Ott Tanak says that the Ford Puma is not racy yet, but believes that it can be in the future as there are many areas which the team can improve for the next races.
The Estonian driver joined M-Sport Ford for 2023 season and Rallye Monte Carlo is his first racing event being behind the wheel of the Puma. So far this weekend, he was not able to be close to the times that the Toyota drivers set in the stages while he faced a power steering issue in Stage 10. Furthermore, his rally did not start in a positive way as he reported electrical issues on the road section before Stage 1 and had no fifth gear at Thursday night. He is currently in fifth place overall behind the fourth Elfyn Evans with their gap being at 11,4 seconds.
"The car is very progressive and comfortable to drive but it is just not very racy, so we definitely need to try to do something", Tanak said.
"There are many areas we need to improve and we can improve, but we just need to find the ways to get there.
"The Monte this year is very much like a normal tarmac rally and it is something you never see.
"I would say we were definitely not prepared for this condition.
"For me personally, I cannot do anything but it is more a technical thing so let’s see.
"We will see what the engineers have in their minds and see where we can go.
"For sure, we will try to find some directions during the weekend.
"If we are not able to react here, then we we hope we can at the next tarmac rally.
"It will take a bit of time to get to where we need to be, but it is quite a tricky rally as we cannot really do much without the service in the day.
"But step-by-step we need to find some directions where we need to go in the future".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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