What hits me is the bigger noise of the PSA cars ! ;)
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of course is the driver.At least at asphalt we have seen that psa cars are quite fast.
Ucci didn't won a rally power related,but a rally with corner after corner,more related to torque.
Abbring was faster from Princen with fabia till he bined it,at a rally with many 1st gear accelerations.
If you have any other explanation,i will be happy to listen.
imho at asphalt,psa are not at disadvantage,there are plenty examples.
Maybe more difficult to setup? probably.
Not reliable probably.
Not fast as fabia/fiesta at gravel? probably.
Mikkelsen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6FosNZWp6Q
Latest car definitely sounds a bit raspier.
So the better torque of Princen with fabia didn't helped him.
Mads by rallymania.pt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PawsHezDZZg
Enginewise PSA cars are not that bad. Sure ALS is not that aggressive like in Ford or Skoda, and you even can't choose any level of it. So it makes the difference in slow corners. Fabia has most torque but it's not easy to see in the videos as it has also longest gears so that Nm difference is "lost" with gearing on slower sections, of course it helps on high gears.
For tarmac PSA cars are not much worse. Reliability is biggest problem, not easy to set-up also and difficult to drive, but with good driver for sure very fast. They are closes to race cars from all R5 - very direct on steering, reacting fast, etc. Which of course is not an advantage on gravel, fast gravel especially.