M-Sport Ford’s Gus Greensmith has said the lack of recent onboard footage from next weekend’s Safari Rally is making his preparations for the event more difficult than usual.
With WRC regulations preventing Manufacturer teams from holding pre-event tests in Africa, the WRC crews have no meaningful footage to watch as the championship makes its return to Kenya for the first time since 2002.
Greensmith usually uses the WRC+ service to watch onboards of himself and other drivers from previous events, something that is not possible on this occasion.
He said: “It’s going to be tough. We have the organiser’s videos which we can use, but it is difficult. You get an idea of the flow, but it’s hard to see exactly what the stages are really like.
“I will watch the videos as much as I can to try to get as much information, but these are the sort that you do have to watch speeded up a little bit.
“To be fair, everybody’s in the same boat on this one. And it’s the same with the testing – none of us can test there.”
Gus will be looking for a return to the pace shown on May’s Rally Portugal, as a hugely difficult Rally Sardinia was beset with technical issues on his Ford Fiesta WRC, meaning he could never really get up to speed throughout the event.
He will also be reunited with new co-driver Chris Patterson, who returns having had to miss Sardinia for personal reasons.
“We weren’t as close to the leaders in Sardinia as we were in Portugal, but we didn’t test before the event. The times didn’t look quite as good, but, for me, my driving felt like it was to a good standard. In terms of what the data shows, I’m happy with what I’ve done.”
