Tarmac rounds hold no fear for Ford

Ford team boss Malcolm Wilson is convinced that his factory squad can register a victory on asphalt this season.

Although Marcus Gronholm won for Ford on the Tarmac-based Rallye Monte Carlo in 2006, the Blue Oval hasn’t triumphed on a pure sealed surface event since Markko Martin’s victory in Catalunya in 2004.

Next week’s ADAC Rallye Deutschland makes the first of three asphalt rallies before the end of the season. While Sebastien Loeb and his Citroen team have not been beaten on the Trier-based event since it was first included in the world championship in 2002, Wilson is confident that his team can challenge on Tarmac.

“I’m totally convinced we’re going to win a Tarmac rally this year - I don’t know which one it will be but I really feel confident,” said Wilson. “Wherever there has been Tarmac this year - okay it’s been with a gravel set-up on gravel tyres but everywhere we’ve been quickest. Mikko [Hirvonen] was quickest [on the Lisbon superspecial stage in] Portugal, while Jari-Matti [Latvala] was quickest in Argentina. Okay the cars were a long way off being on full Tarmac settings but from what the drivers are saying after the Tarmac testing we have done is very, very encouraging.”

Ford’s European motorsport chief Gerard Quinn is also optimistic about his team’s prospects on asphalt.

“Citroen obviously are very confident [for Germany] because they have a good history on Tarmac,” said Quinn. “But both Jari-Matti and Mikko have shown flashes of what they can do on Tarmac this year. We’ve seen in Argentina on the 20-kilometre Tarmac section the pace we showed with Jari-Matti. The drivers are very eager to get back onto Tarmac so there’s an element of confidence we didn’t have previously. I’m hoping we can capitalise on that confidence.”