WRC: MINI team keeping its feet on the ground following podium

Steve · Sep 1, 2011

MINI team keeping its feet on the ground following podium (wrc.com)

01 Sep 11

The MINI WRC Team's technical chief Dave Wilcock has joined factory driver Dani Sordo in refusing to get carried away following the make's maiden world championship podium on ADAC Rallye Deutschland last month.

Sordo took third place on the asphalt event on what was only his third appearance in the Anglo-German squadâ€™s John Cooper Works WRC. He said: â€œIt was one of the best results of my career, but it doesnâ€™t mean weâ€™re going to the next round trying to win. The car is fantastic and, the result was more than I expected.â€

Wilcock says there is still a considerable amount of work to do to ensure Sordo and team-mate Kris Meeke can maintain the Prodrive-run teamâ€™s strong start to its world championship campaign.

â€œWe know our strengths and also our weaknesses,â€ said Wilcock. â€œWe know where we have to work and we will do that as we have a clear plan. We will work out a priority order and start attacking them. We are a small team but we are committed and will do everything we can to improve as much as we can. We have short-term objectives with some performance and some reliability. However, we have a clear focus and that is on 2013 and we are now going to stick to that and work to our calculated development plan.â€

Wilcock continued: â€œWe were level pegging with the Ford [team] and able to race them comfortably. We take that as a real positive. We now need to switch that over onto the gravel, but at the moment we shall keep our focus on the Tarmac as we have another two rallies on this surface coming up.â€

â€œWe learned a lot [in Germany],â€ added Wilcock. â€œThe MINI is a fantastic little car on Tarmac. It is very sensitive and very driveable in changing conditions and sensitive to changes. The drivers have the ability to tune it to their liking so that is a real attribute. The nice thing is our customers who are rallying it are also saying the same, so there is another strong positive.â€

The MINI WRC Team has not included Rally Australia on its schedule of events this season, although Daniel Oliveira will compete on the gravel round in a works-supported car under the Brazil World Rally Team banner. MINIâ€™s next event is Rallye de France Alsace from 28 September-2 October.
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Justa Jim · Sep 1, 2011

Jim

bullet1 · Sep 1, 2011

Saw the segment with this thing on Top Gear, I instantly liked the Countryman more Awesome Result!

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