Rally Poland, The Search For Grip Is Entrusted To The Soft Compound Scorpion
RALLY POLAND, THE SEARCH FOR GRIP IS ENTRUSTED TO THE SOFT COMPOUND SCORPION
For the fast Polish dirt roads, the hard compound Scorpion is also available as the option.
Saturday will be the toughest day of the rally
Testoni: “Watch out for deep ruts on the second passes
Mikolajki, 25 June 2024 – The World Rally Championship returns to Poland after a seven year break and following a successful experiment with a new compressed format, at the previous round, the Rally Italia Sardegna in early June, this week’s event sees a return to the classic four-day timetable, with stages repeated in the afternoon.
THE CHALLENGE
One important characteristic of the Polish Rally, which has been a permanent fixture on the European FIA ERC calendar since 2018, is the variety of fast dirt roads in the Masuria region which usually present drivers with grip problems, while the tyres are subjected to medium levels of stress. Complicating the search for grip on the 304.10 timed kilometres over the 19 special stages could be the weather, as there is always a chance of rain, with the added factor of high humidity at night. The longest, toughest day would seem to be the Saturday.
Accompanying the crews in Poland in their search for grip will be the tyre that made its debut in this year’s Rally Portugal, the soft compound Scorpion KX WRC SB as the prime. The new generation of Scorpion features a redesigned construction that ensures even greater durability and resistance than its predecessor, while its performance characteristics remain unchanged. The hard compound is available as the option for Poland, best suited for the more abrasive surfaces and the longer stages.
PIRELLI QUOTE
Terenzio Testoni, rally activity manager: “Although Rally Poland has been off the world championship calendar for a few years, it is well known to many of the drivers and indeed to ourselves, as it was here a year ago on these roads that we had a clean sweep of the top three places in this round of the European Championship, thanks to the versatility of our tyres. Overall, I’d say the soft compound Scorpion could comfortably tackle all the special stages, leaving little need for the option. The thing the crews will have to pay the most attention to is the variation in surfaces, which are often different from stage to stage and tend to have deep ruts on the second passes.”
THE PIRELLI TYRES IN POLAND
The regulations allow for an allocation of 28 prime tyres and 8 option. Crews can choose to increase the number of options to 12, by having 4 fewer primes.
As for the other categories in Poland, the Rally2 cars will have available the Scorpion K6B (soft) and the new K4C (hard), while Rally3 can count on the K6A (soft) and the K4A (hard). For these categories of car, the allocation is 26 and 8 for the prime and option respectively. The latter number can be increased to 12 if the crews wish, but they must reduce the number of primes by 4.