Williams ready for the tarmac twists and turns of Tour de Corse 🇫🇷
Tom Williams is looking to build on the great start he’s had in the 2019 FIA Junior World Rally Championship by putting in another strong performance on the Tour de Corse (28–31 March).
The 20-year old Oxfordshire driver finished fourth on the opening Rally Sweden, with the snow and ice covered forest roads the surface Tom has the least experience on. Before the only British driver in the JWRC gets a chance to drive his M-Sport developed EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta R2 on his favourite gravel later in the season, next up are the Tarmac twist and turns of Corsica — another surface he is keen to gain experience on. And there is a lot of it too, as the rally has gained the nickname of the Rally of 10,000 Corners for good reason!
In preparation for Corsica, Tom has been working extremely hard on his fitness, joining a local boxing club and working out five times a week. Together with his co-driver Phil Hall, he’s also continued to work hard on fine-tuning his pace note system, which will be essential on the technical switchback stages of the mountainous Mediterranean island.
Tom contested the Tour de Corse last year, finishing 11th in JWRC and 36th overall. That outing has given him a good feel for the island, although this year’s route has changed significantly, with only two stages the same as in 2018 and 80% of the route completely different.
Commenting ahead of the rally Williams said:
“Having started the JWRC on the hardest event for me in Sweden, the asphalt of Corsica will be my second hardest rally of the series — but at least it gets a little easier for me on gravel from then on! I enjoy driving on Tarmac, even though I’ve still got to gain a lot of experience on this surface. In Corsica we’ll be trying to maintain a good rhythm, and to enable me to do that I’ve been working extremely hard on my fitness. The stages in Corsica are very long, so it will be all about focus and intensity — and because there are only twelve stages, as opposed to nineteen in Sweden, you have to make a good start and maintain it.
“I’ve also been working very hard with my co-driver Phil on perfecting my pace note system, as this will be crucial in Corsica because there are so many corners, the roads are narrow and you have to be very precise. There are so many ‘don’t cut’ and ‘do cut’ corners, and there will be a lot of gravel and mud on the road after the world rally cars have driven the stages before us, so accurate pace notes will be essential if we want to have clean and fast run.
“I really like the challenge of Corsica, because it’s very twisty and technical. It’s such a tricky event, especially as the weather can play such a significant part. In the JWRC crews are limited to two types of tyre, a hard compound Pirelli tyre or a super soft, so tyre management and strategy will be important too. The island is basically one giant mountain and we go up, down and around it as we criss-cross Corsica, so the road conditions and surface temperatures change a lot, even on the same stage.
“We finished fourth in Sweden, so our aim in Corsica is to once again run towards the top end of the JWRC field. I’d obviously love to win, but realistically I’d be happy with another top five finish. If we can keep scoring consistently well in the early part of the season, which contains the most challenging events for me, then we’ll be in a good position to push hard on the gravel events and score a very good end of season result in the championship.”
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