› Škoda Motorsport’s engineering team continuously keeps improving its newest rally car – also in its second season
› Aleš Rada, Technical Head of Škoda Motorsport: „Lately, we were concentrating on dampers, gear ratios and aerodynamics.“
› Development drivers Oliver Solberg and Erik Cais confident after test drives on snow-covered roads in Scandinavia and gravel tracks in Portugal.
Mladá Boleslav, 20 March 2024 – The Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 received homologation by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) on 1 September 2022. While the main components of the car are frozen since that date, work on technical details is still possible. Škoda Motorsport’s development team is further improving the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 to give the customers an even more competitive and reliable car.
In motorsports, standing still means falling back. Even with the very strict homologation rules in Rally2 category, the engineers of Škoda Motorsport are further developing the Fabia RS Rally2. “We are constantly improving the car for our customers. But due to the regulations, after homologation of the car, we are not allowed to change technical components at free will,” explains Aleš Rada, Technical Head of Škoda Motorsport. Once homologated by the governing body FIA, only some parts of a Rally2 car can be modified. To introduce a modification, the manufacturer has to submit a homologation extension. There are several types of such extensions. Some of them refer to corrections of errors in the homologation form or evolutions of the base car in serial production.
Major modifications resulting in a technical evolution of the car need to be homologated as an “Erratum Joker”, or joker in short. Jokers are restricted in number by regulations. “During the first 2 years of homologation period of the car we are allowed to use only three jokers and another two only for safety or reliability adaptions,” describes Aleš Rada. The Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 was homologated on 1 September 2022 and still is inside this two-year period. So, Škoda Motorsport has a couple of jokers up its sleeves.
During the winter, one goal for the Škoda Motorsport engineering team was to make the Fabia RS Rally2 even more competitive for fast gravel rallies. A point of development in this respect was the gear ratio of the car’s five-speed gearbox. “So far, we homologated only one set of ratios. But we are allowed a second set,” explains Rada.
Oliver Solberg, who recently won the WRC2 category at Rally Sweden, test-drove the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 on frozen roads in Scandinavia to try new aerodynamic solutions and the longer gear ratios. “Our second victory in a row on the high-speed stages in Sweden proved, that the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 is already very fast. But especially for customer teams it’s also important, that the car is easy to drive and works perfectly in a wide range of road conditions,” says Solberg.
Erik Cais took to the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2’s wheel on Portuguese gravel roads, trying new dampers. “How much effort Škoda Motorsport is putting into testing and development is incredible. Especially the dampers for gravel show a big improvement compared to last year. They give a lot of grip and in turn the driver a lot more confidence,“ Cais concluded.
The 2024 FIA World Rally Championship is already past its second event. After the icy tarmac roads of Rallye Monte-Carlo and the winterly forests tracks of Sweden the rough gravel of the Safari Rally Kenya are next on the calendar. The work of Oliver Solberg, Erik Cais and the whole team at Škoda Motorsport makes sure, that the customer teams and their cars stay on top of the game.
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