Why It Is Not Working: From Symptom to Cause on the Special Stage
Time lost, calls off, car skipping: the diagnostic grid for driver and co-driver — which stage, who noticed it first, and was it in the pacenotes?
Sport: Rallye · Level: Beginner
Introduction
In rallying almost every problem has one of four causes: safety, pacenotes, machinery — or how the two of you work together. And because you drive as a pair, three questions sort almost everything: which stage? Who noticed it first? Was it in the pacenotes? This guide sorts by symptom instead of by chapter: backwards from your problem.
Everything here is different: you never drive the same lap twice and you do not know the road by heart. A special stage is a closed section run against the clock, and between the stages lie road sections on public roads under normal traffic law [2]. Everything here applies to the closed stage.
In return you own a control experiment no other motorsport has: the same road, driven twice. At around 20 degrees outside, peak heart rate on the stage was 166 ± 17 beats versus only 111 ± 16 on the recce [1] — same road, a completely different person at the wheel.
What You Need
Your onboard recording. Audio is enough — it is the most honest diagnostic device you own.
The time card and both watches. With time penalties the paper is the diagnosis, not your memory.
Your pacenote system, written down. Scale and terms are fixed before the recce [3].
Two minutes after every stage to debrief honestly — before service.
A pressure gauge and a look at the tyres after every stage.
Full safety gear, on test days too.
Step by Step
1. Rule out what is not a technique problem at all
After an impact the stage is over. Head injuries are demonstrably under-recognised in motorsport [9], and "I feel fine" is exactly the self-assessment that causes the problem. Write the stop rule down before the start rather than debating it in the car.
2. Then the pacenotes
They are your only information about a road you do not know by heart. Scale, terms and call timing belong fixed before the recce and then frozen [3]. A wrong system beats any driving technique.
3. Then machinery and surface
Gravel means lower pressure, higher and softer — sometimes around 15 to 20 PSI; asphalt means 30 to 35 PSI, lower and stiffer [6]. A gravel setup on asphalt makes every technique correction useless.
4. Then the roles in the car
You sit side by side and are still loaded differently: cervical spine complaints are reported by 62 per cent of co-drivers versus 46 per cent of drivers, hand and wrist complaints by 32 versus 9 per cent [4]. Who has which symptom is itself information.
5. Fitness last
With more than ten competition and test days a year, 91 per cent report complaints in at least one body region [5] — dose and response, not fate. If your symptom only shows up on the last stage, fitness is a suspect. On the first it is not.
Common Mistakes
"We lose time on every stage even though the car runs well."How to tell them apart: Compare the first stage of the day with the last. If the deficit is the same on both, it is setup or driving style — a constant delta is a machinery topic. If it shrinks across the day, you take too long to trust the notes. If it grows, it is heat, hydration or tyres: 38.5 ± 0.4 degrees core temperature was measured in competition [1], fever territory for hours. Fix: drive one stage purely on trust. Go deeper: "Pacenotes and Driving on Gravel".
"Halfway through the stage the call stops matching what I see."How to tell them apart: What counts is who notices first. If the driver notices, because the corner arrives tighter than called, the note is wrong — and belongs corrected in the car, not later in service. If the co-driver notices, because he lost his place in the text, it is not a note error: only the next unambiguous landmark gets him back in. If it always happens after fast sections, it is call timing — the rhythm is tied to habit instead of speed [3]. Fix: listen to the onboard, log the error, do not change the system. Go deeper: "The Co-Driver".
"The car skips on gravel and finds no grip."How to tell them apart: Notice whether it does the same on the road section — where you travel in normal traffic under road law [2], so without competition speed. If the car already skips over every bump there, it is setup: pressure too high, springs too hard, car too low. If it feels normal there and only nervous on the stage, it is pressure and speed under load — on gravel the pressure drops sharply, sometimes to around 15 to 20 PSI [6]. Fix: lower the pressure, one change per run. Go deeper: "Tyres and Setup".
"We get time penalties even though we were fast on the stages."How to tell them apart: Pick up the time card, not your memory. If it shows an earlier time than your due minute, you were checked in too early — what counts is the moment of reporting, not of arrival [7]. If the logged time differs by exactly the gap between your two watches, you did not synchronise before the start. If the penalty always follows service, you entered the window without calling the end time out loud. Fix: call the end time, essentials before extras. Go deeper: "Time Card and Time Control".
