Reigning World Rally champion Ott Tänak hasn’t had the easiest start to his title defence, but his move to Hyundai was always going to provide new challenges as well as new opportunities.
Next weekend’s Rally México is the first majority gravel event of the season. Is the Estonian feeling confident of success?
Q: How do you feel in the car on gravel?
Ott Tänak: I’m beginning to feel more comfortable after the test and this extra, let’s say, one and a half day of competition in Portugal.
Q: Do you feel more comfortable in the car on gravel than you did on asphalt?
OT: I would say so, now, yes. But still, I haven’t been so long in the car.
Q: You talked about wanting changes to the car after Sweden. Were the aero changes for the rally in Fafe part of your wish list?
OT: No, these were always part of the team’s development plan. I’m happy that we’re going to keep working to that plan. The aero changes are good, but when we were testing Spain and competing [in Portugal], you know in southern Europe you don’t have so many fast roads like you do [in Finland or Estonia] so the effect was not so big. But when we get to the faster roads, it should be good.
Q: When you first drove the car on gravel, like the first time ever, where’s the set-up?
OT: It’s really take a bit from where they were with the car on that event last year. It’s nice to just get in the car and do some miles and then start to make some changes and understand what those changes are doing to the car. It’s more like slowly, slowly and getting more mileage right now. But with every test we are making steps and moving forward with the car. The base [set-up] of the car is as I like it. Now it’s about fine-tuning it, but the generally the car is good in gravel.
Q: You did Rallye Serras de Fafe, how much of a help was that for Rally Portugal?
OT: It was good, it helped. We used some smaller roads than we normally use in the rally [Portugal]. I think it was also good for Argentina, we got some rain on the second day and roads were quite similar like there also.
Q: Useful to have Dani Sordo on the event?
OT: Dani was there because he hasn’t been competing since last year, not since he was in Spain. This rally was good to help him get the feeling back.
Q: Is there a feeling that the season’s really starting in Mexico next week? First gravel rally, back to a more normal surface?
OT: The season starts on Monte. Sure, Mexico is special, but in the end all of these rallies are giving the same amount of points.
Q: Do you feel comfortable enough in the car to push for the win?
OT: I hope so. I had a good feeling from the test.
