The
FIA World Rally Championship gets underway again this week with the Rallye Monte Carlo - and just 53 days have passed since the Wales Rally GB concluded the 2007 season.
Once again the Monte is based in Valence and it is essentially an asphalt event on technically straight-forward roads. However unpredictable weather can make it devilishly difficult.
Drivers can face dry roads, streaming wet asphalt and treacherous ice, with the threat of snow on higher ground. They can often encounter all on the same stage as the route climbs and descends inhospitable mountain cols, switching from southern facing roads sheltered from extreme weather to exposed northern ones.
The rally can be won or lost on a good or bad tyre choices. Each group of speed tests can contain stages which offer vastly different conditions and must be tackled on rubber chosen more than three hours before the action begins.
There is no perfect choice for such weather, especially with new regulations restricting the options available. Frequently the secret for success is selecting compromise tyres which lose least time in the 'wrong' conditions.
Special notes:
This is the 76th Rallye Monte Carlo and the four day event is a notoriously tricky combination of snow, ice and demanding routes which often produces some surprise results.
Crews will leave the service park in Valence, near the river Rhone in south-east France, for three of the four days of competition until the finish of Saturday's stages, at which point the WRC contingent will decamp to a second service park location in Monaco, opposite the Automobile Club de Monaco headquarters.
The asphalt roads twist and flow through the breathtaking but tricky mountain stages of the region. A welcome inclusion of the Alpes Maritimes region on Sunday will see crews tackle the spectacular Col de Turini and finish the rally with a high-speed blast around the harbour section of the famed Monaco Grand Prix circuit.
