How to prepare a Rally1 car for the Safari Rally

Safari Rally Kenya is an assault like no other in the world of motorsport.

The World Rally Championship’s annual visit to Africa punishes the unwary and exposes the unprepared, forcing drivers into a mental battle of pace vs preservation.

But it’s not just the crews that are tested. Providing them with a car that can survive the rough and tumble of the Safari is vital, and thus each Rally1 team has plenty to consider when readying their machines for this week’s third round of the championship.

With the help of Hyundai senior WRC engineer Gerard-Jan de Jongh and Grégoire Munster’s rally engineer at M-Sport, Joe Barnwell, DirtFish can let you in on what it takes to prepare a Rally1 car for Safari Rally Kenya.

The test

At present, WRC regulations prohibit Rally1 teams to test outside of Europe, which immediately makes testing for the Safari a compromise.

And that’s far from ideal ahead of an event where there’s plenty to test out, so selecting the perfect site is far from easy.

“The first thing that we’re always looking for in a Kenya test is to have some altitude, because in Kenya we are on higher ground,” de Jongh explains. “Also we are looking normally for more like an earthy underground as it’s not like a classic gravel road you find in Kenya.

“Then we want some jumps and steps and rougher terrain, ideally with some ruts and normally also if you can find it, to have some water feature to drive through to test how your car is behaving when it’s crossing a river is always a good idea.

“But that always already puts a lot of requests for a test site on the table, and it’s February in Europe and then ideally at 25C it narrows down the options quite a lot!”

This year, both Toyota and Hyundai elected to run their cars in Portugal, while M-Sport Ford’s Pumas were out at the team’s permanent test site in Greystoke forest.

“Obviously Greystoke is not, and never will be, Kenya,” Barnwell says. “Therefore, when you get into the details of trying to set up the car and specific bits of handling or balance, that will not be reflective.

“As much as anything, the test in Greystoke was used for some general topics, so obviously you’ve got new tires. Running the entry specification of tire and trying the different compounds and a couple of different things there – that was a big topic.

“Josh [McErlean] has never properly driven the gravel car, and Grég’s obviously done a few events since he’s last driven the gravel car, so it’s about getting back to the base gravel car setup and gravel car driving, and then test some of the specific Kenya items that we have as well – making sure from a car build side it’s all OK.

“But yeah, it’s not about specific handling and balance things, it’s got to be more general. But in this instance with junior drivers, new tires, there was plenty to run that applies generally to the gravel car.”

Hyundai has two world champions and a driver knocking on the door of rally wins, so its drivers are in a different position to M-Sport’s.

But it too is generally not too focused on perfecting a setup like it would be for other rounds of the championship.

“Normally with Kenya, everybody understands that it’s a compromise between reliability and performance, and so you look for a setup in the car that is relatively easy and maybe not the best setup everywhere, but that gives you enough damper travel if you hit that big rock at 140kph or when you go up the bank,” de Jongh says.

“And this is really a thing that is always important in Kenya is to give the suspension room to deal with the scenery, if you like.”

Barnwell adds: “You get a big variety in Kenya where within one stage you’ll maybe have some soft fech fech sections, then there’s other sections that are very rough and rocky, so you need a general balance setup that can take a little bit of everything in one stage.

“Especially with some of the longer stages as well, where you’ll have different terrains within the stage. If you could be testing in Africa there’s definitely some more specific work you would do trying to set up the car more specifically.

“But in the general, broader picture of the calendar, it’s an event that’s more looking at reliability and consistency, and you tend to see it can be quite an attritional event, so making sure that first and foremost we’ve got a reliable and fairly neutral car that’s going to work in a few different situations is more of a priority than trying to absolutely tune it for different characters of every different stage.”

How different is a Safari car?

Safari Rally Kenya is not the only rough rally on the WRC calendar. Sardinia in Acropolis in June are both known to be tough on cars.

But the event also has plenty of unique quirks, so how different is a Safari-spec car to what we’ll see at other events in the year?

“Obviously, in terms of homologated parts, it’s a gravel car, so we’ve got the same suspension travel and things like that,” Barnwell says.

“Broadly speaking, in terms of difference, we’ll have a bit more protection on the guards, and we’ll have one of the higher ride heights of the season, typically. We need to see after recce, but definitely in some stages we’ll need to be running the car basically at the highest that you’ll see it all year.