"My back or neck hurts for days after a rally."How to tell them apart: Check whether it matches your roles. Neck for the co-driver, hand and wrist for the driver: that is the documented distribution — 62 versus 46 per cent at the cervical spine, 32 versus 9 per cent at hand and wrist [4]. Then it is dose, not injury. If it appears crossed over, neck for the driver and hand for the co-driver, something is wrong with seat or belt geometry. Fix: a seat fitting in full gear, every time. Go deeper: "Back, Neck, Shoulders".
"We never reach the finish, something always breaks."How to tell them apart: Check where the failure happened. Always in the first third of a stage: you attack before you know what the surface is doing today. Always on the same components, meaning suspension, sump, exhaust: that is ground clearance and bottoming out — and bottoming out creates axial compression which, together with the bending moment of yielding shoulder belts, predisposes to lower thoracic spine fractures [8] (simulation from touring car and endurance racing). Always after service: you wanted too much inside the window. Fix: driveable beats pretty. Go deeper: "Finishing Beats Being Fast".
"On asphalt I am slow, on gravel it works."How to tell them apart: Look at the front tyres after the stage. If the shoulders are scrubbed round, you are sliding — on asphalt slip costs time, unlike on loose surfaces. If the tyre looks normal and you are still slow, it is the setup: a gravel spec is too soft and too high for asphalt, where 30 to 35 PSI, lower and stiffer, is what works [6]. If it goes well for the first kilometres and then fades, you burned the tyres too early. Fix: start controlled, then build. Go deeper: "Driving Asphalt Fast".
"The pacenotes work on a test day but not in competition."How to tell them apart: Listen to the onboard instead of remembering. If the same words are merely spoken faster, it is rhythm under stress — panic in the voice lands straight on the throttle. If different words appear than on the test day, you have a habit, not a system [3]. And if the same wrong call comes twice in the same place, you did not log it the first time. Fix: log corrections in the car immediately, never later in service. Go deeper: "Pacenotes at Professional Level".
Safety Notes
Four symptoms do not belong in troubleshooting.
After an impact. Head injuries are demonstrably under-recognised in motorsport [9]. Write the stop rule down before the start — then nobody has to enforce it in the car.
Back pain after hard bottoming out. Axial compression plus a bending moment is the mechanism that leads to lower thoracic spine fractures [8] — not a posture topic.
One-sided neck pain radiating into the arm. Symmetrical tightness after a rally is expected [5]; this is not. Get it checked.
The pressure comes from the team. If the question "can we carry on?" does not come from the person affected, the answer is no.
And one boundary that is not negotiable: rallying happens on closed roads. On the road section you are ordinary road users under normal traffic law [2] — nothing from this guide belongs there. It explains and sorts, it does not replace a rally school or medical assessment.
Pro Tip
The most expensive thinking error is the order. Almost every crew starts with the car, because the car is the thing you can put your hands on — in rallying the pacenotes come first. They are your only information about a road you do not know by heart, and a wrong system makes every setup change unreadable.
The second trick costs two minutes per stage: debrief right after the finish, in the car, before you roll into service — what was called wrong, what was driven wrong, and which of it was both. In service you talk about parts, not about the stage any more.
FAQ
Why is rallying so exhausting when you are only sitting down?
Because heat, vibration and sustained attention come together. At around 20 degrees outside, peak heart rate on the stage was 166 ± 17 beats versus 111 ± 16 on the recce, and core temperature 38.5 versus 37.6 degrees [1]. Cabin temperatures well above 30 degrees were measured at the same time.
Is it me, the co-driver or the car?
Ask who noticed it first. If the corner arrived tighter than called, it was the note. If the co-driver lost his place in the text, it was orientation. And if the car already feels nervous on the road section in normal traffic, it is setup [2].
Why does my neck hurt as a co-driver while my driver's hand hurts?
Because you are loaded differently: cervical spine complaints are reported by 62 per cent of co-drivers versus 46 per cent of drivers, hand and wrist complaints by 32 per cent of drivers versus 9 per cent of co-drivers [4]. The tilted head position while reading is the reason — so train differently.
When do I take a symptom to a doctor instead of an instructor?
Always after an impact involving the head [9], with back pain after hard bottoming out, with one-sided neck pain radiating into the arm, and with anything that lasts for days. Whatever disappears when you climb out may go to the instructor first.
Key Takeaways
Three questions unique to rallying sort almost every symptom: which stage, which of you noticed it first, and whether it was in the pacenotes.
Who has which symptom is itself a diagnosis: cervical spine complaints are reported by 62 per cent of co-drivers versus 46 per cent of drivers, hand and wrist by 32 versus 9 per cent [4].
Rallying happens on closed roads. After every impact the stage is over — head injuries are demonstrably under-recognised in motorsport [9], so the stop rule belongs before the start.