The Safari high in a season full of failure

Who doesn’t love an underdog?

While its most successful drivers (beyond the locals) are admittedly world champions, the brutal nature of the Safari Rally presents a gift to those perhaps less used to fighting at the World Rally Championship’s pointy end.

There’s no better example of this than what Armin Schwarz achieved in 2001. His run to third place in a Škoda Octavia WRC that year is the stuff of legend – particularly today with the Czech tank’s popularity among internet groups and forums.

But Schwarz is far from the only driver to punch above his weight on this most punishing of rallies. Even just one year earlier, Škoda’s VAG stablemate scored a podium result it was hardly renowned for during its spell in the WRC.

This is the story of Didier Auriol’s third place finish for Seat at the 2000 Safari Rally as told by him, and why it was ultimately a brief high in a season plagued by problems.

Joining the Seat project

At the turn of millennium, WRC manufacturer involvement was booming with seven brands all taking part.

But the championship had just lost Toyota in favor of Formula 1, leaving two world champions – Carlos Sainz and Auriol – searching for a seat.

Seat wanted fellow Spaniard Sainz, but he chose Ford as team-mate to Colin McRae, so Auriol was destined for a Seat move to lead its Córdoba WRC project alongside fledgling driver Toni Gardemeister.

“After I stopped with Toyota, I was really trying to find another car to race, of course,” Auriol tells DirtFish. “It was quite complicated at this time.

“I had this offer of Seat, but for me what was very important in this discussion was to manage to grow up the team and grow up the car. That was one condition.

“It can be a very interesting challenge in one way, so it was my way to accept the offer.”

Seat had been a real force to be reckoned with in the F2 Kit Car class with its Ibiza, but its results had been modest in the top class.

Debuting halfway through the 1998 season in Finland, Gardemeister had given the car a debut podium 12 months later in New Zealand, with Harri Rovanperä following up with another third place at the season-concluding RAC Rally.

But nevertheless, Seat was comfortably last of the manufacturers that completed a full-season in 1999 – only 12 points up on Peugeot which contested less than half the rounds.

Hiring Auriol was a big coup for the team, who now had a world champion to lead the development of the car and consistently bring in the results.

But things wouldn’t work out as planned.

Auriol’s frustration

“They promised me a lot of things about the car,” the 1994 world champion remembers.

“When I test the car, I say, ‘OK, the car feels very nice to drive, very easy’. And the only thing I complain about is the engine. And it was very clear for me that the big problem at this time of the Seat was not the handling of the car, or the traction.

“I tested the car in one place that I know very well in Spain, where I test all my cars. I have the time to compare with the [Toyota] Corolla, and immediately I can see that downhill, I can manage the time of the Corolla, but uphill I was slower by one second per kilometer.

“So I say, ‘OK, I think the only problem of this car is the engine’. And I accept to sign if we work and if a new engine comes soon. But I want to be sure that a new engine must come. So, I mean, it was in my contract that a brand new engine must come.”

But despite an Evo3 version of the Córdoba being developed in time for August’s Rally Finland, alarm bells began to ring in Auriol’s heads that his promise hadn’t been met.

“I tested in the same place and the time was the same,” he says. “Uphill I am still one second per kilometer [slower], so that’s wrong. Of course, [then] it was starting to be complicated with the team.

“For example in Corsica, I remember very well, I told some friends and the team to go to the top of a fast 10km uphill section. And of course, on the top, we were nearly one second slower than everybody.

“And I say, ‘now you put somebody at the downhill’. And I lost zero downhill. I mean, it was really the problem of the car. It was only the engine, but the car was fantastic when everything was working.”

Relations were beginning to thaw between driver and team, but the combination did at least enjoy one early shot of success.

The Safari podium

Although he never won the rally throughout his career, Auriol was always strong at the Safari Rally with three podiums from five starts.

In 2000, he sensed another opportunity to reach the rostrum.

“The car was very, very good in setup, in suspension and everything. So I was quite confident to drive,” Auriol recalls.

“The only question was really if we get some little problem during the rally because maybe at this time, we did not have the same budget as another team to really make a lot of tests.

“But the car was very good and was fast. So I mean straight away,  we did one best time. I tried to drive fast straight away to say, ‘OK, if we don’t do a lot of stages, the car must start fast!'”

Auriol’s 14s win on the first section gave Seat the lead of a WRC event for the very first time. It wasn’t to last as Richard Burns soom stormed past, destined for a dominant victory for Subaru ahead of team-mate Juha Kankkunen.

But Auriol remained competitive.

“I was driving quite fast,” Auriol admits. “It was quite rough but the car was feeling good at this time, so we said, ‘we go!’. And after, we take the decision to slow down a little bit because the rally was very long.

