Snorkels to make top-tier return at WRC Safari Rally

Snorkels were famously adopted by WRC teams in previous editions of the event – prior to its WRC return in 2021 – to help cars navigate through sections of tricky terrain, preventing water and dust from entering the engine. 

The device made a re-appearance when the Safari Rally returned to the WRC, but regulations prohibited Rally1 cars from using them. However, the FIA has this year altered the regulations to allow the top class to add snorkels to the cars.   

The regulation change coincides with the Safari Rally moving back to its more traditional Easter date during Kenya’s rainy season, instead of the June berth of the last three years.

Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport-Ford have been preparing for the rally with snorkel devices fitted to their respective cars in testing.

With wetter conditions more likely, the snorkel device will be “much more relevant”, according to M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux.

“We are right in the middle of the rainy season now so we can expect the places where we had the fesh-fesh [sand] in the past could be full of mud, so I don’t know what to expect to be fair, I think it will be new,” Fourmaux told Motorsport.com’s Gravel Notes podcast.

“We can expect to pass a lot of water splashes and they will be really muddy, and it will be like the old-school videos where we see the cars covered in mud and even the drivers getting stuck in some places. 

“We are going to have to be smart to get away from the mud in some places. It will be even more challenging. You can try to go flat in the mud but if there is a rock and you don’t see it, you will break the car. 

“I think when there is a big storm over there it can be really muddy, but even in previous years it would have been nice to have the snorkel in some places because of the fesh-fesh.

“The engine is just a vacuum so it is taking everything and all the dust from the fesh-fesh was going into the air filter, so at least we can use it to avoid the engine eating some dust. I think now it [the snorkel] is much more relevant for the mud for sure.

“I also think for the promotion of the sport it is nice to have something different.”