The jump between rounds one and two of the World Rally Championship is obvious.
In Monte Carlo, tire choice is everything. Selecting – or gambling – the correct choice in the changeable conditions can transform a driver’s result.
In Sweden, tire choice is non-existent. There simply isn’t one to make, with only one compound available all weekend.
But this year, tires could play a much bigger role than normal given the adjustments all crews are making to get the most out of them.
Hankook’s only been the WRC’s tire supplier for one event, so drivers are still learning. The Winter i*Pike SR10W available this weekend is very different to the Pirelli Sottozero Ice J1B they’ve become accustomed to.
Hankook's winter tire is an unkown quantity
He who understands how to get the most out of the Hankooks the fastest could well be the one who wins.
“Yeah, I think so,” Adrien Fourmaux told DirtFish, “because definitely they are different than the Pirelli.
“Hankook is good in some places, a bit less in some others, so we need to play with it. The setup of the car needs to be adjusted, but at the end, yes, there is some difference so we need to understand them and be sure that we work where we need to work.”
Adjusting to them is proving trickier for some than it is for others – two-time world champion Kalle Rovanperä has spoken at-length about his need to actually alter his driving style to be able to use them properly.
But at least he had a one-day test, and a rally (Arctic Lapland) to try and get acclimatized. Reigning World Rally champion Thierry Neuville – along with his Hyundai team-mates Fourmaux and Ott Tänak – didn’t even get a representative test.
“I had a very bad test, I was driving in pouring rain and only slush,” Neuville told DirtFish. “So we have to see how the studs behave on much grippier conditions.”
Neuville admitted the tires “are the item which I still struggle to be 100% confident with”.
“Yeah, that’s why I don’t know how optimistic we can be for the weekend,” he added. “I feel like, yeah, I still need to trust it, but also find out how far I can go before it’s too much.
“And at the moment, yeah, the grip is going quickly. It’s there, but it’s going quickly as well and it’s something I don’t feel so comfortable [with] yet.
“It’s a little bit less open between the blocks, so it’s different,” Neuville continued. “Nevertheless, I think that should be more consistent in terms of studs performance. But we need to find out.”
Tänak described the tire as “everything”.
How long the tires will last and how hard you can push them are questions for Tänak
He told DirtFish: “Yourself, the tire, the setups, everything, you prepare to get the best out of the tire as the tire is giving you the grip and the performance, it’s always everything around the tire.
“I mean, yes, we’ve been testing here and there, but how long they will last and how hard can you push them? It’s all we need to find out.”
Elfyn Evans admitted “there’s so many unknowns” with everyone’s knowledge of the tire so low, but his eyes are already focused on how they might cope in second-pass conditions.
“It seems they don’t like so much lateral load, let’s say, but let’s see how that plays out during the weekend,” Evans told DirtFish.
“But yeah, there’s so many unknowns, especially around how long they’ll last, how they’ll deteriorate with time. Obviously, we have very icy conditions, very hard road base, but also very cold conditions.
“And obviously, if we break through to the frozen gravel for second pass, that could be pretty demanding on the tire.”
What’s the best road position?
Best road position is usually straightforward to predict - but not in 2025
Usually running first on the road is considered nothing but a curse on loose surface rallies, but the absence of snow and the sub zero conditions mean Evans may well have the best of the conditions.
They’ll certainly be a lot better than they could’ve been, so whatever anti-snow ritual Evans has performed in the lead up to Rally Sweden has worked.
“The conditions are really nice, there’s no question,” Evans said. “It’s just typical that SS2 has the most loose snow on it, which is the longest and obviously the opening stage on Friday. Yeah, let’s see how it plays out.”
Fourmaux will be the next car to start after Evans on Friday, but admitted “it’s difficult to know” what the best road position is.
“I think in Sweden, normally starting later, it’s better. But when the ice is really good, I think starting first is also really good,” he said.
“So I would say Saturday definitely, I think starting first would be good because the ice is really good, so it’s compact, etc. But on Friday, I think stage four for sure would be good to be with one or two anyway.
“Stage two and three, I don’t know. We’ll see, we’ll discover. I was surprised this morning [in shakedown]. I did expect the guys behind to be faster.
“At the end, it was Elfyn doing the fastest, so… yeah, it’s quite the unknown.”
Takamoto Katsuta is towards the other end of the field (seventh), and similarly confessed he had “no idea” where the best place to start is.
“As you’ve seen this morning [on shakedown] for example, we expected it can be still better to be behind, but it was actually the opposite, because it’s really thick ice,” Katsuta told DirtFish.
Katsuta will start seventh on the road - and isn't sure if that'll be good or bad!
“But the actual stages, it depends how much you have fresh snow. If there is some fresh snow, for sure behind is better but if it’s just thick ice then front is better. So it always depends on how the conditions are on the stage.
“But I’m pretty sure in the second pass it’s always better to be behind because always the historic, smaller cars make different lines for us, so we need to make new lines in the front.”
Rovanperä reckons his starting place of third “should be” good, but is just hopeful the debate means a fair fight should unfold.
“I hope now it’s actually quite even with everybody, with the evolution of the road and how it goes,” he said.
“So let’s hope it stays good at least first pass, and we can fight.”
