Croatia Rally runner-up Tanak still struggling to gel with Puma

M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak has conceded he is still trying to identify the “sweet spot” of his Puma Rally1 despite taking it to second place on last weekend’s Croatia Rally.

Jason Craig_1

23 Apr 2023

The Estonian continued his strong start to the new campaign at round four of the World Rally Championship following his switch back to the Blue Oval in December. He now occupies fourth in the standings on 65 points - four shy of Croatia Rally winner Elfyn Evans.

However, Tanak feels performances could have been much better up to now, and has identified the hybrid-powered car’s “small operating window” as its Achille’s heel.

The need to replace the entire steering system during the lunchtime service halt on Friday, and a transmission issue later on the penultimate day of the Tarmac counter, meant he was never really in a position to challenge the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 of Evans.

“No doubt there has been some improvements like we could see on the first day and yesterday [Saturday] there were some stages when it almost started to come and we were feeling it was a bit like we were racing but always there was something to take us down again,” explained the 2019 World Rally Champion.

“[There were] quite a few late nights at the service but there are some promising things so for sure; plenty of work to do to get all the package together to make sure we are consistent and reliable through all the weekends.”

Tanak’s lack of confidence with the car – which continues to be honed by engineers back at M-Sport’s Dovenby Hall headquarters in Cumbria – continued into Sunday, meaning getting to the end “without too much drama” became the priority for him and Martin Jarveoja.

He added: “The car has the pace, we can see that from the times, but the operating window seems very small and it has been difficult for me to understand where the sweet spot of the car is.

“Up until now, the team has been working very hard and I have managed to stay in touch with the competition but we need to continue working hard on finding more so we can keep involved in this exciting battle for the championship.

“I am happy to be only four points off the lead of the Championship and second this weekend is still a very good result along with the two stage wins.”