“Also, there are some supplementary regs of Kenya that we’re permitted to run bonnet openings and we run a snorkel, which you saw I think all the teams do last year. And that’ll probably be the same case this year.”

More on the snorkels later…

First, same question to Hyundai’s de Jongh. How different is a Kenya car to say a Portugal car?

“Well, with any rally car, it’s always the best thing to look at the scenery and to look at the conditions you’re going to get,” he explains.

“In Kenya the first thing you focus on is the air intake, because you can get water, you can get horrendous dust like we had a couple of years ago with fech fech, so you need to have an intake that can deal with all those different options. And deal with it so that in between stages you’re still able to change an air filter or something like that. So that is the first thing.

“And then also on the cooling pack, you know in Kenya we sometimes drive through a grass field and if you’re first on the road, you’re basically the most expensive lawnmower in the world!” de Jongh laughs.

“So all that grass is going to end up somewhere, and if you’re unlucky it’s going to end up in your cooling pack. So that reduces the cooling of the car which is already a little bit at the limit because of the high altitude and the higher temperatures you sometimes have. So if you’re cutting grass, you need to do something to your bumper grill to be able to deal with that.

“Then there are rocks lying around like footballs that put a lot of load into suspension but can also end up in the wrong part of your suspension, so we are also looking at protecting our suspension members and underbody in a better way than you would normally do.

“What is also quite interesting on Safari is the trees and the bushes and all that sort of stuff next to the road,” de Jongh adds.

“We talked about reliability of suspension, but you also still need to think a little bit about the reliability of the bodywork and the parts actually staying on the car because certainly the front bumper and the front fenders, you have quite a couple of nose landings so we also look a little bit at the reliability of that to be sure that we keep the body work on the car. So you can add that to the list.”

Spare parts

It’s common practice for WRC drivers to carry spare parts inside their cars on rallies, in case they are forced into making any repairs.

Naturally, for a rally with as fearsome a reputation as Kenya, Rally1 machines will leave service with plenty in the trunk.

Barnwell says: “There’s a few extra parts, and again we will specifically discuss this, but generally in Kenya you’d expect to carry spare suspension links. Extra things that we also put in? We would tend to put in a spare air filter for the engine for example.

“You’ve seen cases before where that’s got blocked up with dust so that’s quite a useful thing for the drivers to be able to do. And there’s maybe a couple of extra things in the toolkit as well to make those changes easier.”

However it’s absolutely imperative that drivers know how to fix the parts they’re carrying in the car. It’s no use taking the weight penalty for more spares if they cannot be fitted to the car by the crew.

“So whilst we had both crews in the UK last week, we’ve actually taken the opportunity to have them both in the workshop,” Barnwell adds. “So on Monday I was going through with Grég and practicing all the jobs that we think he might need to do.

“For example, with Grég last year, it’s all well and good showing how to change a compression strut in the workshop, but as he found out in the rally the bolt got bent and he couldn’t free up the belt, so then you’ve got to ask if the bolt’s bent, what else could we try?

“Because that’s the thing, you can’t cover every eventuality with these jobs and you never really know what’s going to happen. And working under a stinking hot car, rolling around in the dust and everything’s bent, it’s not like a workshop at all.

“So that’s the main thing: a couple of extra spares and tools, but also having done a bit of a refresher with the increased likelihood that you might need to work on the car in Kenya with it being so rough.”

De Jongh agrees – although Hyundai’s spares strategy is a little different.

“Of course it’s good the driver is onboard [with the spares that they are carrying] and that they have practiced the change of certain parts that they have in the car – it makes no sense to take a part that the driver cannot change,” he says.

“But I would say with all three of our drivers at the moment, we also have three very good mechanics in the car, so from our side there is little limitation on that. And then it’s reacting to the conditions.

“You can’t just two weeks beforehand say in Alzenau, ‘oh, we need to have these spares in the car for Kenya’ because then you come to Africa and the weather is different and the animals are different and whatever.

“You need to react on your feet a bit.”

And this is where tactics come into play. While caution is the best option for M-Sport, Hyundai is prepared to be a bit more aggressive, and won’t necessarily send drivers out with the same package of spares for every loop.

“It changes every day depending on the risk and the position where you are,” de Jongh believes. “When there is little to lose on a Sunday because you did not do well on the main event, then of course you’re going to take some risk in the driving but also in choosing your spares.

“Performance becomes more important, but to set off at the Safari Rally with one spare tire and nothing in the car, you need to be brave!” he laughs.

