World Rally Championship drivers are apprehensive about tire wear ahead of round 11 in Chile, with roads they say are even more abrasive than last year.
Tires were the major talking point 12 months ago when Rally Chile returned to the WRC calendar for the first time since 2019, and the first time in September.
Saturday morning’s loop was particularly decisive, with Toyotas suffering badly with shredded rubber thanks to incorrectly choosing to carry softs.
Ott Tänak, then driving for M-Sport Ford, opted for a hard-biased tire package, which proved to be a rally-winning move.
Ott Tänak wasn't confident in his tire choice last year – and still feels the same on this week's rally
Several drivers already backed off on Thursday morning’s shakedown stage to save their rubber for the weekend ahead; tire strategy, and management, again look to be key.
“It’s not easy to put a good rally together here but it’s always the target,” Ott Tänak, the only driver ever to win Rally Chile, told DirtFish.
“I wouldn’t say we were really so confident last year as well taking the [tire] decisions and to be sure that we were right, but I guess it will be the case this year as well.
“Yes, some stages are the same, so you can take some data, but still the weather and temperatures are a bit different. So, yeah, which way you go, it’s always a bit of a guess.”
M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux will experience this for the first time this weekend as he hasn’t competed in Chile before. He said Friday is a completely different day compared to the final two legs.
“Definitely two rallies in one,” he told DirtFish. “For sure, it’s always a disadvantage when you don’t have the knowledge of the rally. I think maybe for the tire management, to know exactly how it was last year, because I have no idea how the tires were at the end.
“I’ve seen some videos with delamination, it was not all the rally, you know. But also the knowledge of the stages, they have done it in 2019 and also last year. But I’m confident that I’ve been quite OK on the new rally when it was new for me, so we’ll see.”
Fourmaux was however surprised to see so many problems last year.
Chile's stages are medium-fast in pace yet still abrasive
“Well, with no disrespect,” he said, “I just don’t understand why the others have not taken this [hard] tire choice when I looked at the stages after my recce. But, you know, you always know better after the race than before, so it’s easy to say after that.
“But, no, I think Ott did the right choice. He was also last to start, so he could take also more hard than the others. That was also maybe a point where he had more chance to take extra hard than the others. So, yeah, maybe that’s the reason.”
Fourmaux’s team-mate Grégoire Munster described Saturday’s day as “a tire killer”.
“You need to manage it very well,” he said, “and Friday you have like round roads with a lot of deceptive corners and so on and so sometimes it can unsettle the balance of the car and this you need to keep in mind.”
The Toyota drivers are particularly wary, having suffered so badly in 2023.
“[We need] better tire choice on Saturday with a bit of luck. That’s obviously quite key,” said Elfyn Evans.
Evans was one of the drivers worst affected by tire wear last year
“Obviously, it’s not straightforward still, first pass. It’s a lot colder this year, but of course, we have this very, very abrasive surface in SS9, especially SS8 even also. It’s not completely straightforward.”
Asked what makes the stages so abrasive, Evans added: “I guess the way they prepare it, there’s a lot of stone in the surface, it’s very hard obviously for the logging trucks, which makes it very compact but obviously very abrasive also for the tire.
“Especially considering what we learned here last year, just how abrasive it is, of course, it’s something that we now need to consider and to manage as the weekend goes on.”
Managing the tires, however, is far easier said than done.
“I think Saturday is still going to be a huge challenge,” explained WRC2 driver, Gus Greensmith.
“In terms of the tires, it’s like how much softer can we go without falling off a cliff like some people did last year, so it will still be a big choice to make.
“I’m sure you’ll see some people try and take a risk, but we saw last year even what we thought was quite sensible turned out to be a disaster, so it will be quite tricky.
“Where everyone lost their tires last year is a big downhill descent all the way to the finish, and it goes for about 10km, so the tires never, ever get a breather, neither do the brakes, so it’s a very hard thing to manage.”
