More power, more aero, more of a challenge.
Jumping from a Rally2 car to an all-singing, all-dancing Rally1 is the making of any rally driver as they finally achieve their career potential and mix it in the big league.
It’s a leap not to be underestimated, but widely understood. However it’s not a challenge exclusive to them – what about the one sitting beside them?
Albeit different, trading a Rally2 for a Rally1 is equally a challenge for the co-driver – and one M-Sport’s 2025 lineup of Louis Louka (last year) and Eoin Treacy (this year) have both recently undertaken.
So DirtFish spoke to them both to glean their insight into the task of adapting from Rally2 to Rally1 from a co-driver’s perspective.
Increased speed
The most obvious change from Rally2 to Rally1 is the speed. Drivers have to adapt to the corners coming quicker, but so does the co-driver.
“When you are in a Rally2 car, if you have 100 meters after a really tight corner, you can breathe a bit. And you know you have a bit of time to the next corner.
“With the Rally1 car, it’s quite a lot shorter,” Louka laughs.
"It's a bit like a musician in an orchestra. If you speed the music up, the musician will still be able to play the chordsLouis Louka
But Louka has a fascinating analogy for how that actually works.
“It’s a bit like a musician in an orchestra,” he says. “If you speed the music up, the musician will still be able to play the chords and to play the music, but it’s just a bit quicker everywhere and the band has to reorganize a bit.”
In this sense, the co-driver recognizes the driver is driving faster, and therefore reads the note faster.
“But on the job itself, for me, it’s not a massive, massive difference,” Louka adds. “For me, the step up is more from national or European championship to the WRC level. World championship level, whatever the category.
“Even in Junior WRC, you have some stuff to manage you know – it’s the highest level of our sport and that’s not for nothing, because it’s really demanding a lot and for the driver you have really, really many things to manage and even more than on lower levels let’s say.
“You know WRC2 is a bit like the university for Rally1 – when you pass the exam after WRC2, normally you are really able to step up.”
Next week’s Rally Islas Canarias will be Louka’s 19th strapped into a Puma Rally1. It’ll be just Treacy’s fourth.
The Irishman is therefore in a different phase of his learning. He pinpoints the “pacing” of his calls as a “big change”.
“It’s faster, there’s just a lot more aggression. The car can do more,” Treacy says.
Treacy really noticed the hike in speed on his Rally1 debut in Monte Carlo
“I suppose I noticed in Monte compared to Tarmac rallies that I’ve done before, the car is going in the cuts and it’s going through things faster with the aero and it stops faster, so where you might have needed a bigger distance before, you’re going a lot deeper before you’re on the brakes.
“So the pacing is a big change. When you’re delivering the notes in a Rally2 car you might have gone slower at a point and then faster at another point. In a Rally1, that kind of shifts because your acceleration and deceleration is different.
“You’re carrying a lot more corner speed, so the speed at which you’re going through the medium speed corners is ratcheted up as well.”
Different pacenotes?
Pacenotes will evolve for every driver year to year, as they refine their understanding of not just the car, but the stages they’re competing on.
But considering the extra speed of the cars, do the notes have to change from those fit for Rally2?
“The angles and so on stay the same because a corner is a corner,” Louka explains. “But we used quite a lot the onboard cameras from the previous years from the others in Rally1 [to judge how to make our notes].
Pacenotes don't change a lot for Rally1 cars - but that doesn't stop crews evolving them
“You watch different drivers because not everyone has the same driving style. So for example, if you watch Ott Tänak’s onboards, he’s so sideways and he uses so much sideways to sometimes slow down the car, especially on really quick rallies like Finland, Sweden, Estonia and stuff. And sometimes you’re like ‘he stays flat! It’s not possible to pass this corner flat’, but it’s because he uses the sideways of the car to slow down a bit. And so it feels like he’s flat because his boot is on the floor, but he slows down a bit the car on his own slide.
“And at the other end, you will have Thierry Neuville, for example, who is a more front-wheel-drive style driver who will brake a bit more straight and then be a bit more clean, you know. And so it goes like that, and you work out how will you find the balance for yourself?”
Perfecting pacenotes is an art, so leaning on those more experienced now in a comparable car is shrewd studying. But to answer the question in-hand, the step up to the top class doesn’t alter the information contained within the notes.
Getting used to it
Louka and his driver Grégoire Munster are a year up the road in terms of experience compared to team-mates Treacy and Josh McErlean. The Irishmen even have the disadvantage of never having properly worked together before this season.
