Bouffier boosts Wittmann, says ROMO boss

ROMO Motorsporttechnik boss Ronald Leschhorn believes the addition of Bryan Bouffier to his team on the FxPro Cyprus Rally will benefit regular driver Franz Wittmann.

Bouffier, pictured, who came close to winning Barum Czech Rally Zlín in August, is making a one-off appearance for the German team in Cyprus and is one of the favourites to win the mixed-surface event in a second ROMO-run Peugeot 207 Super 2000.

“Bryan is a very good driver and is on a different level to Franz because he has much more experience,” said Leschhorn. “Franz spent two years driving cars with turbochargers and it’s not easy to adapt to the [normally-aspirated] Super 2000 cars. It will take time but of course he has the pressure to make some good results. Now he has the opportunity to look at the data from Bryan’s car and this can really help him.”

Frenchman Bouffier, a double Polish rally champion in the past and a Peugeot Sport factory driver in the French championship, said: “This will be the highest level rally I have done on gravel but I hope to find a good pace quickly. I like driving on gravel and my Peugeot is very competitive on this type of surface. I don’t know the rally but I know it will be difficult.”