Darkshadow
Petrolheads
The Subaru team put the Impreza WRC2007 through its paces recently as drivers and technicians prepared for next week's opening round of the championship in Monte Carlo.
A separate testing programme with the new Impreza WRC2008 is also well underway however, ahead of its planned launch later on in the season.
"The testing we've done so far with the car has shown no significant problems," said a pleased Paul Howarth, the team's Operations Director.
More development sessions for the new car are planned over the following weeks with Subaru's official test driver, Markko Martin.
It will be the Estonian's first experience of the WRC2008 and, aside from the Bettega Memorial Rally last December, his first taste of the WRC with the team since he last competed aboard a works Impreza alongside Petter Solberg and Richard Burns back in 2001.
Speaking of the recent runs with the WRC2008, Howarth added: "It's so important to conduct this rigorous testing from the start as it means we can eliminate elements of development we otherwise would need to do later on in the programme."
Doing so will allow the Subaru outfit "to focus more on performance and reliability when Markko starts his testing programme," Howarth concluded.
To date this season Petter and Chris have been involved in testing the WRC2007 on two occasions, ahead of Rallye Monte Carlo and again in Sweden ahead of the rally on 8-10 February.
Both tests were successful in developing a good base setup on the new Pirelli P-Zero championship control tyre on wet and greasy asphalt in France and on snow in Sweden. With fewer tyre tread and compound options available at each event this year, tyre choice will come second to a driver's ability to make best use of his tyres on any given surface, making testing crucial to develop knowledge and experience of the tyres and the way they work on the car.
"Testing has been OK so far," reported Petter Solberg. "I feel comfortable on the new tyres - tyre testing has gone well and I feel I have learned them very well. You need a little different driving style now to get the most from them, but I am happy going into Monte and Sweden."
With the new tyres comes the ban on anti-deflation mousse, another important aspect drivers need to adapt to from now on.
"Thinking about punctures will be very very important," said Solberg. "You can't drive like before one puncture and you're finished. I think people will drive more cautiously and definitely not cut corners as much."
Team-mate Chris Atkinson also felt positive following the two recent test sessions: "The Monte and Sweden tests were both good we covered a lot of ground, did some positive setup work and the engineers were able to suggest some new options on setup that we haven't tried before."
"The Sweden test gave me a good opportunity to get more snow experience and a good base setup for the rally, and I feel more comfortable this year than I did last on this surface," Atkinson added.
There will be one more gravel test with the WRC2007 before pre-event testing with the car is ceased to gear resource towards the increasing test programme with the WRC2008.
A separate testing programme with the new Impreza WRC2008 is also well underway however, ahead of its planned launch later on in the season.
"The testing we've done so far with the car has shown no significant problems," said a pleased Paul Howarth, the team's Operations Director.
More development sessions for the new car are planned over the following weeks with Subaru's official test driver, Markko Martin.
It will be the Estonian's first experience of the WRC2008 and, aside from the Bettega Memorial Rally last December, his first taste of the WRC with the team since he last competed aboard a works Impreza alongside Petter Solberg and Richard Burns back in 2001.
Speaking of the recent runs with the WRC2008, Howarth added: "It's so important to conduct this rigorous testing from the start as it means we can eliminate elements of development we otherwise would need to do later on in the programme."
Doing so will allow the Subaru outfit "to focus more on performance and reliability when Markko starts his testing programme," Howarth concluded.
To date this season Petter and Chris have been involved in testing the WRC2007 on two occasions, ahead of Rallye Monte Carlo and again in Sweden ahead of the rally on 8-10 February.
Both tests were successful in developing a good base setup on the new Pirelli P-Zero championship control tyre on wet and greasy asphalt in France and on snow in Sweden. With fewer tyre tread and compound options available at each event this year, tyre choice will come second to a driver's ability to make best use of his tyres on any given surface, making testing crucial to develop knowledge and experience of the tyres and the way they work on the car.
"Testing has been OK so far," reported Petter Solberg. "I feel comfortable on the new tyres - tyre testing has gone well and I feel I have learned them very well. You need a little different driving style now to get the most from them, but I am happy going into Monte and Sweden."
With the new tyres comes the ban on anti-deflation mousse, another important aspect drivers need to adapt to from now on.
"Thinking about punctures will be very very important," said Solberg. "You can't drive like before one puncture and you're finished. I think people will drive more cautiously and definitely not cut corners as much."
Team-mate Chris Atkinson also felt positive following the two recent test sessions: "The Monte and Sweden tests were both good we covered a lot of ground, did some positive setup work and the engineers were able to suggest some new options on setup that we haven't tried before."
"The Sweden test gave me a good opportunity to get more snow experience and a good base setup for the rally, and I feel more comfortable this year than I did last on this surface," Atkinson added.
There will be one more gravel test with the WRC2007 before pre-event testing with the car is ceased to gear resource towards the increasing test programme with the WRC2008.
Clive, I'd love to see him back in an Impreza driving competitively I think he could do a very good job