by Rob Wilkins
Suzuki World Rally Team's
Toni Gardemeister has conceded that they definitely need to try and get some good results with the SX4 WRC car in the second half of the season.
Gardemeister and Suzuki began the year well and Toni finished seventh in Sweden, only his second event with the Paris-based operation. However it was something of a false dawn as numerous retirements followed and it wasn't until Greece, when he finished ninth, the penultimate event prior to the summer break, that he again got to the end of an event.
Heading to Finland next week however, Toni is optimistic about the teams' prospects and with several new parts set to be introduced on the ninth round in the World Rally Championship, he could spring a surprise.
"For Finland we will have a new car," he told
Crash.net Radio recently. "I don't know yet what things there are specifically. But there is something for the suspension and new hydraulics.
"These new parts will help. They should bring some more speed and some more reliability. I hope that the second part of the year is a lot better than the first. Okay we had some good times and good pace [in the first eight events]. But we had a lot of problems with the car as well."
Asked about the Rally Finland, Toni added that while it is not his most favourite event in the series, it is in his top five: "It is always a very good feeling to drive there and you always want to get a good result on your home event. You have a lot of friends and family there. I don't think I will push more there though," he continued.
"I still want to ensure I get to the finish. But of course it would be nice to get a good result."
As for the first half of the season, Gardemeister noted that while it wasn't great, there were still plenty of positives.
"It started quite promisingly and the team got points in Monte Carlo and Sweden [with P-G Andersson finishing eighth at the Principality and myself seventh on the snow]. That was very good. In fact it was a surprisingly good start because it was a new team and new car - everything was new and there was not so much pre-season testing either. We immediately set quite good times," he explained.
