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Giandomenico Basso TER - Tour European Rally leaders' mid-season review
15.09.2017
Giandomenico, the first half of the 2017 TER – Tour European Rally season is done, how has it been going until now?
It is going well. First of all because we are leading, which is positive. We knew that, together with BRC Racing Team, it would be a season spent to get to know the new Hyundai New Generation i20 R5, a new car, and we are trying to get to grips with it step by step. There are also some new events which I had never done before, so altogether we are happy with the result. I am not entirely satisfied: in the last race at Madeira I was hoping to win, instead I was slowed down by a small problem in the last three stages. We nevertheless did a good race, winning many stages, and we are therefore happy anyhow. I am still acquiring feeling, as we do not have the chance to do any tests. I make changes during the events; it is good that many of them are new, but they are also very different one from another, which is one of the good points of the championship. Ypres in Belgium was totally different from the previous round in Transilvania, as well as from Madeira. I do not know the next round in Austria, it is always a discovery of new things.
Two of the three TER events of which You have previous experience are done, now Škoda Rallye Liezen will be new for You. Have You been able to get information on the event and what will your approach be, especially considering the championship where You now have an advantage?
I have been watching some videos which I found online. As a paradox, I won the event which I did not know in Transilvania, and in the other two I finished second despite being both times close to the lead. From what I have been able to see, it seems like a tricky event, with some gravel parts, medium grip. I will not be able to understand it well until I see the stages, I know there are many competitors and that they will be very fierce, and they will give me a hard time. We will do our best, we have a good set-up, which we will try to fine tune together with our team after having seen the stages.
After several seasons in the Italian championship, where You were fighting against the same two or three rivals, in the TER You face more opponents entered in the championship, including the locals. Does this change the way in which You tackle the events, finding every time new rivals and knowing who to pay attention to, and is there something different in the way You prepare yourselves?
Well, despite being new they are also well known drivers, so we have an idea of who our rivals are. Of course, going in a country where they are fighting for a national series is like when someone comes to Italy and fights against us, so for us it is more difficult. It is normal that the locals know the roads better for having raced on them previously. Also, only two passes in the recce makes things a little harder. I was used to three passes in the Italian championship, which was fine, I struggle a little more with two. But the situation was the same when I was driving in the World Championship, and by filming the stages there is some spare time to watch them again, this is a different job from an event which You are used to doing.
