Can E-rallying in an Alpine live up to the Monte Carlo dream?

A British Isles crew kept up the best traditions of entente cordiale on the recent FIA e-Rallye Monte-Carlo as they twirled a pretty, French blue Alpine A290 GTS around some of the world's most famous rally stages. Richard Crozier and co-driver Craig Parry joined forces for the first time to dive into the oldest, most prestigious and best-established eco rally, and they emerged with tired smiles, a clutch full of memories and a taste for more. Remarkably, this was the 30th edition of Monte Carlo's e-Rally, the jewel of the FIA's Bridgestone Eco Rally Cup. A bumper 62 entries lined up, representing 18 nations and 17 car marques, competing over 231km of regularity stages and a total distance of 1078km. Crozier is an 18-year rally veteran and clerk of the course for Britain's round of the series, held in Dundee in July, but Parry is a relative newcomer to motorsport. By day, he's an engineering geologist for Atkins Réalis, a partner of the Alpine Formula 1 team. It was the link that helped lever the duo into a factory-supported, standard, road-going A290, in Alpine's 70th anniversary year. For Crozier, the e-Monte offered a fact-finding mission to carry lessons back to his event in Dundee, and for both it also represented a marked step up in competition, in a form of motorsport centred on average rather than outright speed. It's a skillset that requires a different kind of precision. "Compared with regularity events I'd done in the UK this was a completely different kettle of fish," says Parry. "These were my first night stages, on stages such as the famous Col de Turini, which added complexity. Lots of hairpins! Also the average speeds you have to maintain are set higher. "On UK events you don't have to make a huge amount of corrections to keep to your average if your calibrations are good. But here in the hairpins we were lifting rear wheels and tri-podding corners. As the navigator, if Richard takes a shorter line to hold his speed through a corner I have to work out in the moment how many metres we have cut from the driving line. "You are trying to recalibrate and do maths while also looking for course marker points. It's a lot faster, there's a lot more going on and you have to react much quicker." "I call it anxiety rallying," says Crozier. "There's a constant tension in the car, because with the GPS they install, you don't know when they are checking your accuracy of performance - maybe 22 to 24 times a stage, but you don't know whether that's on the entry, middle or exit of a corner. So you have to be bang on the whole time. Craig pointed out I was breathing heavily... And it's over four long days, more than 1000km, with long road sections. You have to stay on top of yourself and keep hydrated." The regularity scoring is so tight, says Parry. "We were less than a second from our set average on our best stage," he explains. "In the UK that would be top; it means you had absolutely aced it. But on the Monte you were still coming in 36th with scores like that. People are managing to drive these stages with hairpin bends and still be within 0.1 or 0.2sec on every time control, which is an insane level of precision." Along with their regularity score, crews are also judged on their economy figures. "At the start of every day your battery level and mileage is checked," says Parry. "For every stage they check what battery percentage you have got, and there are devices in the car reading that. The people who won the rally somehow managed to be the most economical and best on time, which is insane. Some ignore economy and just try to be best on regularity and be more aggressive." So how did they do, in a field that included racing celebrities such as ex-F1 driver Stefano Modena and French rally legend Bruno Saby? The duo finished 47th out of the 62 crews - respectable given their lack of experience together, on the toughest event of its type. They were also frustrated by a penalty that they expected to be rescinded and wasn't, having stopped in a French village to get some charge from a charger that then didn't work... Parry points out that the Swiss crew that finished 47th last year were top-10 contenders this time. So does that mean the pair will return? "I've always had a problem with being overly competitive, and if I don't do well at something I get annoyed and keep doing it until I'm better at it," answers Parry. "I'm already working out what I need to do better." What's cool about going steady? Metronome efficiency over outright, spectacular speed? No wonder regularity rallying is considered the poor relation in comparison with the all-out special stage sport. But as Richard Crozier and Craig Parry explain, it's more appealing than you might think. And it's also accessible - which isn't true of too much motorsport. "I've done all forms of rallying," says Crozier, "and the level of precision in this is so much higher. The Bridgestone Cup is a chance to modernise a sport that has largely catered for historic cars only, so this really opens things up. Its relevance and the opportunity to get manufacturers involved is high, because the cars are the stuff that are on the forecourts." "For me, the team sport element appeals," says Parry. "As a navigator you might think you'll sit there and get bored, but instead once you are in the zone it's all-consuming." Crozier adds: "When everything is working and you are getting your averages to a tenth of a second on beautiful roads it's really satisfying. The events are competitive but sociable, too. That's what's so appealing."