MRF Tyres and Gaurav Gill set for historic WRC debut in Rally Italia Sardegna

By Anand Philar

Bengaluru, 05 June 2018: Come this weekend, India will be marking her presence on one of motorsport’s biggest stages, the FIA World Rally Championship as MRF Tyres and Gaurav Gill will take the start in Rally Italia Sardegna, albeit in the non-priority WRC2 category.

MRF Tyres have linked up with WRC’s top team, UK-based M-Sport who also manage the reigning World champion Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, to run four gravel rounds this season which will serve as a platform to do some R & D on their tyres before participating in the full season next year.

Gill, along with his long-time co-driver Glenn Macneall with whom he won two of the three FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship titles, will be piloting the M-Sport R5 Ford Fiesta. The 36-year old Delhi-based Indian did two days of testing in the forests of Cumbria, UK, last week before heading to the island of Sardegna.

MRF, after having won nine APRC titles since their debut in 2002 and as such, the move to WRC was to be expected with Gill as their driver mascot, though it meant loads of preparatory work by way of making tyres to WRC standards and competing against established global brands such as Michelin and D-Mack. Participation in four gravel rounds mean generating data on tyres over 1,200 Kms of Special Stages.

Besides Sardegna, MRF and Gill plan to take part in Rally of Finland (July 26-29), Wales Rally GB (October 4-7) and Rally Australia (November 15-18).

So, what is in store for Gill in Sardegna? First, being a non-priority entry, Gill will start the rally from the last group, behind WRC (priority 1), WRC2 (priority 2) and WRC3 (priority 3), and this could be a disadvantage since the surface would have been chewed up by the cars that preceded him. As per the official list published, Rally Italia has 50 entries of which 28 enjoy “priority” status as mentioned above. The non-priority category has four WRC-spec entries, nine R5 cars and nine more in the RC2/3/4/5, NR4/R3T/R2/R1 class.

Second, Gill faces another disadvantage of not having sufficient seat time in the Ford Fiesta R5, but he was in similar situation in the APRC too, driving the Skoda Fabia R5. Third, the ecosystem of the WRC takes some getting used to though Gill had taken part in three WRC rounds in the Production (now WRC2) class, back in 2008 and 2009, courtesy Bengaluru-based Sidvin Core-Tech.

Yet, you can’t put anything past Gill who over the years has, like good wine, matured into a World-class rally driver. “It is not just about raw speed for me today. I have evolved over the years along with the sport itself which I think is the key to where I am now. Moving on to WRC2 will no doubt present fresh challenges, but I take comfort in the fact that I have raced against some of the current top drivers in APRC and also beaten them. However, I do not entertain any high expectations for this season as the focus will also be on tyre R & D. Yes, it will be a steep learning curve for me and also MRF, but I am looking forward to the challenge,” Gill told me during a recent conversation.

To say the obvious, it will be a tough going in Rally Italia Sardegna, but, given the circumstances, if you can bet on one driver to deliver a strong performance, then my man is Gaurav Gill. WRC has been a long time coming, but as Gill agreed, better late than never.

RALLY ITALIA SARDEGNA DETAILS

Rally Italia Sardegna comprises 20 Special Stages totalling over 313 Kms on gravel roads and the temperatures will be high. After the Super Special Stage on Thursday at the rally cross circuit of Ittiri, Friday features four Stages, each run twice. On Saturday, the competitors will do seven Special Stages covering over 146 Kms while Sunday will see four Stages.