Red Bull Motorsports
To your average driver, going pedal to the metal on a treacherous, snow-covered backcountry lane is probably the furthest thing from their mind.
But to the globe’s top rally drivers, it’s simply par for the course when the World Rally Championship circus arrives in Karlstad for Rally Sweden.
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Typically, it’s Scandinavians who have dominated the WRC’s only true snow event – Sébastiens Loeb and Ogier are the only non-Nordic drivers to have triumphed on a rally first held 56 years ago.
So to explain the dark art of success on snow, we turned to 1984 WRC champion and celebrated 'Super Swede' Stig Blomqvist. Stig won Rally Sweden a record seven times, in everything from a Saab 96 to a fire-spitting Group B Audi Quattro – so he knows what he’s talking about…
1. Choose the right tyres
Stig Blomqvist: “This was critical when I was competing. On the Swedish Rally, you had a choice of seven or eight different types of tyre for snow. They were all narrow, which focuses the weight of the car through a small contact patch and helps the car bed down. But there were several compounds, different tread patterns and even various lengths of stud, depending on how icy or snowy the road surface was.
"Now, there is only one type of snow tyre the WRC guys can use in Sweden, so that takes away that difficulty. But because you are stuck with one tyre for all snow conditions, it can actually be more difficult to control the car.”
2. Trust in the tyres
SB: “If the tyres are working well and there’s been a good bit of snow overnight, with a nice, hard, icy base underneath, you can drive in a very similar way to how you would on gravel. The studs dig in and you’re not really any more on a knife-edge than normal. And you have to believe this, because you just go slowly otherwise.”
3. Listen to your gravel crew
SB: “We still call them the gravel crew, even though it’s a snow rally. Now this is more important than ever in Sweden because the weather has been bad for a few years and we haven’t had the proper snow we used to get. Because of this, some of the stages can be more muddy and slushy as the temperatures aren’t cold enough for the ice to freeze.
The weather has been bad for a few years and we haven’t had the proper snow we used to get
"Most stages are repeated nowadays, so it can be a completely different challenge second time around, when 60 cars have been through and taken lots of the snow away and made big ruts and ditches. The gravel crew tell you how the condition of the stage has changed and you can use this information to affect tyre choice or amend your pace notes.”
4. Use the snow banks to keep you on track
SB: “Using the snow banks to go round the corners faster is a dark art, which can help you a lot if you get it right. The key is not to get too sideways and hit the snow bank. If you do that, the rear digs in and that pulls the front around and into the bank. That’s when you get a radiator full of snow, and that can cause overheating if the air can’t get through. At worst, you’ll hit a rock or a log that’s hidden. And then that can be your rally over.
The key is not to get too sideways and hit the snow bank
"So you point the car at the inside of the corner and get it turned nicely, maybe with a bit of a slide, but then be straight by the exit. That’s when the snow bank can really help your exit.”
5. Know the terrain
SB: “They used to call it ‘local advantage’ and myself and Björn Waldegård – the best I guy ever competed against on snow – would use it as much as we could. Once rallying started getting bigger, everyone started doing lots of testing on the areas used for the rallies and the advantage was worn away – especially by the Finnish drivers. Like us, they grew up on snow so they already had a good idea of how to drive quickly.”