“We get a puncture also, which there was a nice story about. If you want, I can explain the story of this puncture…”

Please do.

“Before the rally, the people of Seat asked Denis [Giraudet, co-driver] and me to make some tests to change the tire as fast as possible, because in Kenya it can happen very often. But we said to the team, ‘oh no, no, it’s OK, we know, we know’. And we don’t understand [at the time], but the team was very upset that we said no.

“But it was not because we were not professional, it was just because we have done so much testing in Toyota and we know the place of everything. We put the nut gun and everything in the same place [as the Corolla], so we are ready for that.

“So when we have a puncture during one stage, I don’t remember what stage it was, and I say to the helicopter, ‘oh, we have a puncture, so we must stop for change of the wheel’. OK, he says nothing.

“We stopped the car very fast and we changed the wheel in less than one minute, I think. I was practising to put the front of my car [in a ditch] to lift the rear of the wheel [where] the puncture [was], you know. So straight away I found a good place to change the wheel.

“And OK, we do the stage, no problem. And after the team say, ‘hey we must apologize. Because when you have the puncture, we say, ‘oh, they must lose a lot of time and everything. They don’t practice’. And when we see you start, we don’t understand. You have already changed the tire! We were thinking it was another problem, and you start again. So it was, OK, we understand why now. You don’t want to test’.

“It was a funny moment.”

The good vibes would prevail, as Auriol was in podium contention throughout. He did fall to fourth on the second leg, but made it back up to third when the engine in McRae’s Focus was drowned through a water crossing he suspected was dammed.

Another fastest time on Sunday, coupled to power-steering failure for the chasing Sainz, gave Auriol the break he needed to secure what would ultimately prove to be Seat’s third, and final, podium in the WRC.

“I was very happy of course for the team,” Auriol reflects.

“At this time I was thinking they understand that the car was good, I have experience, and if they accept what I asked, a very new engine, what they promised, I was really sure that the year after, next year, the team could fight.

“So of course I was very, very happy and confident for the rest of not only the season, but the progress of the car with the engine for next year. It was what I was waiting for.”

The divorce

Auriol had signed a two-year contract when he joined Seat, but the relationship would not continue into 2001.

Upset by the broken promise, with questions now being asked of his ability as a driver, Auriol was considering his options and eventually found his way to Peugeot, while Seat pulled the plug on its program altogether “due to a reorientation of Seat Sport business” after a new CEO came in.

After the Safari, Auriol’s best result was a pair of eighth places in Corsica and Australia.

“This new engine, I understand that it never comes. And of course, with the bad result we have, they start to fight with me,” he says. “And everybody said, it’s me: ‘you are slow, you are not fast’. And now you are really upset because you feel to know the truth.

“I mean, I was responsible for a lot of things. Sometimes I make a very good time, but always, always, we have something happening during the rally. But of course, it was the problem of the driver, it was not the car.

“I was complaining, of course, more, more and more and after we know I don’t stay two years and I leave the team.

“I was driving a lot of teams and I was developing a lot of cars, like the Corolla – I start from zero and I make all the tests of the Corolla,” Auriol adds.

“And I remember this time, Ove Andersson, every day he called me, ‘Didier, we are ready to put the car in the world championship to fight for the victory’. And I said, ‘wait, wait, wait’. And one day I say, ‘OK, now we are quite OK. We have still to work. We have still to make this. We have still to make that. But still we can fight’. And Ove Andersson believed in me.

“When we were at Seat, you want to export your experience to the team, and you say the only thing is the engine. I promise you, you have a new engine. It must arrive. Of course, it never arrives. And after, it’s the [fault of the] driver.

“The best answer was with Peugeot. Straight away we were leading the rally [Monte Carlo]. And I remember the journalist come see me and say, ‘good answer’.”

Auriol did enjoy his season spent in a Córdoba WRC though, despite the obvious frustration.

“My experience with Seat, I had good work with the team – it was very interesting to work with them. It was a small team, but the mechanics, the engineers, everybody was working very hard with me to give me the best.

“But I think, and my feeling, is that the people inside understood the problem. And they can do nothing. There was a lot of frustration also for these people because they start to work very hard to make the best. But you know, it’s always the same when you are budget limited.

“It’s no chance. You can be the best engineer, the best mechanic, and I have no complaint about these people. I make good friends in the team, and really they try always the maximum for the team, for the driver, for the co-driver, we were working very well together.

“It’s just the budget problem to have this new engine, and that’s it. I think the problem became the driver because you have a lot of pressure of the press, of the Spanish journalists [for the bad results]. The reason is the mistake of the driver.

“But I have really good moments in this year and it can be much better, if just [for the new] engine. That’s all it needed.”