Robert Kubica will once again lead the Pirelli charge in the FIA World Rally Championship opening round of the 2016 season at Rallye Monte-Carlo.
The former F1 driver enters his fourth year competing in WRC and will once again use tyres from the Italian manufacturer as he looks to build on his four stage wins on 2015 Rallye Monte-Carlo.
Joining Kubica on the Italian rubber are privateers Lorenzo Bertelli in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC and Felice Re in his Citroen DS3 WRC. Pirelli will also supply 10 crews in the WRC2 class, across four different car manufacturers, and there will be two Peugeot 208s in the WRC3 class, for Fabio Andolfi and Damiano de Tommaso, supported by Pirelli and ACI: the Italian motorsport governing body.
Terenzio Testoni, Pirelli rally activity manager acknowledges how much the tyres can play a part of the outcome to the rally, “Because of the conditions on Rallye Monte-Carlo, tyre choices and the quality of tyres are critical to the outcome.
The event takes place of 377.59 kilometres of competitive stages varying in conditions due to the snow and ice. Competitors will have the RK asphalt tyre availalble to them, the RKS soft compound and RKSS supersoft compound. Its Sottozero snow tyres will also be available for when the conditions get tougher, either with or without studs.
“The main difference this year compared to last year is that there isn’t a hard compound available, as the result of a rule change that was only announced very recently. We have worked on developing the new soft to have a wider usage range, so this year it’s a multi-purpose tyre and should work in both dry or mixed conditions with temperatures above five degrees, while the supersoft goes very well from -5 to +5 degrees centigrade. It seems as if the weather conditions will be mixed, including dry, damp and snow, so we will need to use all types of tyre” he added.
