Keeping calm while calling out notes at 200km/h is part of the job description, writes Eric Thompson
If you think all a co-driver does in a rally car is call out notes to help the driver remember what's up ahead, you could not be further from the truth.
Those new to the sport might even wonder why they need notes in the first place.
Don't confuse going on a family trip to Takou Bay up north, with the wife guiding you from an A3 map at 100km/h, with travelling at up to 200km/h, in the air at times, on narrow gravel roads.
The elite rally drivers of the World Rally Championship (WRC) may have driven over the roads they're about to race on once or twice, but remembering every little crest, kink, camber, junction and corner over 400km is just not possible.
That's where the co-driver comes in. He's holding the key to making it to the end of each stage, or making a mess of a very expensive racecar - among other things.
"The basic system of writing pace notes is similar, but each co-driver has his own individual way of describing each stage with their own twist," said Phil Mills, co-driver to Petter Solberg. "There are two different systems - a descriptive one and a numbers one. Most people now tend to use a number system from one to six. Imagine the numbers as gears so a 4R would be a fourth-gear right-hand corner."
Teams are only allowed to travel at 80km/h on the recce and so must try to imagine what the roads would be like at speed.
"That's where the skill comes in. When you're trundling along at road speed you're trying to picture what it's going to be like on the day of the rally and the speeds you'll be doing, what the corner's like and how bad the camber is. That's the skill, I suppose," said Mills.
The observations of road shape and condition are very detailed. On average, for each stage a page is filled out for each kilometre travelled. On a long stage it would almost equate to a book. The co-drivers can't really compare notes to save time as each set is very individual and caters for that particular driver.
"Every driver is completely different. There might be the odd time you'd compare notes but it's a very personal thing and they have to be right for a particular driver. For every hour you spend writing the notes on the road, it takes another hour to write them up that evening ready for the race because they have to be legible at race pace. I tend to write pretty big so I can read them when we're bouncing around," said Mills.
The co-driver sits lower in the car than the driver. This isn't a design feature to prevent the co-driver from panicking, but to keep the centre of gravity of the car as low as possible.
"Co-driving isn't for frustrated drivers. You've got to want to do it and enjoy it. If something is going a bit wrong at high speed it's better to have someone better than you at driving a rally car holding the wheel," quipped Mills.
The next really important job for a co-driver is time-keeping. If a car arrives at a time control point too early or too late the penalties are almost draconian.
"Good time-keeping is critical. People have made mistakes and it's cost them event wins," said Mills.
Another important role for the man in the spare seat is to keep everything nice and calm both in and out of the car. If he feels the driver is getting a little heated, he must be able to diffuse the situation.
"You've got to get on with the driver," said Mills, "because during a season you'll be together 220 days and 170 of those sitting 10cm away from him".
