Rally through a driver’s eyes: A demanding journey that doesn’t start on the track

Throughout the World Rally Championship season, rally drivers and their teams travel to numerous destinations around the globe. However, they cannot expect to explore their surroundings in any meaningful way. Even if they spend more than a week at a given location, their time is devoted primarily to intensive preparation for the rally and then the rally itself. Driver Robert Virves describes what such a "working week" during the competition looks like.

In the 2025 season, Estonian driver Robert Virves competed in nine rounds of the World Rally Championship and additionally “made brief appearances” at two events of the European Rally Championship. Given that competitors typically spend more than a week at each rally location, this means that, together with further testing commitments, Robert spent more than 150 days away from home. “We travel to many interesting and beautiful places around the world, but don’t think of it as a holiday. What we really get to know are airports, hotels, and lots of very narrow roads somewhere in the mountains, forests, or deserts,” Robert explains, describing the routine of a full-time rally driver.

More important than the destinations themselves is having quality support facilities, including accommodation. “A comfortable bed and a well-equipped gym are essential,” he says with a smile. Work on site often begins as early as a week before the rally. “Friday is usually our only day off and the only real chance to take a brief look around,” he describes the unconventional start to the working week. On Saturday, drivers begin testing in the rally area itself, where permitted by the organisers. “It’s our first opportunity to familiarise ourselves with the local roads in a rally car,” says Robert Virves.

Preparation for specific rally conditions often takes place well in advance. “Last week we tested in Spain, but it’s only here that we fine-tune the car setup for the conditions in the local desert,” Virves explains ahead of the Saudi Arabian Rally, the final round of the 2025 WRC season. This is followed by reconnaissance drives, during which crews prepare one of the most important elements of rallying: the pace notes. “They are the key to being fast in the special stages,” Robert explains.

Each stage is driven twice in a road car, and the pace notes are refined in the evenings back at the hotel. “We review onboard videos to fine-tune the final details of the notes,” says Virves, adding that these are intense days during which crews get very little sleep. Next comes the shakedown, effectively a final familiarisation with the conditions in the competition car. Here, drivers can uncover potential challenges they may face during the rally. “We noted large rocks on the roads,” Robert commented on the stages in Saudi Arabia.

“After the shakedown, we discuss everything with the engineers and head to the first super special stage of the rally,” Virves continues. In Saudi Arabia, both the shakedown and the opening short special stage took place on Wednesday, whereas they are usually held on Thursday. As a result, the rest of the schedule was also shifted forward by one day, with the main competition running from Thursday to Saturday. “Three days and 320 kilometres of real racing are ahead of us,” Robert says, adding: “I can’t wait for the start.”

That start ultimately brought him significant success in Saudi Arabia. Driving the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 for the Toksport WRT team, Robert Virves secured third place in the WRC2 category, completing an all-Škoda crews podium in the category.