2023 WRC Rally Sweden Preview
8th February 2023The World Rally Championship returns to the frozen wilderness of Scandinavia for Rally Sweden, a venue Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera won last time out in 2022.
Rally Sweden is one of the oldest rallies on the calendar and remains the only venue entirely set on snow and ice. It will also be the first event, this season, where the drivers get their first true taste of snowy conditions after a tamed Monte-Carlo Rally which remained fairly dry.
In the drivers championship, Rovanpera practically leads the title race as the current championship leader, Sebastien Ogier, will miss out the winter rally as part of his part-time season. However, the Finn has Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville for company after the Belgian finished Rallye Monte-Carlo in third place.
Rovanpera won the rally last season to kick start the journey towards his first world championship, can he repeat his previous visit?
Toyota will still have a main three-car line up with Rovanpera, Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta in the point scoring cars. However, they will also run fourth car with Italy’s Lorenzo Bertelli behind the wheel.
Sweden will be the first event in the 2023 calendar for Craig Breen who will conduct his first competitive session of the year since he returned to Hyundai Motorsport. Thierry Neuville and Esapekka Lappi complete the line-up for the South Korean manufacturer.
In 2022, the service park moved north in a bid to ensure the best wintery conditions possible as such they found their recent home at the Nolia Exhibition Centre in Umea.
Due to the wintery conditions, the drivers will be equipped with studded Pirelli rubber which will provide the drivers with an incredible amount of grip on a very slippery surface.
Despite the studded tyres, the snow comes with it’s own peril in the form of snowbanks. These banks will line the route throughout the stages, leaning the car up can gain you time but push it too far and you find yourself stuck in the snowbanks with damage to the car or the drivers overall time.
That’s all for the article; 2023 WRC Rally Sweden Preview!
What are you looking forward to in Rally Sweden? Let us know in the comments!
Read more WRC here:
- Rossel secures victory in Monte-Carlo after Gryazin penalty
- Rallye Monte-Carlo: Ogier remains ahead after Rovanpera attack
- Rallye Monte-Carlo: Ogier maintains WRC lead on Friday
- Rallye Monte-Carlo: Ogier dominates opening day to take early lead
- WRC 2023 Monte Carlo Preview
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
