Peugeot Sport is seeking reliability rather than optimum performance from its 307 WRC in the short term, but team boss Corrado Provera believes the car may even win the Mexico Rally.
Peugeot Sport is seeking reliability rather than optimum performance from its 307 WRC in the short term, but team boss Corrado Provera believes the car may even win the Mexico Rally.
Double World Champion Marcus Gronholm finished fourth on the 307’s début in Monte Carlo and followed that up with second place in the Rally of Sweden. The results have prompted Provera to predict that the car could better its performance in Sweden by winning the Mexico Rally this weekend.
“The times set in the first two rounds of the season were clearly encouraging in terms of the 307 WRC’s performance potential. I am not saying that we will be going to Mexico to score first and second, but I think the car will perform better for its third rally than it has for the first and second,” Provera said.
“We are certain the 307 WRC can win, but do not want to be over-confident… The car is but at the beginning of its career,” he added.
Gronholm added: “The recent testing I did, which focused on the set-up of the car and the differential, was very positive. I think the team has found a good set-up that should make the car more competitive for its first outing on the gravel”.
Peugeot Sport will not have radically revised differentials for the 307 WRC until at least the Rally of New Zealand, the team’s chief engineer Michel Nandan said this week.
He said, however, that there would be transmission changes for the Mexico Rally: “There’s nothing new in the principle. It’s mainly to get some durability”.
An upgraded transmission system, which sources say will have three active differentials, will be fitted to the 307 WRC at a later date. The car has so far competed with a passive centre differential using a form of viscous coupling, a report said.