Peruvian rally driver Nicolas Fuchs is no stranger to the FIA World Rally Championship as he heads in to the Xion Rally Argentina 2015 with 29 rallies behind him.
Last season drove a split campaign in a Ford Fiesta RRC and a Fiesta R5, for this season he is in a M-Sport Fiesta R5 and looking to build on his overall ninth place finish in Mexico.
“This year is a very different rally for me than with the RRC.” admits Fuchs, “It is very rough. It is difficult to say if I am going to save the car or go flat out. Jari [Ketomaa] is very fast, Yurii [Protasov] too. I need to go fast in the stages without hitting the car.”
Fuchs has been working hard to adapt to the car with his team and is feeling a lot more confident heading in to Argentina, “I checked the set up in the car and I think it is good for this rally. I like the car a lot. In the shakedown I went fast in the corners and in the rough parts. I think it is a good car but I don’t know what will happen in the rally. The shakedown was good. I made only two laps and came back to service.
Having taken part in four rallies in Argentina before, Fuchs starts the event with a little more local knowledge over his fellow competitors.
“I competed a lot of times but I had a lot of problems. Last year I came to fight with Jari and Nasser [Al-Attiyah] and I had a problem and went back to eighth place and I needed to push and push and finished second. It is a very difficult rally, rougher than Greece. This rally is for the brain. I need to take a lot of points for the Championship here.”
Fuchs will be entering five more gravel events after Argentina, asked on his hopes for the season he said: “I like the gravel events. I like to go to the gravel rallies: Mexico, Argentina, Portugal, Sardinia, and maybe Finland is not my surface. Maybe it is for Jari, I will try to take some points in Finland and not see Jari. And Poland is a difficult rally too. Last year in GB, Jari was very fast, I didn’t have a good set up for the car but I finished the rally.
