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Ogier seeks Fiesta upgrades

As he prepares to make his gravel rally debut at the wheel of M-Sport's Ford Fiesta WRC, Sébastien Ogier has revealed that plans are being made to upgrade the car's transmission so it better suits him.

Ogier spoke to wrc.com before tonight's start of Rally Guanajuato Mexico, and explained that the team's 1,500km pre-event test had highlighted some shortcomings.

"We did a good test, very long with a lot of mileage, and that's positive, but to be honest I struggled a bit on day one," he said.

"I felt more and more positive on the second day, so slowly I started to get it in the direction I want. I'm very eager to reach the development tests that are planned soon where I will have the chance to maybe test new parts which need new homologation."

Asked which parts were being looked at, Ogier replied: "Small things, linked to the differential, in combination with the balance of the car and suspension. I try to have this toy better in my hand - to be more able to play exactly what I want with it all the time!"

A three-time winner in Mexico, Ogier remains one of the favourites for victory this week, even though he admits to not yet feeling 100 per cent settled in the Fiesta after four years at Volkswagen.

"In terms of feeling it's hard to put a percentage on it, but I don't feel as comfortable as I used to be in my old car - but I had spent much more time with it," he said.

"Still, I'm convinced that I can still perform well with where we are now. It's good to see that so far the performance was not so bad and there is room for improvement in terms of feeling.

"We have to carry on like this, try to make the best of every rally, even if sometimes, like in Sweden, I was maybe not as sharp as I would love to be."

Zdroj: wrc.com