Without turning a wheel in competition, Project Rally One has already left a strong impression. The Belgian outfit only has 21 full-time staff members, yet it has created a World Rally Championship car that test driver Stephane Lefebvre believes is “like a factory car”.
The real test will be against the stopwatch, but former Citroen works driver Lefebvre has been impressed by what he’s seen. “When I saw the philosophy and how Lionel [Hansen] wants to build the project it’s quite crazy and unbelievable. And to be honest, he doesn’t need to be shy with what he’s done. The car is really strong. It looks like a factory car,” Lefebvre told DirtFish.
Lefebvre recalled his first moments in the cockpit. “When I jumped in the car for the first time, when I did the first rollout, I said, ‘OK, it’s not a joke’. It’s a real car and he wants to do the best with what he can do. And to be honest, comparing it to what I’ve done with Citroen in the Rally2 program in the past, it’s really similar.”
The Frenchman is well qualified to judge, having driven Rally2 machines from Toyota, Skoda, Hyundai, Citroen and Ford over the years. “For the moment, it’s quite similar, to be honest,” he revealed. “But I think we have a lot of things to try and develop more for the future. But in terms of pace, for the moment, it’s really, really close.”
Lefebvre added that the first step was to have a car easy to drive for the customer. “To build a proper WRC car, it’s not so easy to drive and the window is very close. The first idea is to have one easy car and after we try to find some performance for the future.”
WRC Promoter COO Julien Vial is confident Project Rally One can be competitive, considering the personnel involved, but suggested drivers could be a decisive factor. “It’s always difficult because you have the fundamentals of the cars and the conception, but you have also the exploitation. So it’s mainly linked with the drivers and how you manage your race, so it’s so difficult [to say] and I don’t want to give any answer to that because if Project Rally One has maybe a very famous driver in Monte, for sure it can be happen because the conditions are very different sog but it’s depending on many, many elements.”
Vial highlighted the project’s organization. “What we have seen is this project is well-organized. We have some guys like Jean-Claude Vaucard that developed in the past the Peugeot 205, the [Citroen] Xsara WRC, so the skills are here. So I think they will be competitive.”
Furthermore, Vial believes Project Rally One’s performances on the stages will help encourage other constructors to join the WRC. “We are in the transition and it’s normal that some people like Lionel truly, truly trust on it since the beginning. But for some others, they need to have some results...”
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