“It’s definitely testing,” Treacy acknowledges. “But I guess that’s the great thing as well. We just said it’s testing, but going testing is very helpful because as you get to know the road, you can discuss how to improve and you can just learn the car, you know?
“One of the things I was amazed at when we made the step was the amount of information Josh was having to consume from the notes at such a quick speed. That’s a huge thing. I was like, ‘wow, the amount of information I’m putting out is immense’, so consuming all of that and reacting to it is a big step.”
Just like Munster – who has openly admitted experience of the car and rallies from 2024 is a big help this campaign – Louka admits he feels a lot more comfortable with a year’s experience under his belt; not least because 2024-25 is the first time in five years the pair have stayed in the same car and team.
Louka (right) is well acquainted with his office (behind)
“We are familiar with servicing, with the team, with the mechanics… it feels a bit like home, you know? And to be able to deliver your best performance, for sure, you have to feel comfortable. And you cannot feel more comfortable than at home,” Louka points out.
“I know the Puma by heart. With my eyes closed, I can push on the right buttons if I have to do something.”
Which leads us neatly onto the next point…
Ergonomics
Learning the ergonomics of his office was not the work of a moment for Louka. It takes time to have such affinity with your surroundings.
That’s true for jumping into any new rally car. But what makes adapting to Rally1 a particular challenge is the uniqueness of the machines compared to anything else.
“It’s very different, yeah,” Treacy agrees. “So with the space frame, you’ve got the roll cage hoop next to you and your vision is closed off at the side and the bulkhead’s a lot closer, and you’re also sitting level with the driver.
“You can see everything out the windscreen compared to a Rally2 car where you’re in a non-space frame chassis. So you’re sitting down on the floor and you can just see the dash and a bit over it. So it’s a very different position to be in.
The Rally1 isn't like any other car to sit in - a key part of that being the rollcage and space frame chassis
“It’s one of the things you notice immediately when you come out of a Rally1 and sit into another car is where the rollcage is. In the Rally1 it’s snug – it’s right around you – but it’s quite nice.
“I’m quite a tall guy [193cm] so fitting in there at first I was like, ‘how’s this going to work?’ But you do feel secure because you are so well strapped in and you have the cage right around you.”
But the seating position is not the only change – intricacies like the storing of the helmets and even the co-driver’s bag are different.
“Before I would have carried my own bag and tied it into the car. But in the Rally1 there’s a bag in the car that I can put my stuff into and it’s in a different position. So that was different for me,” Treacy says.
“With the spaceframe, the exhaust tunnel is there as well, so that’s taken in an area where your bag would have been. And it was interesting as well with how the tools are stored and everything is very different to a Rally2, so learning all that was a learning curve.
“As for the helmets? In the Rally2 car Fiesta we had it under the dash. This year it’s hanging in front of my legs and for a long road section I can put it in a bag in the boot.”
Louka concurs that the Rally1 is “really, really different” to any other rally car, and jokes that studying its information and learning the details is like “you come back with an IKEA kit and you have to build it up with instructions”.
“You have to really go through completely and deeply to really understand the things,” Louka says. “Like I said, you have to feel like home and to feel comfortable, but it’s not easy when everything is new.
“Of course you have to know how to turn on and off everything, for example the heated windscreen, the blower, the fuel pump, the spare fuel pump if you have an issue during the stage.
“You have to know what alarm means what. So if you have an alarm flashing on the stage, you have to know if you have to stop or not, if you have to check something, if you have to press a button, if you have to reset the car.
“It’s a big technical discussion with your engineer – the car tries to speak to you and to give you information and so you have to understand its language.”
Revised regulations
The step from Rally2 (WRC2/ERC) to Rally1 does not bring with it a bucketload of regulation changes – not anymore anyway, now that the Rally1 cars are hybridless for 2025.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t things for co-drivers to consider.
“To be honest the sport is the same: you have road sections, time controls and stages. But we have some small regulations that are different,” Louka begins.
“Tire-wise, for example, the limited amount of tires is not the same [as in Rally2]. Also this year, all the P1s are using flexi service, each service, which is really specific to P1 drivers. I have some other examples like that. So it’s small things.
“Like I said, it’s the same sport with globally the same rules, but there is some specific and small stuff that is not the same. And you have to know that for sure. You are the lawyer I guess of the crew, so you have to know everything. And this for me, you have to know by heart.
Understanding the intricacies of the regulations - and those specifically for P1 crews - is paramount
“From one season to the other, general regulations from FIA for the World Rally Championship is the book on the table next to my bed because I go through it quite a lot so that I’m sure that I can deal with small changes in the regulations, because from year to year it’s also different.
