The
FIA World Rally Championship journeys to North America this week for the first of seven consecutive gravel events.
Loose surface roads are the dominant terrain in the series, hosting 10 of the 15 rounds, and so Rally Mexico will offer the best guideline to date for the season ahead.
The Leon-based round is the first of three consecutive rounds outside Europe and is also the highest in the championship. Most speed tests are over 2000m and the first leg climbs to more than 2700m on hillsides awash with cacti and water crossings. The altitude takes its toll on cars as the thinner air means engines 'run out of breath' and can lose up to 30 per cent of their usual power.
The special stages are fast and flowing and average speeds last year topped 96kph. They are mostly hard-packed gravel, although some are sandier.
Special notes:
Mexico is the first traditional gravel rally of the year and it is also the first long-haul event, and the only time the crews will visit the North American continent.
Based in the city of Leon in the Guanajuato region of Mexico’s central highlands, the event promises very different conditions to any seen so far this year in either Monte Carlo or Sweden.
Crews will compete for the first time on Pirelli’s new Scorpion gravel championship control tyre, available in only one compound and tread pattern.
It will be the third different tyre design crews have used in the first three events of the year.
Crews are banned from cutting the tread of their tyres this year, which on gravel typically meant opening up the tread pattern to maximise the tyre’s ability to cut through the loose surface.
This will mean road position is crucial as those further down the order will benefit from road cleaning, meaning a smoothing of the loose surface that will afford the standard tread better traction.