Barnwell counters: “Short answer: yeah we do look at the stages and identify where there will be an area of concern. But in truth, we’ll probably keep the spares in the car fairly similar across the weekend.

“With our philosophy, this is probably the kind of unnecessary intervention that might end up just biting you, because the one loop you take something out is the one loop you need it.

“There’s enough else going on that we don’t need to worry about ‘you don’t have this in the car for this loop’ or whatever. It’s probably more useful to keep it consistent.”

Snorkels

While Rally2 cars have been allowed to run snorkels ever since the Safari’s return to the WRC schedule in 2021, only last year were these devices permitted for top-spec Rally1 machines.

The benefits of running a snorkel are obvious in terms of mitigating fech fech and potential water intake, but is there any drawback?

“I think Toyota are trying to do probably the most in terms of aerodynamic advantage and they’ve got a little bit of a different idea with theirs [running along the top of the car], and I don’t know if Hyundai will be reacting to that. We’ll see what they turn up with this week as well,” Barnwell smiles.

“But yeah, in simple terms, sticking a big snorkel up the side of the car is going to be not as efficient and generally will create a bit more drag, so that would be a reason not to run it. But for us, we are probably taking a bit more of a conservative, reliability type of approach where we’ll keep it on the car in case it’s needed.

“You don’t want to have it taken off in a service and the next loop you go through deep dust or something. I guess the only other reason not to run it is every team will have a slightly different way of doing the splash valve, so you can argue that’s another point of complexity or a failure point, potentially.”

Both Toyota and M-Sport ran snorkels on every stage of last year’s Safari, whereas Hyundai only sporadically fitted theirs.

Is it fair to say this is another area where strategy comes into things?

De Jongh takes a long pause: “Yeah, well, wait and see. It’s going to be different this year, so it’s no point in talking about last year!”

Intriguing. But can running the snorkel be a disadvantage?

“It can be,” de Jongh replies. “Normally the air intake of the engine is pointing forward, so all the air is basically being pushed into the turbo and the turbo will push it even more. And we call that ram air, and that’s helping with the performance of the engine.

“Once you start taking the air in on the roof, in the opposite direction of driving basically or downstream, you lose that ram air effect so you lose a bit of pressure on your air filter and on your air intake. So the performance first and foremost is in engine power, if you run a snorkel permanently.

“Then, the second thing is that you change a little bit the surface area of the car. If you would look at the car in profile, the car is bigger so you also add some drag to it depending on how you place the snorkel. That would be the negative sides of the snorkel.”

Overall strategy

As with any other rally, planning and preparation are vital to success – there’s just a little more to think about with Safari, particularly when it comes to rally strategy.

But lady luck can often also have a final say.

“You’re looking at a long-distance rally. I think everyone that sets off on the Safari is saying, ‘OK, this year I’m not going to be stupid and I’m going to drive safely and cautiously’ and then the red mist comes on and all the good ideas are forgotten when the competition starts,” de Jongh says.

“So it’s really about keeping your goals clear as a team, but also as a driver. There is a lot of risk in punctures and tires in the past – that’s not because of a tire manufacturer that’s simply because of the scenery and the speed the cars are doing sometimes.

“So that already dictates the strategy if you look at the whole event. But yeah, if for some unknown reason you find yourself down the bottom of the field with no chance of getting overall points, the strategy will change and you can take more risks.

“I mean it’s also down to experience,” he points out. “Every year you go to Kenya you learn a little bit more, and something will happen that you’ve never encountered before and it’s how you deal with that. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck also – sometimes it is against you but you learn.”

In the M-Sport corner, the unique challenge is one to be relished and provides a great opportunity to sneak a top result.

“Kenya is an awesome country isn’t it,” Barnwell beams. “It’s very different in feeling and setup and everything compared to a typical European event.

“Going to the do the engineers recce is definitely a highlight of the year as well. I mean, we’re basically on safari, right? You’ve got to pay attention to the stages but you’re dodging zebras and giraffes and whatever else is out there. I do look forward to Kenya.

“I think all the long-haul events tend to have a bit of a different challenge and a different feel about them as well. But Kenya’s definitely a highlight of the year. And I think it creates a lot of opportunity as well, with it being a very challenging event.

“Adrien [Fourmaux] got a podium with M-Sport last year and definitely whenever you see a lot of chaos and drama, it’s a good opportunity for us to keep our head down and have a nice consistent rally, and hopefully be there at the finish.

“I’m looking forward to it.”