Ari Vatanen and David Richards arrived into the time control after the opening couple of stages. The times weren’t bad, but they weren’t exactly smashing it.
Robert Reid smiled in the direction of the co-driver’s door of the immaculate Ford Escort RS1800.
“Watch this,” he said. With that, the 2001 world champion opened the door to the man who’d done the same 20 years earlier.
“David, if you could just give your driver a bit of a hurry up, that’d be great…”
DR couldn’t help but smile at the irony. Reidy had just repeated a line he’d heard on more than one occasion as he and Richard Burns took on the world aboard one of Richards’ Subarus.
Team principals turning – or returning – to co-driving really do put themselves in the firing line.
Andrea Adamo’s inbox is soon to be overflowing. The man who always had plenty of advice for his co-drivers is taking the plunge.
Adamo’s co-driving. And he’s doing it properly. In a Citroën C3 WRC. Alongside proper pedalled Luca Pedersoli and on very much a proper event, #RA Rally Regione Piemonte (formerly known as Rally di Alba).
“I thought he was joking,” is the response to the obvious question of why.
“Luca had come to see us at Gino World Rally Car Invest to think about buying the Citroën. He told me: ‘I will only buy if you sit alongside me in Alba…’ Of course, I am a serious guy, so I said: ‘No problem!’
“He wasn’t joking. Now things look a bit dangerous for me!”
Adamo has never competed as a co-driver before. He’s done the odd test, alongside Anton Alén in Finland and more recently a long run with Dani Sordo in a Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC.
“With Dani we took the fastest engine map, four new tires and he drove 28 kilometers up and down the test road,” he said. “It was all pretty serious.”
And?
“I did not.”
Definitely?
“Definitely not. I did not vomit. But from now until the rally, 15 days, I will take travel sickness pills. And there will be no onboard camera without me seeing it first!
“I know there are people waiting to see the ball-breaker Adamo makes a mistake or throw up. They will not see this.”
Typically, Adamo is doing it properly. He’s already got his competition licence, qualifying as a driver after being schooled in a Renault Clio S1600 by Piero Longhi.
“This was a nice moment,” he said. “I remember my dad taking me to a local rally in 1988 when I saw Piero driving a Renault 5 GT turbo. He was faster than a Lancia Delta! He was young and the car was quick.
“In this day, I also had to answer 20 questions. I got one wrong. Let me confess, I am not a co-driver and I don’t know so much from this side. It’s why I had Pablo [Marcos] with me in the team.
“Honestly, I was not so bothered about doing this, but when I understand Luca was serious and told to myself: ‘You have only one life and you have to live it.’”
Martin Järveoja, Nico Gilsoul and co. form an orderly queue with your favorite pieces of Adamo advice from years gone by.
