There has been recce going on today for Rally Sweden, and the impressions from the drivers seems to be varied. Home driver Patrik Sandell concluded the first day with the quote “a lot of snow but no ice = perfect for me!” while Norweigan driver Anders Gröndal has written on his blog that the rally will be “many of the stages will be more of a gravel rally than a winter rally”.
Gröndal’s reaction is interesting. Some drivers seems to be complaining about the conditions – and I understand if they have problems driving on snow. It’s complicated – for sure – and it should be! I’m sure I would be quite concerned if I were to drive a rally on it. However, Gröndal’s quote must be some other kind of problem, possibly some kind of overheating in his brain?! He has been driving a full day in the forests with around half a meter of snow all around him – and he can still claim that it’s not a winter rally? Come on, no matter if you reach the gravel – it’s still very much winter and wintry conditions, dear Gröndal. I’ll explain why…
So, here comes a short tutorial about the difference between snow, ice and water – dedicated to Anders Gröndal:
Snow is a type of precipation consisting of crystalline water ice (Full definition is on Wikipedia). In it’s fully frozen state snow feels really dry.
When snow melts, it results in fluid water. Quite logically, since it’s small ice crystals. This means, that when it rains on snow or when temperatures raise above zero – the snow on the road (since we’re talking rally here) gets softer and melts to water from the top.
If the temperature goes down below zero again, the partially melted snow layer will freeze again. The parts of the snow that is fully or partially melted will form a layer of solid ice on the road. This is the ice Gröndal is talking about – and missing.
If you’ve read all those three points, I guess you don’t find it very difficult. It’s like the very, very basics of winter weather and surfaces. And therefore it’s hard to understand that Gröndal doesn’t understand it. However, to call the current conditions (that for sure will include gravel after the loose snow is swept away) something else than proper winter conditions is just pure bullshit – and now you know why: The ice layer Gröndal is talking about is nice, for sure. But it doesn’t come from winter conditions – it comes from the _lack_ of winter conditions sometimes earlier in time…
So, for everyone of you coming to Sweden. Be cool. Gröndal will have to struggle if he isn’t good enough to drive on proper winter conditions (!) – but you will have a wonderful time with a lot of loose, cold snow out in the forests. It has just never melted since the winter started in early December – but to me that’s more a good sign than a bad!?!
Enjoy!
By the way, to Anders Gröndal: You don’t need to thank me for this guide. Be my guest! And if you still don’t understand – go to some local gas station here in Sweden and buy yourself a “glass” (icecream). Bring it into your cottage or hotel room and see what happens after a while. When it’s half frozen… Go out again and see what happens. Tada! It’s like magic!
Our friend Sebastien Loeb has commited two day’s of testing in Gräsmark outside Torsby in Sweden. The test has gone well, but most interesting is that Loeb did give something that we can probably consider the final confirmation that he is never happy. Despite maybe half a meter of snow (that has been there constantly for the last two months) and temperatures as well as forecasts well below zero, Loeb spent half his talk with the Swedish television (this may be edited, sure, but still!) complaining about the lack of ice under the snow. He didn’t like plenty of snow and he didn’t like reaching the frozen gravel under all snow…
Come on, how should one react? “Oh, poor Sebastien.” Can’t you drive on real snow? Hehe… I think this underlines quite well that it doesn’t matter how the conditions are – people will still complain. Probably it’s just a smart way of not having to speak about your performance just before the rally – and save that until after. I respect that it happens, but one shouldn’t take too much notice of it…
Well, the always up-to-date (irony, guys!) WRC.com has written that Pirelli’s scorpion gravel tyres have passed some tarmac testing, making all lights green heading onto the Cyprus Rally, where the surface will be mixed as we already know. In the article on WRC.com, Pirelli’s tyre manager Mario Isola says:
- Obviously it’s not the best situation for us because we develop tyres for specific surfaces, but this is a compromise in order to help the teams and manufacturers not to transport a lot of spare parts, and in these special circumstances we are happy with the results.
So, seems like I was quite right then when I questioned Sebastien Loeb’s crying on that matter? Of course gravel tyres on tarmac are never the best solution to go fastest – but maybe it’s good to the entertainment with big sideways slides?! If you don’t believe me, see my previous post or this older one.
Ford has tested on Sardinia earlier this week, including tests of the Pirelli Scorpion gravel tyre on tarmac roads (since this combo will be used on Cyprus). Here are a few videos:
Citroen currently seems to be the best – and for sure best backed – WRC team. That makes them have other priorities than the other teams. We’ve seen it before – and now they cry again. In Autosport, Sebastien Loeb says that it doesn’t make sense to use the gravel tyres on tarmac as will be done in Cyprus. The measure is intended to cut costs by saving the teams from using two different types of tyre, tarmac and gravel.
Myself, I don’t know if it’s crazy but as long as it’s not unsafe and the same for everybody – why not try? What I really do know is that I like brining new ideas into the championship, like mixing two surfaces in the same rally – and I do know adding new spectacular things, like cars going really wide because of wrong and worn tyres. As far as it can be safely done, let’s do it. I don’t get why Citroen are crying before even trying? Especially not since they are, from what I know, the only manufacturer that have done testing before the event with the wrong tyre-combination.
Let’s just hope it doesn’t end up like Cyprus two years ago, when their largely promoted town-stage had to be cancelled because of safety issues.
The next IRC round, Rally Internacional de Curitiba, is coming up within a few weeks. The event is ran the 5th-7th of March in Brazil on gravel. I’ll get back with more info on the event later, but already now I thought I should post some videos. Here we go:
While many other teams test snow setups for Rally Norway, Citroen is back in Spain testing setups for Cyprus Rally with Daniel Sordo. A new grip is introduced in Cyprus with one day running on tarmac and two on gravel, which means gravel tyres may have to be used on tarmac. So, the Citroen test turned out quite spectacular when they tested the gravel tyres on tarmac. Of course it causes really hard tyre-wear and it gives a wide sideways driving style which is not similar to the normal driving style of tarmac rallies.
Almost at the same time as Ford were testing in Ireland – Citroen with Loeb and Sordo had already reached Catalunya where they were testing on gravel. On Tuesday and Wednesday last week Loeb was testing (borrowing Sordo’s codriver Marc Marti) – on Thursday and Friday Sordo. In the interview Daniel Sordo says that he would like to carry on climbing in the championship and finally win a rally. Also, he’s not very worried by the presence of JWRC champion Ogier in the championship, but he’s happy that Citroen carries on to support young talens – as they once did for him. This footage of the test is from channel 3 in Catalunya:
He has been driving a full day in the forests with around half a meter of snow all around him – and he can still claim that it’s not a winter rally? Come on, no matter if you reach the gravel – it’s still very much winter and wintry conditions, dear Gröndal. I’ll explain why…
