WRC veteran Carlos Sainz says the Citroën Xsara rally car must improve if he and team-mates Sebastien Loeb and Colin McRae are to compete with Peugeot in the Finnish Rally.
WRC veteran Carlos Sainz says the Citroën Xsara rally car must improve if he and team-mates Sebastien Loeb and Colin McRae are to compete with Peugeot in the Finnish Rally.
Sainz finished out of the points on the WRC’s last round, Rally New Zealand, and the Spaniard believes his car needs a boost for the super-fast course of the Rally of Finland in August.
“This doesn’t look so promising for Finland. We need a little work,” the Spaniard said.
Citroën fielded an uprated Xsara WRC, which included a new rear wing, crankshaft, exhaust manifold, turbo housing and a intercooler, in the New Zealand rally earlier this month.
Peugeot’s technical boss Claude Vaucard told that Xsara needed more power, but said the new features on the car had worked well.
“We need more power throughout the power curve,” he said. “But, on the whole, I think the new car was good in New Zealand and the changes we made had worked.”
Despite never having competed in New Zealand before, Loeb was the highest finisher for the French team, eclipsing the efforts of the experienced duo of Sainz and McRae, who have seven Rally of New Zealand victories between them.
“I am happy to have set times comparable with those of my team-mates,” the young Frenchman said. “It was only the first time that I took part in the Rally of New Zealand and they have much more experience than me. I do not know where that can come, I do not have an explanation!”