In the second episode of More than Machine, the focus shifts to the events of the Croatia Rally in April. This year’s tarmac event in Croatia posed significant challenges regarding tyre choices.
Drivers make their tyre selections in consultation with the team, based on forecasts from a meteorologist. In this year’s Croatia Rally, the constant threat of rain caused headaches for both M-Sport’s meteorologist and their drivers, Adrien Fourmaux and Gregoire Munster.
Teams don’t just rely on their own data but shamelessly use spying tactics as well. In the episode, we see representatives from Toyota and Hyundai lurking around M-Sport’s service area.
“Yeah, you’re watching,” says M-Sport technician Malcolm Read to the camera, as a man dressed in a Toyota jacket hangs around outside the British team’s tents.
“Good day! How’s it going?” Read shouts to the Toyota man.
“He’s gonna look to see what tires we put on, how many spares and report it back. We’ve got one from Toyota and the other guy there works for Hyundai, so we’ve got two of them there. But he doesn’t know who our spy is,” Read continues.
M-Sport engineer Joe Barnwell returns from his own spying mission and recites from memory the tyre selections that Hyundai and Toyota drivers are using for the tarmac stages.
“Tänak five softs. Mikkelsen five softs, one hard. Neuville, the same.”
A wrong tyre choice can cost drivers a lot of time. That’s why teams gather as much information as possible to support their driver pairings.
“Ultimately, in rallying it’s just the driver and co-driver out in the car and he has to go with tire choices that he is happy with. It’s the driver’s final decision at the end of the day. And it just requires big balls,” Barnwell says.
You can watch the second episode of M-Sport’s More than Machine documentary in the embedded YouTube video below.
