WRC Testing

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Snow in Finland has limited Toyota and Hyundai gravel testing...

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/the-u...l-preparation/

[ouvreur]

Snow in Finland has limited Toyota and Hyundai gravel testing...

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/the-u...l-preparation/

I'm not sure how much of an impact this actually had... and how much of an 'insight' this is from Dirtfish...

Why would any team be testing in Finland, and on those sorts of roads, in preparation for Portugal?

They can save their development days (and avoid upsetting the locals and destroying the roads) for when they'll be useful, ahead of Estonia, Finland and NZ.

The smart move, as at least Hyundai seem to have done and Toyota will probably copy, has been to double up the Portugal / Kenya PETs in Portugal. Even if had been bone dry, clear of snow and 15 degrees in Finland, Hyundai and Toyota would still have been busy in south Europe.

[TypeR]

I'm not sure how much of an impact this actually had... and how much of an 'insight' this is from Dirtfish...

Why would any team be testing in Finland, and on those sorts of roads, in preparation for Portugal?

They can save their development days (and avoid upsetting the locals and destroying the roads) for when they'll be useful, ahead of Estonia, Finland and NZ.

The smart move, as at least Hyundai seem to have done and Toyota will probably copy, has been to double up the Portugal / Kenya PETs in Portugal. Even if had been bone dry, clear of snow and 15 degrees in Finland, Hyundai and Toyota would still have been busy in south Europe.

Toyota and Hyundai have their bases registered to Finland, where they can test as much as they want. Atm snow is making it difficult.

Ofc they want/need to test there, because if the car is fast on Finland roads, it's fast everywhere!

[pantealex]

There is no snow in Jyväskylä/Jämsä...

but small roads are still too wet/soft for rally testing.

[AnttiL]

There is no snow in Jyväskylä/Jämsä...

but small roads are still too wet/soft for rally testing.

There's still some snow on forest roads in Tampere, so likely also in Jämsä. But yeah, the main point is that it will take a while for them to dry up for rallying use. It's the same almost every year, we typically have no rallies in Finland from late March to early May.

Another setback for Hyundai, they would now need their permanent base for car developing. The single PET days for individual events don't have enough time for developing new parts.

[rp]

GOAT!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mWwYAwmlfc

[Fast Eddie WRC]

I'm not sure how much of an impact this actually had... and how much of an 'insight' this is from Dirtfish...

Why would any team be testing in Finland, and on those sorts of roads, in preparation for Portugal?

They can save their development days (and avoid upsetting the locals and destroying the roads) for when they'll be useful, ahead of Estonia, Finland and NZ.

The smart move, as at least Hyundai seem to have done and Toyota will probably copy, has been to double up the Portugal / Kenya PETs in Portugal. Even if had been bone dry, clear of snow and 15 degrees in Finland, Hyundai and Toyota would still have been busy in south Europe.

Read the article. Latvala makes it clear the conditions are worse this year...

“[We are] lucky we’re not developing the new car now. If this situation had happened last year, we’d have been in trouble actually."

Testing abroad is limited so a lot has to be done near the team base.

[EstWRC]

Loeb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43T7SkeZOOE

[EstWRC]

Loeb https://youtu.be/aOnPxf122oM

https://youtu.be/b-Aipc4E2Kg
Kalle https://youtu.be/mImr88TsdCk

https://youtu.be/WacZm3cj3BE

https://youtu.be/vh9vMLRty4Q

[ouvreur]

Read the article. Latvala makes it clear the conditions are worse this year...

“[We are] lucky we’re not developing the new car now. If this situation had happened last year, we’d have been in trouble actually."

Testing abroad is limited so a lot has to be done near the team base.

I read it. The point Latvala is making, is not the apparent overall point of the article.

As he says, they're not developing the car now, they're preparing for Portugal. Hence the title 'The unexpected element affecting Rally Portugal preparation'.

I would bet my life that neither Hyundai nor Toyota would have even turned a wheel in central Finland, even if the weather had been unseasonably warm. The fact it's a bit colder than usual won't have changed a thing. You don't prepare for Portuguese / Kenyan stages in Finland - end of.

The claim that either team has been 'hamstrung' by the weather is a bit insulting to both of them. The gap in the Finnish rally calendar won't have been a surprise to them, and they both work with test organisers with decades of experience on those roads.

Rather than being an 'unexpected element', this will have been planned into the schedule. It has zero impact.