Jari-Matti Latvala is confident he can turn Ford’s 2011 fortunes around with a win on this week’s Rally Australia.
The British-based team has only won one event this season – Mikko Hirvonen’s season-opening victory on Rally Sweden – but Latvala is convinced the competitiveness of the Fiesta RS WRC will show through on the fast New South Wales roads this week.
“I enjoy fast gravel rallies and I want to be fighting for victory next weekend,” he said.
“There have been some frustrating times this year, because we’ve lost rallies by small margins, but we know the Fiesta RS WRC is competitive and I’m confident we can turn that around. Australia would be the perfect place to start.”
Latvala admitted going to a new venue for the rally meant extra work for him and co-driver Miikka Anttila.
“The preparations must be slightly different,” said Latvala. “After the recce we’ll take a close look at our videos of the stages.
“When I’ve competed on stages several times before, the roads are fixed in my memory, so there’s not so much to learn from watching the videos. But on new roads, it helps develop and understanding of the characteristics of the stages.”
Rally Australia starts on Thursday evening, with two runs at a superspecial stage around Coffs Harbour.