‘Hollywood’ has had a tough season to date, but since the last event in Greece at the end of June, he has been busy testing and has resigned with the team for three more seasons.
“This year we’ve not had such good results on asphalt so the most important thing in Germany will be to progress from our previous form,” he stated. “We had two days of testing in Germany at the end of July and we did find some improvements, which will be very important for us.
“I do enjoy the rally in itself, despite not having such a great history in the event. It’s a reasonably difficult rally for a driver as each Leg has a different character with a different type of asphalt and all of the roads are very dirty and slippery. Saturday’s military stages are particularly tough.”
Stephane Sarrazin will drive the second nominated car and he will be especially eager to do well, as it is currently his final scheduled appearance of the year in the WRC. Although the Frenchman told
Crash.net Radio back in July that he is hoping to do at least one gravel round with the Banbury-based squad this season, nothing has yet been confirmed. As such he will want to impress in Germany in a bid to ensure he remains with the SWRT in 2007.
“I made my WRC debut in Rally Germany 2004 so I’ve got a good feeling about this event,” said the former
F1 driver. “It’s a great tarmac event as grip is low, the surface is slippery and the stages are difficult so you’ve really got to concentrate. I particularly enjoy the second day’s Baumholder roads as they’re very challenging to drive. Last year we were very quick and it would be a good result if we could finish in the top five this year.”
Subaru meanwhile have made an ‘extra effort’ for this round in a bid to improve the performance of the Impreza WRC2006 on asphalt.
