Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart has a four-strong team of full-time engineers responsible for the design and development of the Championship-winning Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution / Carisma GT.

Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart's Chief engineer Bernard Lindauer

Bernard Lindauer, as Chief Engineer, has overall responsibility for the final design and development of every rally car that leaves the team’s headquarters in Rugby, England. "The most challenging part is staying on top", he comments. "Winning the first Championship is relatively easy, it’s much more difficult to stay there!

"Part of my job involves travelling and communicating with the engineers in Japan, because in rallying we are very dependent on the Evolution road car. The most important thing is the collaboration with Mitsubishi Motors over what they can do with the production car that will help make us have a good rally car. There are many engineers we work very closely with in the Mitsubishi Motorsport group, Mr. Kimata, Mr. Inagaki, and others in particular, such as Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Ishida who work on the development of the packaging job for rally car, and Mr. Ito and Mr. Nakayama who, with their team, are completely responsible for the development and build of the engine. Many of them come on event with the team to follow what we are doing and help with the future base development of the Evolution and Group A car. Every evolution of the car has been in collaboration with them, and then they hand it back to us to do the final development work".

Bernard Lindauer's ’office’ during a rally

Lindauer’s engineer career is a long and illustrious one that started in France working with the Renault Formula One Team. He then moved to Peugeot where he was working with the awesome Group B 205 T 16, and also the 205 that contested the famous Paris-Dakar Rally in 1987. His career in rallying continued with a move to Belgium to join Mazda Rally Team Europe as assistant chief engineer, where he stayed until the marque withdrew from motorsport activities in 1993. Bernard then moved to England where he took up his post as test and development engineer at Ford’s Boreham base in Essex but, with the manufacturer moving its rally activities up to M-Sport’s headquarters in Cumbria, the Frenchman sought his move to Mitsubishi Ralliart at the beginning of 1997.

"The challenge up to now has been difficult but very rewarding, because we have managed to stay on top with a Group A car, rather than World Rally Car, and have won through the strength, experience and ability within the team. For me, the most interesting part of the job is about car handling, which includes the suspension, transmission and everything that relates to the car’s contact with the ground. Setting up a rally car is a real challenge because in this sport everywhere you go is different and you have to find another solution every time.

"I have a job with a passion and I am lucky to do it, it’s a hobby with a job, but it takes a lot of time and, although I like climbing, trekking, skiing and windsurfing there is never enough time to fit it all in. For me the life is very interesting… there is so much to do in one life, but it’s so short!"

Engineer Olivier Maroselli (letf) often sits alongside Tommi Makinen in his Mitsubishi Lancer during testing

Bernard’s number two at Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart is fellow country Olivier Maroselli. He too comes from a mixed motorsport background that started with the Oreca Team in France as a design engineer on the GT Vipers and works BMW touring cars. "But I had wanted to work in rallying for a long time and the opportunity then came up with Mitsubishi", says Olivier. "I was very surprised when I spoke to Bernard that there was another French engineer in the team! There are lots of things you can do in rallying which for me makes it more interesting than track racing, and I am now responsible for the development work in the design office and testing out new components. It is a good balance with going on events and very interesting because the future still holds many advanced technical projects.

"This sport is much more of a complete exercise because the conditions where you have to make the car work are so varied, nothing will ever be the same on a test as it is during a rally, and you have no time reference of any kind until you arrive at shakedown and can compare your performance with other teams. Our cars are much more complicated than a racing car, so it is very interesting and makes the work much more complex. As Bernard says, it is a devastating passion!"

Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart’s newest recruit Roger Estrada

The newest recruit to Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart is Spanish born Roger Estrada. The 26-year-old, originally from Barcelona, moved to England to take up his post as rally engineer in September after two years working with rival outfit, SEAT Sport.

"Working for SEAT was my first job after leaving university and I joined as a junior design engineer", comments Roger. "I had particular responsibility for the 1999 and 2000 specification Safari car, designing new parts, testing and helping the other engineers on the set-up. Working towards an event like this is a massive challenge, quite particular because it is so different from the other events.

"I decided to move to England because this is the place where the tradition of motorsport is and it has the best teams for rallying as well as Formula One. There is a good industry, one of the best, if not the best, and obviously as a Spaniard it was also a challenge for me to work in England.

(From left to right) Olivier Maroselli, Bernard Lindauer, Roger Estrada and Michelin's Dominique Bravy discuss the tyre issue with Tommi Makinen

"In this field, everything is interesting because there is no one element that will make the car good, it is all one package and it is good to work in all these areas. But the thing I like the most is about the chassis, suspension and gearbox, because there is always so much happening.

"I have always enjoyed motorsport, since I was very young, and I have done a lot of motorcycle races in my country, so I think I was always going to end up doing a mechanical engineering degree to try and work in the business". Underlining his passion for all things fast and mechanical, Roger has in fact competed in the Catalan and Spanish Trial Bike Championships with satisfying results and was crowned 1999 Catalan Jet Ski Champion.

Thirty-seven-year-old Phil Roach makes up the quartet of rally engineers in Rugby. He began his career as a mechanic at a Volkswagen dealership before joining a club rally outfit and ultimately meeting the team from Co-ordSport, who were running Japanese star Kenjiro Shinozuka in the World Rally Championship. His first World Championship event was the Safari in 1992 and he then joined Ralliart Europe as a freelance mechanic. From there, he progressed to number one mechanic on Kenneth Eriksson’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution before moving across to the test team in 1996.

Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart’s engineers listen to Freddy Loix’s analysis during service