Despite the blue sky and the sun, the temperature was rather cool on Tuesday afternoon in the Biobio region of Chile where the 11th race will be helde round of the season. Set up outside the city of Concepción, the service park was still being assembled. There was excitement among the three official teams preparing to take on the final gravel event of the 2024 calendar. Even though the Rally1s will not take their first meters in competition until Thursday morning during the shakedown, the mechanics were already busy around the cars.
At Hyundai, after an audible warning, Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe’s was started first, then stopped, then restarted several times. Perched on jack stands, the i20 had no wheels. The mechanic sitting at the wheel waited for several minutes while the engine sang, attracting more and more people behind the barriers. After a fairly long time without the Korean’s purring changing, changes occurred.
” On each race, we carry out checks before the startexplained a car manager. This is to check that everything is in place and working perfectly. For the overseas rounds, we have to remove the radiator and the front end so that the i20 can fit into its transport cage. When everything is reinstalled, we check if all the circuits are operational, if the fluids are in the system… At the wheel, we have to wait for the different temperatures to rise. We can read everything on the screens in the cockpit. “Once all the elements, such as the exhaust, were sufficiently warm, the static driver engaged the gears, then lowered them again.
In the absence of the tires, only the brake discs began to turn. Near the car, it was possible to hear the noise of the gears going up or down. While the “mill” was turning, a person slipped under the machine with a lamp to see if everything looked from this angle. With their eyes fixed on the engine, two mechanics looked like watchmakers listening to giant cogs. The warning sound sounded one last time and those who did not have earplugs in their ears hurried to cover them to protect themselves. The ephemeral driver pressed the accelerator intensely, making the engine rev very high to the point of putting a strain on the eardrums. This is equivalent to a departure proceduresaid the person in charge of Rally1. We also do checks with hybrid mode. During this procedure or just after, engineers can read all the recorded data and see if there is a problem that we can solve before Thursday. “The i20 suddenly went silent and then finally stopped.
While the mechanics were making a quick assessment of the few minutes that had just passed, an identical exercise was started on the car parked next to it. This exercise, interesting to observe for the public, was also practiced in the other teams. The aim was to have everything ready for Thursday morning and the shakedown.
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