MINI not getting carried away

MINII WRC Team David Wilcock has echoed Dani Sordo in saying that he will not get complacent after the recent outstanding performance on Rallye Deutschland.

Wilcock admitted the focus is still on 2013, when the team plan to begin fighting for the Manufacturers & Driver's titles, but they do have short-term plans to keep their strong run going.

“We know our strengths and also our weaknesses. We know where we have to work and we will do that as we have a clear plan. We will work out a priority order and start attacking them. We are a small team but we are committed and will do everything we can to improve as much as we can. We have short-term objectives with some performance and some reliability. However, we have a clear focus and that is on 2013 and we are now going to stick to that and work to our calculated development plan.”

The two MINI's were as fast as the works Ford's in Germany, which shows the squad are strong on tarmac. However, they only have one out of a possible four finishes on gravel. Dani Sordo scored sixth overall in Italy but retired in Finland, as did team-mate Kris Meeke, but Meeke was taken out of Italy by a stuck throttle.

“We were level pegging with the Ford [team] and able to race them comfortably.” said Wilcock “We take that as a real positive. We now need to switch that over onto the gravel, but at the moment we shall keep our focus on the Tarmac as we have another two rallies on this surface coming up.”

Wilcock added that MINI's ability to be driven in changing conditions, and it's sensitivity made it a good tarmac car. He said the private drivers driving the MINI John Cooper Works WRC on Rallye Deutschland said the same as himself.

“We learned a lot [in Germany]. The MINI is a fantastic little car on Tarmac. It is very sensitive and very drivable in changing conditions and sensitive to changes. The drivers have the ability to tune it to their liking so that is a real attribute. The nice thing is our customers who are rallying it are also saying the same, so there is another strong positive.” he added.

Dani Sordo, who drove the car to third overall in Germany, said that the team won't go to France expecting to win, though third overall in the car's third ever World Rally was 'one of the best results' of his six year WRC career.

“It was one of the best results of my career, but it doesn’t mean we’re going to the next round trying to win. The car is fantastic and, the result was more than I expected.”