WRC: Suzuki: We're aware it's going to be hard.

[Rory Phoulorie]

Friday, 17th August 2007

The Suzuki World Rally Team is not underestimating the task ahead of them as they prepare to graduate from the Junior Rally Championship.

Suzuki have admitted that it is going to be extremely tough for them in the WRCnext season, when they step up to the 'senior' level with the new SX4 WRC car and take on the likes of Ford, Citroen and Subaru.

Suzuki, which is due to confirm its driver line-up next month at the Frankfurt Motor Show, will do two events this season with the SX4 - namely the Rallye de France-Tour de Corse and the Wales Rally GB at the end of November, as a warm-up to their debut at the top level.

Speaking ahead of that entry in Corsica in October, Suzuki's chief of chassis design, Shinichi Sakaguchi added that while it is not going to be easy, he is expecting them to get some �quite' exciting results in 2008.

�Our October WRC test entry is looming close, and the machine is now close to completion,� he told the official Suzuki team website, www.suzuki-wrc.com. �We are fully aware of how hard it's going to be for us in our first year of entry though. We went through the same process in the Super 1600 [Junior Rally Championship], but we understand this is going to be much tougher, in light of what we've gone through so far.

�However, it all boils down to coming up with the right technological and material solutions. If we take the necessary measures one by one, just as we've done in the past, I am confident we could put on quite a performance and get some exciting results.�

Asked what their priorities have been during testing, Sakaguchi revealed that durability has been a key focus, something that they have achieved thanks to advice from ex-Peugeot WRC technical wiz, Michel Nandan and Nino Frison, who were both appointed at the end of last year, as technical director and chief designer respectively.

�The WRC is an extremely tough, competitive category involving long driving distances, so durability, the strength to complete the run, is the absolute precondition,� Shinichi explained.

�The question though is how to keep the car lightweight while leaving intact its strength.

�To this objective Mr. Michel Nandan and Mr. Nino Frison suggested to us a new material. Titanium is a lightweight material, but we limit its use to certain sections. Much of the car is made of steel. In Europe, steel containing special ingredients are specified in much detail.

�Among such steel, there is one that provides one-and-a-half to two times the strength with the same shape. Using such material carefully would allow us to create a lightweight and tough car.�

As for how well the elements in Japan and those in France - where the European side of the operation has been established in the suburbs of Paris - are working together, he noted that it is going smoothly.

�Our France-based testing team headed by Mr. Nandan and Mr. Frison are working closely together with us in Japan, as a single team,� he continued.

�We create a design in Japan, take it to France and we receive feedback data from them.

�Such process is repeated over and over for continuous design improvement. We at Japan also need to see for ourselves the actual testing procedures in France, and so the Japanese staff including me, take turns visiting France and keep records of the tests. We also e-mail each other on a daily basis to exchange suggestions for solving problems and making improvements,� he summed-up.

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