The first major change is that the event will start two days earlier on the Monday and will see the return, after many years, of the Legana stage to be followed by stages at Holwell, Kayena and the traditional street stage at George Town.

Previously the George Town stage has only been run as a prologue to establish the start order for the following day and not counted in the overall results, but it will now be a super special stage that counts.

On day 2 there will be a total of eight stages over 90 competitive kilometres with runs through Westwood, High Plains, Sheffield, Nook, Moriarty, Merseylea, Devonport and Mount Roland before the overnight stop in Launceston.

On day 3 there will be eight stages held over 72 competitive kilometres, but there has been a major change to the format with the traditional North-East stages reversed from recent years and going in a clockwise direction.

The day will start with the demanding Sidling stage to be followed by runs through Legerwood, Moorina, Weldborough Pass, Pyengana, Elephant Pass, Rossarden and Longford.

Day 4 will be the longest and the toughest of the event with eight stages over 147 competitive kilometres starting with Mole Creek and followed by the 37-kilometre Cethana stage, runs through Castra, Gunns Plains and the Riana stage, which will revert to the original course over 36 kilometres.

The final three stages for the day will be Hellyer Gorge, Mount Black and Rosebery before the overnight stop in Strahan.

For day 5 there will be six stages over 116 competitive kilometres covering the traditional stages of Strahan, Queenstown, Mount Arrowsmith, Tarraleah, Ellendale and Grasstree Hill before an overnight stop in Hobart.

In previous years this would have been the finish of the event, but in another change there will be a sixth day of competition with teams contesting four stages over 49 competitive kilometres.

The stages will be at Nichols Rivulet, Woodbridge, Cygnet and Longley, which were used for many years, but dropped before being reintroduced for the two-day Targa Wrest Point event.

While it's a short day it will provide a sting in the tail and will keep everybody on their toes because the stages are quite technical.

For 2015 the finish of the event will be on the Hobart waterfront instead of at the Wrest Point complex and in another change the presentation dinner will be held that night to allow mainland competitors to return to Melbourne on the Sunday night.

The event will begin on Monday, April 27, and finish on Saturday, May 2.

Engineer moves

IN A surprise move it has been announced that Jock Clear, who was Lewis Hamilton's engineer at Mercedes Benz, will leave the championship team to join the Ferrari team.

The widely experienced Clear has previously worked for Williams, BAR, Honda and Brawn GP before joining Mercedes and will replace the departing Pat Fry at the Italian team.

In an effort to reverse their poor form Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene has made a significant number of changes in the team structure including the replacement of Fernando Alonzo with four-time champion Sebastien Vettel.

At this stage no replacement engineer for Hamilton has been announced, but whoever gets the nod will have some big shoes to fill.