World Rallycross Champion Timmy Hansen and World RX bronze medallist Kevin Hansen will begin Team Hansen’s defense of its FIA World Rallycross titles at their home round of the championship in Sweden this week.
Team Hansen is coming off the back of an extraordinary 2019 season, where it won every competition it entered: the World RX drivers’ title with Timmy and the teams’ title, plus Nitro RX and TitansRX titles with Kevin. And while there’s been plenty of time for the team to reflect on that success, that time has also been spent focusing on how to repeat it in 2020 against a line-up that’s even tougher than last year.
After a long wait World RX is finally back underway. Höljes has now inherited the role of season-opener on August 22-23, giving Team Hansen a unique opportunity to begin its campaign only a few hundred miles from team headquarters in Götene.
For the first three rounds of the season – Sweden, Finland and Latvia – the event format has been changed, with two championship rounds held back-to-back on consecutive days at the same circuit. Starting this Saturday, four of those six rounds take place in the space of nine days, so Team Hansen and its rivals will be going from months of waiting for a return to action and straight into the most intense start to a World RX season ever.
Ahead of the weekend’s action, the team has also unveiled its dynamic 2020 livery, featuring the traditional Hansen Motorsport blue, plus light blue accents for Timmy’s Peugeot 208 WRX and yellow accents for Kevin’s 208 to distinguish the team’s two cars.
Both drivers carry new numbers for this year: as the reigning World Rallycross Champion, Timmy has elected to use #1 on his rear passenger window this year, while Kevin is switching from #71 to #9 in World RX.
Quotes
“It’s exciting to start a new year. We begin the season in Sweden with our home race but it’s going to be very different this year; without spectators it’s going to be more like a ‘normal’ race. But the track layout is always fantastic and I’m looking forward to racing at Höljes.
“This weekend should be a good indication right away of where we stand. If we are fast in Höljes, we can be fast anywhere. I want to continue what we did last year; it was a fantastic season, the best season I have ever had as a racing driver. But I still have more to give, more left in me that I want to give to the sport and I can still become a better rallycross driver. That’s my goal for this year, and hopefully that leads to another world title.
“We have to be clever during these first races not to end up in any trouble, because there is definitely no way you have time to repair any big damage between the two rounds on Saturday and Sunday. So ideally I want to avoid another Abu Dhabi from last year! To recharge between the two days will be challenging but I’m up for it.
“To race with number one on the rear window is a nice reminder of what we did last year. It’s a journey that I will never forget and I worked so hard for it. It had been a dream for many years and a goal, and now we have achieved it, so seeing that number one is a way to continue to enjoy it. It definitely feels good.”
“I think the new livery looks amazing. We’ve tried to make the two liveries look more similar this year, so it looks more like the cars belong to the same team. We are the reigning world champions so we need to present a united front this year. It’s great to have Red Bull, Total, Inquire, Sparco, Öhlins, NGK, and SADEV continuing to support us, their presence really stands out on the new livery. Mine especially looks really great!
“To start the season with my home race is very exciting. We’re used to doubleheaders and the team is as well, so this format won’t feel like a surprise. It’ll be very calm with no fans but if we do well in the final, the celebrations will feel a bit empty, with no-one in the grandstands. We feel all the support from our home fans and we hope they will share their feelings and emotions about World RX’s return with us on social media.
“Our expectation for this year is to continue where we left off in 2019. We learned a lot from being in the lead of a world championship and fighting for wins, so I don’t feel nervous at all. I feel very comfortable with who I am, what I can achieve, and what I’m capable of doing, so it’s just about getting to the track and fine-tuning the car, extracting everything we can from every race. Becoming world champion is the ultimate goal.
“I’m switching to #9 for only one reason this year: the qualifying grid draw. #71 has not performed well in these draws for the past few years, so I felt it was time to try and change that. Hopefully now with #9, which has the best average grid position for Q1 grid draws, this will help make things a little easier for Q1. I’ll always keep #71 in my heart and use that number anywhere else I race, but I need to do everything possible to optimise my performance.”
“It’s been a strange feeling but we have tried to work and do what we can, even if we have been reduced in working time. We should still be quite well prepared; we did some testing a week ago and everything appeared to be working well.
“Our busy schedule last year which included TitansRX was very beneficial for this situation. We had double rounds in a single weekend in that championship, so the feeling for the first three events of World RX is very similar. It’s difficult of course because you have to work very hard on the technical side, preparing the cars between Saturday and Sunday. You also need to consider those factors during the actual races, as there’s not a lot of time available for changes and repairs. There are few possibilities if something bad were to happen.
“Everyone has waited for so long and now it’s going to happen, so we’re all very hungry and determined to get to the track. We’re using the same crew we’d planned to work with before the original season start was postponed but we’re not allowed quite as many people as before due to COVID-19 regulations. We’d have loved to have a bigger media team around us to cover everything we’re doing but that’s not possible this year. Most importantly we’re thinking about our crew and everyone in the team at the track staying safe.”
