Rally Sweden 2024 marks the 71st staging of the world’s foremost snow-based rally. The first 15 editions, 1950 through 1964, were a midsummer event, the Rally of the Midnight Sun. But since 1965 it has been held on snow and ice as a mainstay of the international calendar.
Local driver Tom Trana took his Volvo PV 544 to victory in 1965’s European championship counter, and Swedes would continue to win every edition of the event until 1981 when four-wheel drive powered Finnish pedaller Hannu Mikkola’s Audi Quattro to victory.
Still, Swedes have won the event in its winter form 24 times, with only Finns beating them until Sébastien Loeb’s first non-Nordic triumph in 2004.
But no Swede has won the rally since. The home nation’s drought goes right back to 1997 when Kenneth Eriksson took the honors in a Subaru Impreza WRC. Only three times has a Swedish driver stood on the podium of his home World Rally Championship event in the past 27 years.
Thomas Rådström (who won the event in 1994 when the FIA’s rotation policy meant it was only a points-scoring WRC round for Formula 2 machinery) was third in a Ford Focus WRC in 1999, then went one better with second for Mitsubishi in 2001. Daniel Carlsson managed to haul his privately-entered Mitsubishi to a career-best WRC finish of third in 2006.
So why is it so long since a Swedish driver won an event where they used to be so dominant?
As two-time Rally Sweden winner Mats Jonsson points out, it’s a number game. There simply aren’t enough Swedes making it to the top level.
“Some drivers have had good chances over the years in good factory cars,” he considers. “PG Andersson was driving an M-Sport Fiesta one year. He had a good chance but missed out. And Pontus Tidemand also had some years with a good chance in a good car.”
Andersson led the rally after its first stage in 2011 – only to half-roll the car on the next. A puncture further delayed him, before he clawed his back up to seventh, setting another three fastest stage times. It was his best result on home ground.
Tidemand ran as high as fourth overall in 2013 before his Fiesta’s engine let go on the Saturday morning. A year later he finished eighth in tough conditions with little snow.
On paper, Tidemand’s best chance came in 2019 when he was entered by M-Sport in its Ford Fiesta WRC, the car that had taken Sébastien Ogier to the world title in the two previous years. After an early throttle problem, he drove steadily to eighth at the finish, marveling at the car’s performance.
It was only Tidemand’s second event in 2017-spec car. And that points towards another factor in Swedish drivers’ lack of success in recent years. Not only are manufacturer seats few and far between nowadays, top-flight machinery is so much quicker than second-tier cars that it is tough to jump in and maximize the opportunity of part-time or one-off drives.
“It’s very difficult now to come in a good factory car, and that’s what’s necessary to win the rally,” concedes Jonsson.
But, he notes that there is some optimism for future success. It surely won’t be long before Oliver Solberg – who finished sixth on his only top-flight Swedish start in 2022, having run in the top three on the opening leg – gets another chance in Rally1 machinery.
“We have Oliver Solberg now, so we are waiting for him to get back in a Rally1 car, we hope!” says Jonsson. “And also for some new drivers to come into rallying too. I think there’s a good chance.”
Solberg leads the WRC2 field into the stages this week in his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. A repeat of his 2023 class win would be something to celebrate for the home nation – and could be the prelude to overall glory in years to come.
