RallySport Magazine December 2016

So torque is similar to what we already
had and it is only the power that is
different.
MH: How does the bigger restrictor affect
areas of design of the car?
MN: Transmission is not affected
so much because we did not have so
much torque. The transmission is not
affected and that is why we keep 80%
of the components from the previous
transmission (on the NG i20 2016 WRC).
The fact that you have more power
and that the power is coming a bit more
quicker means it affects the tyre wear,
so you need to work much more on the
suspensions, really to get more grip.
But I have to say that the effect of the
extra power is not affecting the balance
of the car, but it really affects the grip,
especially on gravel.
So we need to be more careful with
tyre wear and work constantly on the
suspension for that.
MH: There is only a marginal increase in the
number of tyres that you can use next year (by
being able to reuse the shakedown tyres). Isn’t
the extra power going to mean that tyre wear is
going to become more difficult than ever?
MN: Well I think in some stages in
some events it could be crucial. Not in
all the events, but in some.
Even this year (2016) you already
had quite a big tyre wear like in Rally
Australia, with warm temperature and
everything, when tyre wear was already
quite significant.
For sure next year with more power
if we have almost the same number of
tyres it has to be more difficult.
One other change in 2017 was
about the kinematic positions of the
suspension, now all the kinematic
points are free. On
the 2016 car our
problem with the
front suspension
was that we had to
stick with standard
position. Now we
can really optimise
the travel and the
footprint on the
stage.
MH: What changes
to design and to driving
will the newly allowed
central differential
make?
MN: It could
make those things
very complicated,
especially for
the engineers! I
think in terms of
driveability and
adaptation to the
driver it is helping a
bit because we can
try to reduce the
oversteering effect
we have to turn in.
It can also
optimise the traction between the front
and the rear axle, but I think the main
change is you can reduce the normal
understeering.
As for the effect on tyre wear, it can
have a small effect because of the
improvement in turning in to corners,
but maybe distribute better the tyre
wear.
MH: Anything new electronically?
MN: Nothing really new because we
use the same ECU, in fact with the ECU
we have we can do a lot of things, but
it is not allowed, so we just add central
differential on it, but everything is
driven by the ECU.
Traction control is completely
forbidden. Okay, you could get some
traction control benefit in other ways,
but all the time what you are doing in
the car it is recorded in an FIA box, so
they can control the parameter and
it is very easy to see if you are doing
traction control.
Plus, the fact that software is checked
and controlled by FIA, approved by FIA.
- MARTIN HOLMES
DECEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 45