Robert Kubica gave the BRC Racing Team their first taste of official 2016 FIA World Rally Championship action yesterday as the former Formula 1 driver put the M-Sport built Ford Fiesta WRC through its paces on the shakedown stage of Rallye Monte-Carlo.
Having only sampled the machine at a test session near Cuneo, Italy on Saturday, the Polish driver set the seventh fastest time of the competitors, fastest of the independant entries.
While the team can usually be found on the Italian Rally Championship, BRC team principal Massimiliano Fissore is happy to be part of Kubica’s WRC programme,
“We’re delighted to welcome a driver of Robert’s calibre to our team for this prestigious rally. He got off to a very good start with a successful test in Italy, but of course he is one of the fastest and most professional drivers in the sport, so we would expect nothing less.
“He changed a number of parameters during the test to fine-tune the car to his exact liking. From our point of view it’s been a privilege working with him: while our team has been specialised in the Italian Rally Championship recently, it has the experienced personnel and capability to take on running a World Rally Car at the very pinnacle of the sport – and on the most difficult event of the year.
“The fact that Robert has chosen us is testament to that, and now we aim to repay him by giving him the best car possible for the rally. The shakedown went well, and now our attention turns to the first two stages this evening.” he added.
