Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart driver Tommi Makinen visits service during recce in Cyprus

Imagine driving a car flat-out at 200 kph and the person sitting beside you tells you to keep your foot firmly on the accelerator over a crest and into a blind corner 50 metres ahead! That’s trust… and exactly the type of relationship a driver and co-driver have in a rally car and why the recce and pace notes are so vitally important.

Recce is a tough job for Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart co-driver Risto Mannisenmaki

Co-drivers are very much the unsung heroes in the world of rallying and, although reading pace notes is only part of their complex mobile ’office job’, this is one of the most critical elements which determines whether the crew stay in contention or off the road and into retirement.

Over the years, World Rally Championship reconnaissance has changed beyond recognition. "Going back to the 1960s, the recce was quite an unofficial activity", comments Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart team manager and former British Champion co-driver Phil Short. "The drivers and teams soon realised they could learn a lot more about the roads if they drove over them time and time again and it was totally unregulated in terms of the time period, facilities and speed. Everything was free".

"For the factory teams it turned into a big activity. Sometimes, for the Monte Carlo Rally for example, drivers would be recceing for one month! Back in my competing days the team would send almost as many people as would be on the rally - 12 mechanics, maybe more sometimes, engineers, tyre specialists, people to close the roads as well as a fuel tanker, because we had special fuel in those days. It was a massive exercise, but also very expensive and dangerous and a big advantage for the drivers and teams that could afford to do it. The smaller teams, even some of the factory teams, just couldn’t keep up. In the end, the FIA made some rules to restrict it more in terms of the time you could recce, speed and the sort of cars you could use".

Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart co-drivers Sven Smeets (left) and Risto Mannisenmaki (right) preparing the recce schedule

"The cost then came down and, although it meant the recce was concentrated into a shorter period, the drivers were still pushing like hell to do many times around the road to try and learn it, so it was still dangerous. In the end the FIA restricted it again and said only three passes per stage and marshals then regulated it. Then, at the beginning of this year, because the rallies were told by the FIA to compress their events into eight days, it became apparent that it was impossible to do three passes in the time allowed, so this is why we are now down to two passes. I think gradually the drivers have accepted this and it is very strictly controlled now. GPS systems are installed in all the recce cars for the factory and second priority drivers and this records everything that goes on and must be handed over to officials at the end of each day. They inspect it and if the crew has exceeded the speed limit, or done a stage more than twice, the stewards are informed and the crew is warned or penalised accordingly".

The Lancer Evolution used for the recce is a production based car with a roll cage and it is fitted with a GPS

"In terms of resources, everything has been reduced. In the early days recces would be undertaken in full spec rally cars with crews going flat out, testing their notes in the middle of the night on open roads. Now we have to use production based cars, of which we have a very good solution with the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, albeit with some permitted modifications. The Evolution is such a good option that even one of our rival manufacturers uses it!"

As a consequence, recce behaviour has completely changed. While it may favour some of the drivers who have extensive knowledge of particular events and be a disadvantage to the up-and-coming stars of the future, the FIA and manufacturers agreed this was the only way forward in terms of road safety, resources and cost.

"It can be quite hard now," commented double World Champion Risto Mannisenmaki, co-driver to Tommi Makinen. "When we go over the stages for the first time, Tommi reads the notes to me and I write them down. Then on the second run, I read the notes and he makes any necessary changes, but we have to be very accurate first time. In Cyprus the roads were very twisty. Normally when I write the notes I have one kilometre on one page but there, in some of the most difficult stages, I had more than one and a half pages per kilometre because it was so twisty".

A sample of Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart driver Tommi Makinen's notes

"We use descriptive notes where the numbers relate to the distance. For example we have 10, 20, 30, 40 up to 90, which means metres, but then shorten these numbers to 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on, so a slight right five means slight right in 50 metres. Anything over 100 I read the full number and somewhere like Africa this can be up to four kilometres!

"I think everyone basically uses the same system, but of course there are small things you learn each time and Tommi and I have kept the same system for the three years we have been together. This also means we can use the notes again the following year, although let’s say if the notes are more than three years old, we make new ones. We can use the old ones, but then you sometimes have to make so many changes it is easier to start again".

"Sometimes I have a tape recorder in the car, just in case I need to check anything. When we can only pass twice this helps, and the work the gravel crews do is now more and more important, not just for additional information but to check the notes for us. Everything has changed quite a lot over the years I think".

A brief relaxing pause during recce for Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart driver Tommi Makinen

"For some rallies, the pressure is much higher because of the speeds. In Finland for example if you make a mistake, it will be a big one. It is so high speed, an average of 136 kph, and you have to give the information early enough so things don’t come up too quickly for the driver. Before I drove with Tommi, I always heard that in Finland we drive very quickly. Now I understand what it means! For Tommi it is all very automatic; he can rarely remember which gear he was in at a certain place, that is natural driving and special".

"For the co-driver it is very easy to make a mistake, like reading from the wrong line, or turning two pages of the notes together, but it has never happened to me. When we come back from the stages, my job is not yet finished. I always say when we are back at the hotel that I then go to my office work - from one office to another!"

Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart team-mates Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets operate in much the same way, however the most notable difference is the fact the Belgians use numbers that relate to speed.

Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart driver Freddy Loix and co-driver Sven Smeets during recce in Cyprus