The 2024 WRC is preparing to face what could be the moment of truth, that is, the rally that will decide the outcome of the fight for the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ world titles.
The World Championship stops in South America, in Chile to be precise, for the third-to-last round of the season, the last on dirt before the double round on asphalt between the Central European Rally and the Rally of Japan.
Rally Chile will be held in the Bio Bio region, just like last year, but will also feature new special stages not done in last year’s edition.
The special stages will feature fast routes through forests and on the coast, with very slippery surfaces. These will have very different characteristics. This will require great care in the choice of tires.
The day that seems to be the most demanding, and perhaps also the decisive one for the fate of the event, is Saturday. It will be the longest in terms of timed kilometers, 139.20 of the 306.76 total. The only special left from last year is the longest of the entire event, the “Maria Las Cruces” of 28.31 kilometers, which will be challenging for the tires considering that it will be preceded by the Lota of 25.64 kilometers.
Another detail not to be underestimated will be the weather. It is possible to see showers of rain and, in general, low temperatures and humidity especially during the morning. These elements will be fundamental for the choice of tires for the morning lap for all the drivers, but especially on Friday for the leader of the World Championship Thierry Neuville.
Rally Chile: the compounds available for Rally1
Rally Chile is, as mentioned, the last event of the WRC season held on gravel. For this reason, the Scorpion KX WRC will be used, i.e. the tires designed specifically for this surface.
The compounds available for the drivers will be the following:
Scorpion KX WRC SB: these are the Soft compounds, which will be considered the Prime this weekend to try to overcome the low temperatures and slippery nature of the Chilean surfaces.
Scorpion KX WRC HB: these are the Hard compounds, which could be perfect on the longer special stages, especially those of the afternoon lap on Saturday. We will then see if anyone will dare to use them also during the morning passage.
Rally Chile: Tyre allocation
Each Rally1 car will be able to have a maximum of 36 tyres for the entire event, divided as follows:
- 28 Prime (Soft) tires
- 8 Option tires (Hard)
We remind you that the drivers will be able to decide to modify this allocation by bringing the Option tyres to 12, but decreasing the Prime tyres by 4 units, therefore 24 Prime and 12 Option.
Rally Chile: Terenzio Testoni’s commentary
Pirelli Rally Activity Manager Terenzio Testoni commented on Rally Chile on the eve of the South American event: “I expect a good and close rally, especially considering the situation in the drivers’ and manufacturers’ standings, which is still very open with three rallies to go. Good tyre management will be essential and I expect both the hard and soft tyres to come into play to tackle the various scenarios that this rally presents. For example, with the low temperatures in the morning, the soft tyres will certainly be favoured, even in dry conditions, while I expect the hard tyres to be used in some of the second heats in the afternoon, when temperatures are higher, to reduce wear, which, as we saw last year, is quite high.”
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