Østberg withdraws from Tour de Corse
Mads Østberg has decided not to run his Onebet Jipocar Ford Fiesta WRC in Corsica (6–9 April).
Originally Østberg’s plan was to miss Rally México only — as he and his wife Beate, prepared to become parents in February. Their son Mons was born on 24th February — but the team’s decision to withdraw from Tour de Corse was made for technical reasons — not parental.
“It became clear a few days ago that we were not guaranteed to get the proper tarmac suspension for our car to Corsica, and furthermore no time to test on tarmac. There is no reason for us to do the rally only to drive the roads with untested material. Therefore I will enjoy a few weeks extra “daddy leave” before Argentina, instead of pushing ahead to do a rally were we won`t stand a chance to get a result” says Mads Østberg.
Mads did a a couple of days testing on snow in Norway last week to get to know the car better and work with differential and suspension set-up.
“Snow and ice is of course not very relevant for the rest of the season, but there were lots of things we couldn`t try in Sweden because of late delivery of the car and generally too little time to test before the event. After driving a couple of days here in Norway I already feel we have taken huge steps in knowing the car and set-up possibilities” he says.
“I am looking forward to Argentina last weekend in April as my next rally, and have planned a test on gravel in Europe and possibly a day’s test on Argentinian roads before the event starts.”
