Hola from Mexico!
I’m writing this from next to the pool at our hotel in Leon, Mexico, just across from the Rally Mexico service park.
It’s nice to get some sunshine over here as the weather has not been great back home in the UK recently and the last rally we did was in Sweden where it was -25C!
We got here on Saturday night after a long flight from the UK, so on Sunday we just had a relaxing day with a little bit of fitness work in the afternoon with our trainer Barrie Johnson. It was really just to shake off the stiffness and help us get used to the high-altitude conditions here in Mexico.
That altitude not only affects us but the car as well. The difference between Rally Sweden and Rally Mexico is around 2000ft and about 50 degrees centigrade in temperature, meaning the Ford Focus RS WRC has to withstand a huge change in conditions. The thin air here can cost you around 20% in power output, meaning you do have to change your driving style to account for that.
On Monday morning we had a look around the service park just to find out where everything was and then did a bit more fitness training in the afternoon to help us get ready for the rally.
On Tuesday we went out to recce the rally route and it was nice to find out that not too much had changed since the last time we were here in 2008, with only around 13kms of stage we hadn’t seen before. It’s really good when you come to a rally and you don’t have to make completely new notes, it makes life a lot easier. Rather than starting from scratch it’s more about development, and you can get the benefit of your experience from the last time you competed on the rally.
I really like Rally Mexico because the atmosphere is great, the fans are so enthusiastic and everyone in Leon really gets behind the event and enjoys it. The weather is always good too and the schedule is quite compact so the days are not too long compared to the likes of Rally Sweden, which apart from the extreme weather involved a fair bit of travelling between stages and meant a lot of early starts and late finishes!
We got a decent result in Sweden but our pace wasn’t what we really wanted, so we’ll be looking to try and improve here in Mexico and close the gap on the four manufacturer drivers as much as possible. The surface is nice and consistent here so that and our previous experience here means we are confident of doing that.
Hopefully Scott [Martin, co-driver] and I and Henning [Solberg] and Ilka [Minor, co-driver] can get some more points on the board for the Stobart M-Sport Ford team and we can push ahead of our rivals in the FIA WRC manufacturer standings.
Adios Amigos!
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Nice website, and very informative post, keep up the great work mate!