Albert von Thurn und Taxis, the German FIA European Rally Championship driver, was the main guest of yesterday’s ERC The Scene livestream which they broadcast on their social media.
Von Thurn und Taxis was interviewed by Julian Porter and Chris Rawes, he was also joined by Niki Mayr-Melnhof from Austria.
The German driver will start at this year’s season-opener at Rallye Di Roma Capitale in Italy, where he will drive a Škoda Fabia R5 from Baumschlager Rallye & Racing, he has also set his sights on driving Rally Bohemia in the Czech Republic.
Von Thurn und Taxis said in the interview that he will focus on running the tarmac rounds and that he is very much looking forward to performing his visit of the season but he says he will have to be out on the gravel roads in Europe.
“It’s going to be a particular championship for us this year, with all the calendar changes, we have decided to restrict ourselves to the Tarmac rounds of the championship and I’m very much looking forward to that. Sure, I’m going to miss a bit the gravel but the way it’s looking right now it’s not going to be a possibility.” von Thurn und Taxis said.
He was asked why he chose this for the season and he replied that everything is about the preparation. He also explained that his team could not find a good solution to make everything work between the gravel and tarmac settings.
“It’s a question of preparation. What I found from the beginning it’s a calendar problem be honest. Now I have to figure out how to get my year organised and that’s been a bit tricky with the calendar changing [due to the coronavirus pandemic]. You need particular preparation for Tarmac and for gravel. For gravel training and testing events we were not able to find anything that would have worked.“
He later said in the interview that he will not get used to these conditions on the gravel and that is why he chose to drive only on asphalt.
“I did say last year that if I was not going to be able to prepare for a particular circumstance you’ll find in Liepāja, specifically, then I would not do the rally because those speeds are something you need to get used to driving in fourth and fifth gear on gravel in very high speed. It takes time to get used to those conditions.”
ERC season-opener at Rally di Roma Capitale is scheduled to take place on 24-26 July.
