Traditionally, the Vodafone Rally de Portugal features a huge entry list and this year is no different. As the first mainland European gravel rally of the season, the 2014 edition has no less than 85 crews on the entry list.
However, just as impressive is the number of Fords that make up the field. According to M-Sport, the company that develops and runs Ford rally cars in the WRC, there are 42 cars featuring the famous blue oval badge in the Algarve this weekend.
The main team will be fielding six Ford Fiesta RS World Rally Cars, there will be five Fiesta Regional Rally Cars (RRCs), two Fiesta Super2000s, 14 Fiesta R5 cars and 15 Fiesta R2 two wheel-drive cars, including the 12 cars which make up the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy.
This represents 49% of the field competing in Fords, an astonishing figure.
A team moves around a lot during a season in the FIA World Rally Championship. However, by the time they reach the Vodafone Rally de Portugal, the fourth round, they have already competed in two events in Europe and one in Mexico, putting a huge emphasis on the logistics to ensure everything is in the right place at the right time.
For the three ‘long haul’ events outside Europe, Volkswagen Motorsport uses three 40’ shipping containers, loaded with equipment and tools, spare parts, workshop, tents, kitchen and the team office. Once fully loaded, the total weight is an impressive 79 tonnes.
This equipment is moved around on container ships. In addition, there is another 18 tonnes of equipment that is flown to and from these events, including three three Polo R WRC cars and spare parts that are limited in number.
For European events, the team uses seven trucks to transport the three cars, the team service area structure, recce cars, spares, wheels and team hardware. There are additional trucks to create the Formula One-style hospitality and team office areas.
Tyres are supplied by Michelin but the team does have to transport the wheels for each rally – up to 140 per event. These are 18in for asphalt and 15in for gravel or snow.
Once set up, the service area looks like a small factory or car dealership. There are tool trays, aluminium tool boxes and metal transport cases for spare transmissions, turbochargers or differentials.
Following a rally, the team will use 600 litres of water to wash wheels and other parts of the cars, using liquid stored in separate tanks and disposed of correctly.
The team also has two independent electricity generators so that in case the supply provided by each event organiser should fail, it can rely on its own 25kW supply to keep working.
The team travels more than 100,000 kilometres over the course of the year, more than twice around the globe with a further 47,000 kilometres of maritime travel for the long haul equipment.