The gravel campaign kicks off next week in Portugal, followed by the punishing events in Sardinia and Greece.
Current WRC tyre supplier Hankook has been preparing for the challenges ahead. The Korean company has introduced updates to its gravel tyres to make them even more durable.
Hankook has focused more on durability than outright performance, and so far, that strategy has proven at least reasonably effective – tyre failures have not dominated headlines during the early rounds of the season.
The updated gravel tyres will make their first appearance in the top Rally1 category at Rally Portugal. The event serves as an ideal warm-up ahead of Sardinia and Greece, where the risk of tyre damage is even greater.
“There’s a new specification of gravel tire coming for Rally1 at the next event – we’ve been planning that from the beginning of the program with all the different stakeholders, and so we’re looking forward to introducing that new tire,” Hankook spokesperson Steven Cho told DirtFish.
“It’s very similar (but) we’ve made some changes to the pattern, so it should be a little bit more robust even than the tires that we’ve had before. As we build up towards Sardinia and Greece, we expect the conditions to be much stronger, or much more difficult. So small changes, but we want the tire to be even more robust,” Cho emphasised.
Rally Portugal begins next Thursday, May 15.
