Hankook faces a race against time to deliver a revised specification of hard compound gravel tire in time for the Acropolis Rally later this month.
The Korean firm came under fire for the durability of its Dynapro tire at last month’s Rally Portugal, with the teams pushing for revisions to be made in time for a series of hot gravel rallies coming up in the second half of the season.
The new cover is being tested in Greece this week, with crews flying back from Japan directly into running time on the new tire.
Hankook’s Steven Cho said last year’s shift of Acropolis Rally forwards from September to June had brought increased demands of the hard tire.
“We saw last year how challenging this event is [in June],” Cho told DirtFish. “It’s much hotter, the stages are much hotter, really rocky and more abrasive with a lot of running on bedrock.
“This year we’re probably expecting it to be more difficult than last year, so we want to make sure the tires have the durability we want. They have to be able to get to the end of the stage with the right amount of tire wear – and, of course, we want to do the best we can in terms of puncture resistance.
“Of course, it’s not ideal that we didn’t get quite the result that we were expecting in Portugal, but every challenge in motorsport can be turned into an opportunity and that’s how we’re looking at this. It’s all hands on deck, it’s good that we’re able to adapt quickly, now let’s see what we can do and what we can bring in a short period of time. I’m positive about the way things are progressing.”
The hard tire is the prime tire for Acropolis, meaning Rally1 crews can use up to 32 of them over the course of the weekend. They can use up to eight soft tires.
