WRC cannot ignore the need of the world. We are a shop window and we are out there to demonstrate what Ford can do. At the moment we are demonstrating that Ford can do the best handling car, the fastest car and the most reliable. But as well as that we need to demonstrate that we can do something that is environmentally friendly and that can solve the petrol crisis and the pollution crisis of the future and of today.
![Marcus Gronholm and Christian Loriaux [Pic credit: Ford/worldrallypics.com]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/197320.jpg)
