Viva La Vida (and Rally de Espaa)

Ciao everyone,

Bruno at WRC Team MINI Portugal here! Were all set to tackle Rally de Espaa, the final round of this years World Rally Championship. It might be the last event on this year's calendar, but as always we're approaching it head on with maximum focus!

Ive competed in Spain as a Team Manager four times and Ive got some good memories. One of the best is from 2009 when we were running the Pirelli Star Driver Programme and Jarkko Nikara (who was weened on the Finnish gravel) got his first ever Group N podium on Tarmac with us. It was a big satisfaction for everyone to see a young driver start to realise his potential with our team.

Rally de Espaa is unique in the WRC calendar, because it's the only event which runs on mixed surfaces. That means high pressure when we do the set-up switch Friday night! There will be a lot to change after the Day One gravel ready for the Day Two Tarmac. We have a one hour fifteen minute service and everyone needs to be 100% committed and concentrated. What needs to be changed? The most obvious things are tyres and rims, but also the gearbox, differential, dampers, springs, anti-roll bars, brakes and under body protection like the sump guard. The surface change change also means the drivers have to adapt their driving style overnight.

Chris has an idea of the rallys Tarmac stages from previous outings, but his last time competing in Spain was in 2008, so hes never tackled the mixed surface version of the event. Hes ready for pretty much anything though after he and Stphane were crowned FIA Asia Pacific Rally Champions last week at Rally China. Were very proud of himits a great result and well-deserved.

While Chris was hightailing it around the world to scoop his first ever international title, we were in the workshop making some changes to his MINI. Just between us, we have a small problem in the team. None of us are ever satisfied! ;-) Within about a minute of getting MINIs best result on gravel this year at Rally Italia Sardegna, our minds had turned to Rally de Espaa. Now, weve used Chris (very precise) post-event feedback to evolve some non-homologated parts for Spain and are waiting to see how they go on the test!

Meanwhile Paulo and Edu contested Rally de Espaa last year and theyre really looking forward to getting back in Porquinho Verde. Paulos made great progress on Tarmac during the reason and little-by-little hes becoming more comfortable on it. Who knows, we might even see him fulfil his dream and claim that elusive Top 10 hes been after all season. Heres hoping!

Were testing on Monday so Chris and Paulo can both find the best set-up for their MINIs for the rally. Then it's all systems go to get ready for the Qualifying Stage and our first ever Ceremonial Start in Barcelona. One of the best things about Rally de Espaa is the huge numbers of spectators on the stages and I imagine Barcelona will be packed out too! As well as the MINIs, well be there cheering the start of the last PWRC round for our sister team Ralliart Italia. We really hope that one of our boys, Benny or Michal, will claim the world title next weekend, but I dont want to speak too soon!

In keeping with Rally de Espaas mixed surfaces weve decided to do mixed voices updates so youll hear from other team members during the week. Never fear though, Ill be back on Sunday for the final wrap-up.

For now thats all from me, but stay tuned - theres a lot more to come.

Arrivederci, Bruno