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 What does it mean for a team to compete in a round of the WRC? Sixteen rallies that are spread from January to December each year, as far reaching as Australia, Japan and Jordan, and teams need to be wholly self-sufficient at each and every round. That means that the Subaru World Rally Team consists of more than just the core team of engineers, each of whom have different travel arrangements and need to be in different places during the course of a weekend. S&T looks at what is required of the team during a typical European event.
When people think of rallying, it is probably engineers and mechanics that jump to mind first and foremost. But to operate during a rally weekend, the Subaru team needs a far larger crew. With the three cars of Petter Solberg, Chris Atkinson and Xevi Pons (one of which is pictured above courtesy of Getty Images Sport/Bryn Lennon), a total contingent of more than 60 team members attend each rally.
Sitting alongside the engineers in the Subaru service area, there is a catering team with a fully mobile kitchen, capable of cooking for up to 400 people over a weekend and a hospitality team responsible for entertaining the same number of guests. Whilst the kitchen is fully mobile, food is sourced locally upon arrival: the catering team always know where the supermarkets are! The team has its own paramedic, fitness trainer, IT support and weather forecasting team, in addition to the set-up crew, recce and gravel teams, engineers and data analysts, PR contingent and tyre technicians.
However, before the team even gets to a rally, much work is done back at Prodrive’s base in the UK. Before the rally cars are ready to go to an event, the dedicated test team takes the three cars on shakedown runs to check they are mechanically sound and no problems are likely to spring up when on event. Only when these runs verify the cars are they prepared for their journey, via land, sea or air.
Planning in advance  Often, rallies are very close together, making for maximum time pressure in re-preparing the engines and gearboxes of all three cars, especially when they are twinned events. The trucks can be back at base for as few as 36 hours before getting back on the road to the next event. Where the team travels via land, the trucks can leave before the rally cars, allowing more time to prepare them before they are transported on trailers behind team vans.
Although there are three competitive days to each rally, this by no means represents the level of work for the team. Outward travel dates for the team can actually start almost 10 days prior, to allow initial route recces and set-up work to commence. The service vehicles, equipment and tyre trucks arrive well in advance to turn what is often empty space into a bustling service park and Subaru’s rally hub for the next week. In total, the vehicles on a typical European event consist of three crew cars, six service park vehicles, 16 auxiliary vehicles, four recce cars, and a forklift alongside the three 36 tonne trucks.
“We have two main means of transporting equipment out to events, either by sea freight or airfreight,” says Keith Murray, SWRT transport manager. “In the case of a European rally all the equipment is driven over there, trucks, vans and all, with the rally cars on trailers. In many ways, this makes it much easier for us as we carry all the equipment we need and have it immediately to hand, rather than putting parts on freight and waiting for it to arrive.”
In total, the team has over 40 tonnes of equipment to transport to each round, meaning the logistics team has to be meticulously organised. Every spare part, car, and member of staff must be accounted for, and included in a strict timetable to ensure that nothing goes amiss.
Indeed, the workshops are a far cry from what can be found in a local garage. Each mechanic has his own toolbox, specially built by Snap-on Tools, within which tools are carefully kept in their specific place by foam inserts, ensuring that after constant loading and unloading, everything is where it should be. This philosophy is carried into the packing of the trucks, where everything has its allocated place. Each engineer knows where every tool for a specific job is, meaning that there is no wasting time finding spanners or struggling with lost tools.
By the time the drivers and co-drivers arrive the Monday before a rally, the team and the cars are ready to start the two days of official route recces on Tuesday and Wednesday. By Wednesday, PR engagements are scheduled for the drivers, as is usually the case after the recces have finished. Following stage summaries and swrt.com updates from the co-drivers, the drivers attend media dinners with Subaru guests, at those rallies they are held. These media engagements are typical before the start of the rally, after which drivers and their co-drivers generally don’t have much free time in the evening.
