Nairobi — With the 2023 World Rally Championship calendar already decided, local drivers are outlining firm plans about how they intend to fine-tune their race contraptions in the run up to 2023 WRC Safari Rally Kenya which is slated for June 22-25.
A sizable number of home drivers will therefore break for next week's festive season (to first get to the holiday mode) after which they'll kick-start their first major phase of preparations in January.
Nairobi based Skoda Fabia Rally2 ace and 2021 Kenya Motorsport Personality -of-the-Year Aakif Virani is leaving nothing to chance as he braces up for his third career WRC Safari Rally participation next year.
Aakif remarked: "Our preparations are well underway. Actually, the car was rebuilt after the 2022 WRC Safari and had been stored ready for 2023. We had some expenses but nothing major."
"Our plan will be to start the 2023 Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) season and do as many events as possible- work allowing as well as personal and family time."
"But after Christmas, we will be ready for the new season as we look forward to doing our third WRC race now that FIA has confirmed the 2023 dates."
Kenya National Rally Championship first runners-up Jasmeet and Ravi Chana have plans to upgrade from their longtime Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X machine to a state-of-the-art Rally2 in order to approach the 2023 Safari and KNRC campaigns a lot more competitively.
"The Evolution X has done what it was intended to; although we didn't achieve the main national championship (KNRC) goal despite leading the series in its latter stages. But all in all, we have plans to upgrade to a newer machine- God willing- if sponsorship comes through," said Chana.
Speedster Karan Patel in his Ford Fiesta Rally2 will for the umpteenth time run another busy season which will entail his spirited KNRC title defence, the WRC Safari with which he managed a top 10 in 2021 as well as the elusive FIA African Rally Championship (ARC) title which he lost to Zambian Leroy Gomes on homestretch in Lusaka.
-WRC 2023 lineups confirmed --
Internationally, it's no longer business as usual given that the season- opener in Monte Carlo is around the corner.
M-Sport Ford will field a two-car WRC2 team in 2023 with former top-level driver Adrien Fourmaux being joined by Grégoire Munster in a pair of identical Fiesta cars.
Fourmaux finds himself back in WRC's premier support category having endured a luckless 2022 season at the helm of a Puma Rally1.
Esapekka Lappi will drive for Hyundai Motorsport World Rally Tram as will Craig Breen - who returns to the squad on a part-time basis.
Lappi has shared a Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Yaris with Sébastien Ogier this season but is switching sides to contest a full-time programme in an i20 N next year.
The Finn also previously drove for M-Sport Ford - meaning he will now have campaigned cars from all three of the FIA WRC leading manufacturers.
Pierre-Louis Loubet will drive an M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid on all 13 rounds of next year's WRC.
Having impressed M-Sport with a brace of top-four finishes plus a handful of stage wins on selected outings in 2022, the British squad has rewarded Loubet with a full-time campaign aboard one of its top-level Pumas next season.
The Frenchman becomes the second driver to be named in M-Sport's line-up after it was confirmed that Ott Tänak will lead the team in 2023.
Joining Loubet inside the car is new co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul, who previously guided Hyundai star Thierry Neuville to 13 WRC rally wins and 43 podiums.
Takamoto Katsuta has been promoted to Toyota Gazoo Racing's otherwise unchanged main line-up for the 2023 season.
Katsuta was taken under the wing of Toyota's WRC Challenge Program for young drivers in 2015 and made his top-flight debut in Germany four years la
It remains to be confirmed which Toyota driver will contest each round - although Sebastien Ogier is likely to take up the reins for the season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo (19 - 22 January), an event he has won eight times.
Elfyn Evans and new world champion Kalle Rovanperä return to compete for full seasons for the Japanese manufacturer.
The 2023 WRC will feature a round which takes place across three countries when Austria, Czech Republic and Germany host the Central European Rally from 26 - 29 October. The asphalt rally will be based out of the south-east German city of Passau.
Running from January to November, the 2023 calendar will feature a number of regular stops, along with the return of Mexico and Chile for the first time since Covid-19.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Beginning with the traditional season opener in Monte-Carlo from 19 - 22 January, the snow and ice of Sweden (9 - 12 February) await drivers for the second stop as the championship returns to Umeå following a successful debut of the new-look winter rally in 2022.
The first long-haul journey of the year takes the championship to Rally Guanajuato México from 16 - 19 March before a return to Europe for the first all-asphalt event of the year, Croatia Rally, from 20 - 23 April. The Croatian fixture now enters its third edition and will once again be based out of the country's capital Zagreb.
The middle of the year reflects the 2022 calendar with Vodafone Rally de Portugal (11 - 14 May), Rally Italia Sardegna (1 - 4 June), Safari Rally Kenya (22 - 25 June), Rally Estonia (20 - 23 July), Secto Rally Finland (3 - 6 August) and EKO Acropolis Rally Greece (7 - 10 September) returning with a similar look and feel.
WRC will go back to Concepción, Chile for the first time since it debuted in 2019. The gravel event will run from 28 September - 1 October.
Rally Japan - will be back hosting the season finale from 16 - 19 November.
