RECCE NOTES: MONTE CARLO

Well, it’s almost time to get going; our first recce of the 2017 season is pretty much over, with only a couple of stages left today (Wednesday) before shakedown later on, and then we’re into the rally from tomorrow.

What can I say, having seen the stages? It looks like it’s going to be a tricky Monte. We know it’s always one of the trickiest events of the year but this one is going to be right up there. We’ve had a good look at the roads now and it’s so cold up here; they had a weather front through recently – last weekend, I think – and out on the stages, some parts haven’t got above minus 10 since then.

It’s a frozen rally in places, and Thursday night is definitely going to be difficult. Friday’s and Saturday’s stages look like full winter conditions – and as for Sunday, well, we did the recce of the Turini stages on dry roads. But anything can happen there and Sunday is a long, long way away.

So I think Monte is going to serve up a classic this season. I know there’s a lot of anticipation about the new cars and how they’re going to get on, and a few driver swaps that have happened, but in the conditions we’ve seen during recce, the actual performance of the cars is not going to count for much; it’s all going to be down to driver confidence, I’d say.