Team Hansen is taking on the last of four double-header rounds in the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain, as Timmy Hansen and Kevin Hansen seek their first wins of the 2020 season.
Timmy and Kevin Hansen are currently in a close four-way fight for third place in the drivers’ championship, with Timmy only six points behind Niclas Grönholm in fourth and Kevin a further 15 points behind in sixth overall.
Both drivers’ strong performances have also kept Team Hansen in the running to defend its world teams’ champion crown, as the team sits second overall with the top spot still in reach.
Barcelona represents a strong opportunity for the team to score its best result of the 2020 season to date, having been the site of a 1-2 finish for Timmy and Kevin last April. That finish meant they joined an exclusive club alongside the Schumacher and McRae families in having siblings score a 1-2 finish in an FIA championship event.
More than 12 months since the team’s last trip to Spain – World RX of Catalunya was pushed back from April to October due to Covid-related disruption – the team is back hoping to recapture that same form.
In the lead-up to World RX’s return this week, both Team Hansen drivers have been busy. Timmy has been hard at work testing updates to the team’s Peugeot 208 WRX Supercar, while Kevin made his rally raid debut with the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team on last week’s Andalucía Rally, finishing fourth in the SSV class.
Timmy was also busy in another discipline during the one-month World RX break, testing the Spark Odyssey 21 E-SUV for Andretti United Extreme E team. The reigning world champion will join the all-electric series next year, which will visit some of the most challenging environments in the world like the Arctic chill of Greenland, the Amazon rainforest in Pará, Brazil, and more.
In the lead-up to World RX’s return this week, both Team Hansen drivers have been busy. Timmy has been hard at work testing updates to the team’s Peugeot 208 WRX Supercar, while Kevin made his rally raid debut with the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team on last week’s Andalucía Rally, finishing fourth in the SSV class.
Timmy was also busy in another discipline during the one-month World RX break, testing the Spark Odyssey 21 E-SUV for Andretti United Extreme E team. The reigning world champion will join the all-electric series next year, which will visit some of the most challenging environments in the world like the Arctic chill of Greenland, the Amazon rainforest in Pará, Brazil, and more.
Quotes
“We’ve been pushing really hard with our testing programme since Latvia. We want to be winning races this year so we’re pushing the limits beyond what we’d normally do, running our equipment for much longer than usual to make sure we get it right. But I like this level of commitment we’re taking, which of course carries some risk with it.
“I’ve conducted many rallycross tests over the years and the results we got out of our test last week were some of the best we’ve ever had. I’m very excited to be coming to Barcelona with this fresh approach we’ve got and the multiple updates we’ve brought with us.
“I’m feeling optimistic but the only way to know how much difference it’s going to make is once we’re up against the stopwatch at a race weekend. The car does feel drastically different, in a positive way, so my hope is that this is the step we’ve been looking for.
“There are so many good things going for us at this track, considering our history of results here and the updates we’re bringing, so I hope that will close the gap enough for us to win some races this year.”
“I’m really looking forward to coming back to Catalunya. It’s been a long time now since we were last there! Last time we raced here I was leading the world championship, so it will be great to come back. I have lots of good memories there; not only last year but also the year before, which was my first time competing with a full factory team in rallycross.
“Barcelona a good track for us. We’ve been very fast here for the last two years so I’m looking forward to coming back now with all the recent testing that’s been completed.
“While Timmy was testing I was taking on a great new adventure in Andalucía, racing a buggy with the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team. It’s the most fun thing I’ve done all year and I’m so glad I was given the opportunity to try it out.
“But now I’m switching back to the complete opposite of rally raid, with short racing on a circuit. This is my job, my passion, my life. It’s been a month now since we were last in the 208 Supercar, so I can’t wait to get the rallycross feeling back.”
“We had a great result here last year but of course, we can’t take anything for granted, considering how strong our competition is. But we haven’t been servicing the cars and sleeping since Riga. We’ve been doing testing and we’ve now got some updates on the cars that have shown positive signs.
“If those signs are as good as our first impressions suggest, this could be a good weekend for us. There were limits on how much we could test due to factors like the weather but we’ve done several test days with different set-up options, tweaks to the chassis and engine, and further optimising the set-up of our Öhlins dampers. The plan is simple: to be battling for wins again. Let’s see what happens this weekend.”
