Ford makes changes to Focus

At the team's test in north-eastern Spain, which finished today (Friday), McRae and co-driver Nicky Grist spent two days with Ford's new Engineering Director, Christian Loriaux working on tyre, engine and suspension developments for the Focus WRC.

Grist explained to WRC.com: "We tried some interesting things on the car with our new engineer Christian Loriaux, who certainly has a lot of ideas including lowering the centre of gravity in the car and getting all the weight down."

The developments include a new lower seating position for Grist. As he can no longer see through the windscreen, Grist is now totally reliant on the pace notes and the feeling he gets from the car moving through the stage.

"I'm sat on the floor now. It's quite difficult to get used to, as you can imagine, because it's like working through a feeling in your bum rather than what you can see.

"You've got a situation where you know what a fourth gear left is or a third gear and you can feel the g-forces through your bum and the seat, so you always approximately know where you are. The thing now is to concentrate on your notes and I think that's going to work quite well."

The team stays in Spain for a three-day gravel test next week, with Colin McRae and team mate Markko Martin testing in preparation for the Cyprus and Argentina rounds of the world championship. The test will take place south of Alicante.