"The Tour de Corse is a very good event," said Solberg. "I think compared to Rally Spain the stages and the asphalt will suit us better. In the past the Corsican roads were more abrasive as the surface was much older, however nowadays there’s not so much of the old tarmac left. On the whole our car and tyres match the event very well. My objective is to try for a podium again. That’s my aim, we’ll just have to see how we get on."
Subaru’s director of engineering, Steve Farrell is also upbeat and draws much confidence from the team’s results their in the past, which have included three wins in the last ten years. Indeed they won with Solberg in 2003, despite the fact the Norwegian crashed heavily in the shakedown.
"We’re looking forward to the Tour de Corse with optimism," he added. "We’ve historically had good results in the event and there’s no reason why that should change. We’ve learnt from the lessons of Spain and spent a lot of time at the end of that event fine-tuning the Impreza WRC2006, looking at the tyre package and feeding through improvements for Corsica.
"We’ve got to look at Spain and Corsica as completely different events. Even though they are both asphalt, they have different characters, with Corsica playing much more to our strengths. The French roads are more twisty and abrasive, compared to the Spanish roads that are much more flowing and open. We’ve seen before in the past that strategy also plays a major part in Corsica and getting the right set-up for the conditions is essential. If we get the strategy right, we’ve got as much chance as anybody else. We’re approaching the event in a determined mood."
Subaru will have three cars in action, the second nominated Impreza driven by asphalt ace, Stephane Sarrazin, while
Chris Atkinson competes in a 2005 spec car.
Manufacturer 2.
OMV Peugeot Norway WRT:
[Manfred Stohl, car #7].
Manfred Stohl is still in some discomfort following his crash two weeks ago in the build-up to the Rally Catalunya. Although the Austrian was given the OK to compete in Spain, it was a difficult event and his pre-event accident heavily compromised his weekend.