“You have to know all this quite a lot, because obviously you have to really follow them. But also if you see someone doing something wrong, you are able to say,’ oh, it’s not allowed, or this was used last year, but it’s not the same this year’. That’s therefore doubly important.”
Helping each other
Above all though, co-drivers want to help each other. The so-called ‘co-drivers’ union’ is alive and well, particularly between team-mates who are always keen to help each other with any queries, clarification or potential lack of understanding.
“Louis has been very helpful to me,” Treacy says, “because obviously we’re in the same team, so we can discuss things. And even just his experience of recce in different countries – knowing what to expect in places that are so different like Kenya is a huge help.
“Paul [Nagle] has been very helpful too – to chat to him before and after events is a massive resource as he’s been everywhere, he’s done every event and he’s actually been in the same car I’m in, so he knows exactly what you’re going through.
“And he can give you tips that you wouldn’t even think of asking for, but he knows that it’s important. You then do the event and you realize how important that stuff is, but it’s when you’re making that step, you’re not used to giving this information.”
Louka and Alex Coria enjoy a good relationship - but all co-drivers (especially team-mates) will help each other
Louka enjoys a strong relationship with Adrien Fourmaux’s co-driver Alex Coria – the pair working together at M-Sport in both 2023 and 2024.
“I was not really asking questions about how to proceed or how to deal with things, it was more a kind of constructive conversation about I thought we should do this like that. What’s your opinion? How do you feel with it? What was your plan? So we compared a bit our approach and our plans, and quite often we did not agree and so it was constructive to debate and to explain why we had this logic,” Louka shares.
“I also have a nice relationship with Aaron Johnston. It’s not often, but sometimes when we start [next to] each other, you know, he’s in front of me or I’m in front of him, we discuss sometimes on the road sections or in regroups and stuff like that.
“We just speak briefly about some small things but just to confirm and… it’s quite often between co-drivers you exchange your opinion or you just speak about some things because you have so much things to deal with that you just want sometimes to be a bit more relaxed about your approach of the stuff.
” And with Eoin it’s a bit the same approach I had with Alex. I mean we are team-mates, so we just discuss things. Before the event we chat sometimes on WhatsApp. Inside M-Sport we always share our recce blueprint to have something global so the team knows where to be at the time to do recce service and stuff like that.
“But it’s not like ‘I’m your father, I will teach you everything’. It’s more just a friendly help, let’s say. But when we are doing the rally, for sure, everyone does his own magic potion, and you are competing again.”
Once strapped into the rally car, nobody is friends...
Living the dream
For both however, competing at this level is simply a dream.
With just three rallies under his belt in a Rally1 – throughout a career that’s progressed extremely rapidly – Treacy has his feet firmly on the ground, and doesn’t seem like someone who’s yet fully grasped what he’s managed to achieve.
Louka can relate.
“I dreamt about this for many, many, many years – especially with M-Sport because it’s an iconic team; their first official program was back in ’97,” he smiles.
“I don’t want to pretend to be someone important or whatever, that’s really unhumble, but I mean, to be at the top level of a sport, when you’ve dreamed about that, it’s really, really special.
“The first two rallies I did, Monte and Sweden ’24, I was like, ‘am I really here doing this?’ But I had to be at the level because you are living the dream, but you are part of it as well, so you have to deliver what people expect from you – of course, your driver, but also the team.
“And so I put quite a lot of pressure on myself, which is not so good because you cannot be 100% performant if you are under too much pressure. But from Kenya, and I really remember this well, I came into the service park on Wednesday morning to go to shakedown, I just realized, ‘OK, you are in Kenya, mate. You are part of it.
“You are in a factory team in Kenya, Safari Rally Kenya, which is also really iconic, and you are living your dream. So please stop thinking too much about it and just enjoy it because you don’t know if you will live this still two rallies, two years, 20 years, you don’t know. It’s maybe the only time you will enter this beautiful rally with such a nice car. So just enjoy it. Do your best for sure because you have to give everything you can. But just enjoy as well’.
“And from this point until now basically, I’m still on the same mood and it’s really nice. Of course, you have some pressure because it’s a high-level sport. You are an athlete and you have to be at the top of your skills all the time.
“You cannot give anything to the chance or to be lucky. The luck doesn’t exist for me. You just have to try everything you can. But you can also do this, let’s say, in a more relaxed approach.
“And this is really important, to be able to give everything you can.”
