The World Rally Champion did not open up about his problem during the Swedish Rally. Toyota’s technical director, on the other hand, yes.
Last weekend, he finished fourth in the Swedish World Rally Championship Kalle Rovanperä suffered from mysterious problems on the closing day of the rally.
After the opening clip of the final day, Rovanperä mysteriously told about his problem in the goal interview. Rovanperä said that he had to make his cart together Jonne Halttunen with maintenance procedures on his Toyota before EK, but he refused to answer additional questions.
Rally site DirtFish didn’t leave it at that. It already inquired from the Finn during the rally whether the problem could have developed into something significant in terms of the rally’s result.
– Let’s say maybe. I can’t tell you what the problem was, Rovanperä continued spinning.
DirtFish turned after the rally, I notice Toyota’s leaderboard. The technical director of the rally team of the Japanese brand Tim Fowler finally gave answers to the question.
It was about a simple-sounding, but still embarrassing glitch for the top team.
– Simply put, they had to bleed the brakes of their cars. It’s a routine operation for every car body, but it’s usually done after special tests. But in this case, the car had just come out of overnight maintenance and the drivetrain should have been in perfect condition for him, Fowler says.
Toyota mechanics may have had a simple childhood. On the morning of the closing day of the Swedish rally, there was no traditional fifteen-minute emergency service available.
Bleeding the brakes, which should have been the task of maintenance, had been forgotten.
– Normally, we would have done the procedure ourselves and Kalle would not have noticed anything. They assumed they could just drive to the first cut without a problem, but instead they had to break their routine and fix the problem. We are not proud of this, but sometimes this happens, says Fowler.
Practically all rally drivers and map readers are skilled mechanics, so such maintenance procedures on cars are not difficult for them.
The extra drama in a tight spot brought up by Fowler is a disadvantage drivers don’t want to put themselves through. Another risk would also be being late for the AT station if the maintenance is prolonged.
As for Rovanperä, we got through with a scare. The brakes work and no penalty seconds have been accumulated.
Kalle Rovanperä had an extra program on the closing day of the Swedish Rally. Toyota Gazoo Racing