Subaru change targets for 2008

Subaru World Rally Team managing director Richard Taylor revealed to autosport.com that the team have changed their targets since the car was launched on the Acropolis Rally in June, with the outfit now wanting to match performance with reliability.

For Greece and Turkey, the car was run in 'durability' specification, but from now on, according to Taylor, speed is the key.

"We needed to get the cars through Greece and Turkey," he said. "We needed the mileage to see what the cars could do. Now we've done that, we want to see the cars going as fast as they can. We've been testing the performance specification of the car in Finland this week, and the results have been very positive."

The developing WRC2008 will also feature improvements to its weight, both overall and distribution, and some subtle aero changes for the second half of the year.

Taylor continued: "Talking about the weight and level of protection we were running on the car, you'd have known about it if you'd dropped the sump guard on your foot! You'd also have seen how high we were running the car on the last two rallies. This will all change for the next rallies. We're taking some of the protection out of the car to get the speed up. That was always the intention."

Atkinson drove the car during testing on Sunday and Monday, with Solberg climbing aboard the test Impreza for today and tomorrow.

"The test has, so far, gone very well," added Taylor. "And from here on in, it's about podiums and wins for us. We want to see the drivers going out to win stages. Obviously, with that increase in pace comes an increase in risk, but we need to see what the car can do. We want to find out where we are."

Taylor conceded the next round of the championship, Rally Finland (August 1-3) would be a tough one to win. He added: "Every rally is going to have very tough competition.

"What we've got to focus on is either being faster than the competition and beating them on pure pace or we've got to be in a position where we can benefit from any problems the others might have, such as punctures. But firstly, we need to make sure we have the speed to put the car in that position in the first place."

Taylor also poured cold water on speculation that Subaru's test driver Markko Martin could contest the South Estonia Rally as a final element to SWRT's Rally Finland preparations. "It's highly unlikely," he concluded. "I'd say 90-something per cent not going to happen."