Familiarity breeds contempt. Not this week, it doesn’t. Not in the mountains towering high above the principality of Monaco. Familiarity in the French Alps could be the key to a round one win.
Sébastien Ogier is the most successful driver in the history of the Monte Carlo Rally. He’s won it nine times and Thursday will mark his 15th start. Few, if any, know or have known this event quite like him. So when the superstar Gap man admits he’s coming into this one relatively cold, it’s very much a story.
New tires and technical regulations have had the teams guessing their way through pre-event testing. And the weather hasn’t helped. For the first time in too many years, winter’s delivering curveballs galore: it’s dry, then it’s wet. Now it’s snowing. Now it’s not. It’s melting. Sundown, it’s freezing. Verglas.
“There’s a lot of change with the tires and the car,” said Ogier. “This means, this year we probably arrive less prepared than ever – but I believe it will be the case of almost everybody at the start.”
With just 21 days of testing permitted each season, it’s impossible to provide every driver with the complete picture of what could be coming this week. The current cost-contained days provide sharp contrast with a generation earlier, when the teams landed in the mountains not long after Rally GB and stayed there with barely a break to carve the turkey or join hands for Auld Lang Syne.
Today’s Monte is all about adaptability and flexibility.
In Ogier’s words: “Whoever adapts the best has a good chance. There will be a lot of question marks and a lot of things to develop.
Hankook's new covers offer a fresh challenge for the WRC's finest
“We lose the hybrid and we lose some weight, but the other big news is the tires – that’s a lot of things we need to discover and only one day of testing is very little. So we tried our best to explore as many conditions, as many configurations as we can. But I think it will be a Monte where a lot of drivers will still have a doubt on many areas.
“Let’s see which team is taking the turn the quickest, which drivers also adapt the best to this new kind of car.
“We’ll have to trust our feeling and make the best of it with this small preparation.”
Ogier’s team-mate and fellow world champion Kalle Rovanperä is of the same opinion. The Finn’s finest hour in the Alps came with his sole podium visit and a second place two years ago. This time last season, he was planning his gap year rather than stressing over tire choice in Gap.
“Monte is always a super-difficult place to start,” he said. “But this year it can be even more with trying to learn the new tire in all different conditions. You need a good feeling with the car and the setup.
“The Hankook is definitely quite a different tire from what we had before, so there is definitely quite many things to learn from the tire, also to adapt the car setup. When the conditions are mixed like these will be, you need to feel confident and to trust the car as soon as possible.
“It’s going to be interesting. It’s not going to be easy.”
The Monte’s never easy, but Thierry Neuville almost made it look that way at the top of his title-winning 2024.
Asked if he thought understanding the tires would be key to a repeat win, the Belgian told DirtFish: “I think so. And finding the limits as well. It’s very hard. At the moment, we still struggle a bit with it. But yeah, let’s see. I mean, we need to gain more experience and we’re going to only gain it in the stages.
“[The lack of testing] is a bit of a concern. I had a day in slush and wet. I will maybe get a bit of feedback on the snow, but I never drove the tire on a longer distance. I never drove the tire on dry Tarmac. So I don’t know what to expect, to be honest. What we can see is there’s a difference between the Pirelli and the Hankook, for sure. But we still need to find out what are all those differences. We are still discovering the tire.”
Neuville will lead the cars over the ramp on something of a journey into the unknown on Thursday. And, while the path to the Alps might be well-trodden, as the sun sets over Digne-les-Bains, the heartbeat will quicken once more.
Ogier smiles a rueful smile. “Every year,” he said, “I mentioned that Monte Carlo never gets easier. Even after many, many starts I always have this massive respect starting this event and this little bit, somehow, fear inside you.
“You know you’re going to face conditions you don’t expect.”
In every sense.
