Mads Østberg decided not to run his Ford Fiesta WRC in Corsica, the fourth round of this year’s World Rally Championship next weekend. Originally his plan was to drop Mexico only, as he and his wife Beate were expecting their first child in February. Their son Mons was born on February 24th, but the decision to drop Corsica has nothing to do with fresh parentage, but rather technical reasons.
“It became clear a few days ago that we were not guaranteed to get the proper tarmac suspension for our car to Corsica. And furthermore no time to test on tarmac. There is no reason for us to do the rally only to drive the roads with untested material. Therefore I will enjoy a few weeks extra “daddy leave” before Argentina, instead of pushing ahead to do a rally where we won’t stand a chance to get a result”, Mads Østberg said.
Mads Østberg: “There is no reason for us to do the rally only to drive the roads with untested material”
Mads did a couple of days testing on snow in Norway to get to know the car better and work with differential and suspension set-up.
“Snow and ice is of course not very relevant for the rest of the season. But there were lots of things we couldn’t try in Sweden because of late delivery of the car and generally too little time to test before the event. After driving a couple of days here in Norway I already feel we have taken huge steps in knowing the car and set-up possibilities”, he added.
“I am looking forward to Argentina [during the] last weekend in April as my next rally. I have planned a test on gravel in Europe and possibly a days test on Argentinian roads before the event starts.”
Argentine is a rally Mads Østberg likes a lot and where he has had a couple of his best results, finishing 3rd in 2012 and 2nd in 2015.
We had a very good test days with @MadsOstberg and also managed to congratulate him officially to birth of his son Mons! pic.twitter.com/qSvEaG7EOa
— Martin Prokop (@ProkopOfficial) 17 March 2017