As well as media dinners, drivers and co-drivers can expect local Subaru dealer functions or conferences, autograph signing sessions, press conferences and ceremonial start events during the course of the weekend. While some rallies are busier than others in this regard, there is always a demand for drivers, and the balance of PR activities and sufficient rest and preparation for the rally itself is always a fine one.
Travel logistics  Booking the team’s flights and hotels is a job done often months in advance. Ken Rees, rally team event co-ordinator, is responsible for organising the travel logistics. He often works six months in advance, securing hotel rooms and flights for the team members. Aware of the normal rush for seats and beds, Ken explains the need for such extreme forward planning: “There are three manufacturer teams, media and fans all travelling at the same time so there can be more than 1,000 people looking for flights and they fill very quickly. Sometimes I work a year in advance talking to hotels to make sure that we can secure the rooms we need.” The rooms are all pre-booked, but it’s at a price. Accommodation generally costs in the region of $64,000 per rally.
It is not uncommon for last-minute parts to be transported out to a rally during the weekend itself. Additional spares can be driven out during the rally legs, adding further crew members and another vehicle to the on-event contingent.
On-event movements and demands become tougher where there are remote services. Often a sizeable distance from the service park, it makes for a busy day for the engineers and crew for each car. Using Rallye Deutschland as an example, where the remote service was 80km away, the team had to depart immediately after the morning’s service C at 0710hrs. Each of the three crews packed sufficient kit to perform a 15 minute service on the cars into the remote service trucks. This included ramps, jacks, wheels and tyres, and tools for each car. The four-strong crew for each car completed set-up minutes before Petter, Chris and Xevi arrived, turning the cars round within the allotted time to get them on their way into the final three stages of the morning.
The crews packed up just as quickly once the three cars had departed remote service, heading straight back to service park in time for the lunchtime service. A quick lunch upon arrival, the crews completed the 30 minute service then repacked the trucks and departed immediately to repeat their morning’s work for the second afternoon remote service. Just another day in the life on-event of a Subaru World Rally Team engineer.
And so to the next event…… Meanwhile, in the midst of the final leg’s action on Sunday, the service park crew are already working towards the next rally, such is the timescale. While competition is still fierce on the stages, work gets underway in disassembling the team’s service area. When rallies are only weeks apart, all the equipment and trucks need to get on the road as soon as possible, making the trip back to base at Prodrive for another whistle-stop and re-stock before departing once again. While a few key members return on Sunday night, the majority of the team travel back to the UK on the Monday after the rally. For three days of competitive legs, the Subaru World Rally Team can have a presence on-event and in-country for more than 10 days; an indication of just how much goes on behind the scenes.
The rally cars return to the test team for shakedown runs and to ensure that there are no potential issues before being prepared for their next rally. Meanwhile, the cars being used for the next rally, or those that have just returned if the rallies are twinned, depart the very same day, continuing the cycle that sees 16 rounds flash by with barely a break. A two week gap between rallies on the calendar seems more like two days for the team before it all kicks into high gear again. Footnote  S&T asks Subaru World Rally Team driver Chris Atkinson (pictured right courtesy of Getty Images Sport/Paul Kane):
“What part do video games play in learning the stages?”
“I think the biggest part they play is actually learning how to drive on pace notes. I remember playing games maybe, I don’t know, 10 years ago or more, and you’ve got to listen to those notes - and it’s the same in the WRC. If you don’t listen to the notes, you crash. Okay, it’s a little bit more forgiving in the game, but it’s the same result – you lose time, and you don’t want that. So, you learn that, and also in the game you can cut corners in places and take little short cuts - you learn to use the road to your advantage. When I was 10-years-old I wasn’t driving around in a real car, but I could go and drive a virtual one in a game so that was cool. In terms of the stages, they’re hard to replicate exactly, so that doesn’t work as well as it does on, say, a Formula One circuit. But rallying is not about that, it’s about surprises, jumps, and water-splashes and things that you can make in a game which are pretty realistic.”
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