Simon Tiger was impressive in 2021, but was unable to retain his title in the Open 2WD category last season. Nevertheless, it is with a great sense of revenge that the driver from Luleå is getting ready to return to RallyX.
Untouchable two years ago with no less than six victories in seven races, Simon Tiger faced a completely different scenario in 2022. Slowed down by technical problems, the driver of the ferocious BMW M3 and his Wankel engine developing a mere 600 horsepower did not have an easy time of it.
With only three qualifications for a final, Simon Tiger was never really in a position to defend his championship. Despite a podium finish in Holjes, the BMW M3 driver was quickly outpaced by the experienced Viktor Johansson and the very consistent Joni-Pekka Rajala. Third overall in 2022, Simon Tiger is more determined than ever to reverse the momentum.
“The 2022 season has been really difficult for the team but also for myself as a driver,” says Simon.
“First of all, I think I wasn’t mentally focused on what I had to do while we spent a lot of budget on upgrades that didn’t really pay off. Our goal with these upgrades was to gain reliability but that’s not really the scenario we saw.”
Disappointed by the substance of its season, the Tiger clan has, however, taken advantage of the off-season to address the issue.
“Our major problem last year was a lack of traction. When you have a rear-wheel drive car with a 600 horsepower engine, it’s a problem you have to master,” joked Simon.
“The good news is that we understood the origin of our problems, which were related to manufacturing problems with parts whose measurements did not really correspond to what we should have had. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to check this when we reassembled the car last year. It was a good lesson for us because, from now on, we don’t leave anything to chance by taking care to check everything down to the smallest detail”.
Bad news for his rivals, the work done behind the scenes since last summer has allowed the BMW M3 to regain its full potential.
“By reconfiguring the car as it was in 2021, we managed to find 1.5s per lap in the testing we were able to do after the championship ended. More importantly, the step back we took with our technical package allowed me to instantly regain all the good sensations I had in 2021.”
“In terms of reliability, we’ll see how things go. For now, I prefer not to say too much. In 2021, we had no problems at all, whereas all the changes we made for the 2022 season kept giving us problems. I guess that’s part of the charm of motorsport. This year, we’re going back to our former technical solutions. We learned from our mistakes in 2022. Now we’ve realized that there’s no point in revolutionizing something that already works.
Motivated as ever, Simon Tiger has only one goal in mind: to defeat the 2022 champion Viktor Johansson and add another line to his list of achievements.
“From now on, 2022 belongs to the past. I’ve put this season behind me and I don’t really want to think about it anymore. Nothing went as planned and our championship quickly turned into a nightmare. It’s a year to forget and I’m looking forward to 2023 when we’ll be able to experience more pleasant things.
“My expectations for 2023 are relatively simple. I’m aiming for victory and nothing else. I don’t drive to be number two. The only thing that matters to me is to be able to put the number one on my doors again at the end of the season. So I’m going to give Viktor Johansson a hard time. I’m going to make sure he gets his money’s worth.
