The Prodrive-developed MINI John Cooper Works will be making its world championship debut on Vodafone Rally de Portugal this week in the hands of local hero Armindo Araujo and Brazil World Rally Team's Daniel Oliveira.
Running in Super 2000 specification initially before the World Rally Car equivalent comes on stream on Rally d’Italia Sardegna in May, the return of MINI to international rallying is eagerly anticipated.
David Lapworth, Prodrive’s technical chief who masterminded Subaru’s vastly successful WRC programme in the 1990s, is in Portugal to monitor the progress of his latest creation and to assess the performance of the rival Citroen DS3 WRCs and Ford Fiesta RS WRCs.
Wrc.com caught up with Englishman Lapworth in the rally service park in Faro.
What’s brought you to Portugal this week?
“Our mission is to come here, see how our drivers are getting on, have a look at the rally in general, go and look at some cars on the stages. Then it’s seeing what we can learn from these guys and how they get on from a technical point of view, be here at the beginning of the rally in case there’s anything we’ve done that we can pass on to help them and really just to see what we can learn and take any lessons from the rally, look at the cars on the stages, our car and everybody else’s cars and look around the service area.”
And it’s clearly with the objective of taking what you learn forward to Italy...
“Exactly. We’re getting close to our first rally now so obviously the interest from our side is to see how things are working on a rally and secondly these are the first MINIs to run in rallies in anger so there are always things to learn. We have obviously done a lot of testing so when they start to get an understanding of how the car behaves on the rally maybe we can pass on a few tips.”
What’s it like for you personally to be back in the WRC?
“It’s felt strange for a while not being here at the sharp end and it’s not too long to wait now. It’s what we do.”
How close is this car to what we will see in Italy when the factory MINIs break cover?
“Visually it’s close apart from the rear wing and the front bumper. Otherwise it’s the same car to look at. Fundamentally it’s what the FIA World Motor Sport Council set out to achieve two years ago - a small reversible kit. The aero is quite a lot different because of the rear wing. You gain a little bit from the lighter flywheel and the lighter windows but it’s not fundamentally a different car - it’s 98 per cent the same. The power is the same - it’s the same engine.”
What do you expect from this car on this rally?
“It should be a contender as an S2000 car. For the two guys we’ve got to give them a chance. They’ve done minimal testing, they’ve had a chance to shake the cars down but neither of them have had any real testing time so we have to give them a chance on this rally to get them into the swing. We aren’t setting any kind of performance expectation from them but obviously by the end of the rally we’ll be hoping to get a feel of where we are.”
So what’s next for the programme after Portugal?
“We’ve got the official launch of the car and the team in April. Then we’ve got a little test in Wales, which is the final development opportunity. Then we have another little test in Spain before we go to Sardinia in May so it’s very busy.”
Credit: World Rally Championship (www.wrc.com)
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