Copyright © STI

The Subaru World Rally Team was created in 1989 as a partnership between Subaru's high performance arm, STI, in Japan and a specialist motorsport company in the UK. Collaboration between two countries with different cultures, languages and time zones was always going to be difficult, but the two organisations quickly developed a balance that maximized both their skill sets.


In the early years the engine was built in Japan while the entire rally chassis was developed in the UK. This balance gelled exceptionally well, with the debut victory coming in New Zealand 1993 with the Legacy. But the Japan-UK partnership demanded constant evolution and regeneration as the championship itself grew and evolved. From the middle of the mid-90s onwards, as other manufacturers became more committed to the championship, engineering involvement from Japan took on a greater importance, and the cooperation between Japanese and UK engineers subsequently increased.

Copyright © STI

Subaru manufacturer Toshi Azuma explains, "We needed to work together as a team to make the partnership successful. As more manufacturers became involved we needed to increase resources to stay at the top. To have the success we want, we've got to make the road car as good as possible and work with the rally team to develop the base car as much as we can. We've now got over 2,000 people working on the road cars in Japan."

Successfully co-ordinating two projects over 9,000km apart takes a great deal of care and attention, but it's essential that the management is done well. "The success of the relationship is key to the success of the programme," says Subaru World Rally Team managing director Richard Taylor, "It's very simple to say we want to win rallies, we all take that for granted, but what's important is deciding how we're going to do it, which resources we'll use and how we will apply them."

Regular communication is, Taylor believes, the key. "Last year we introduced a 'steering group' that met on a regular basis, four to five times a year.

Copyright © STI

You could think of it as the board of the Subaru World Rally Team, where top management from Japan and the UK get together to run through all the key issues that affect the team; namely technical, operational, driver performance and the whole strategy of what we're trying to achieve." Richard Taylor adds there's also a lot of ongoing communications between the meetings. The team has developed and refined channels of exchanging news and views; video conferencing is widely used by the engineering department to show new designs, changes and parts. Of course "there's no substitute for meeting face to face," says Taylor. "Despite all the new technology that helps to maintain a relationship, to establish one you've got to do it face to face." Fortunately, with 16 events a year, face-to-face contact doesn't require the 12 hour trip between London and Tokyo very often. Taylor and Azuma attend all events, while Subaru World Rally Team director of engineering Steve Farrell and Subaru general manager Shigeo Sugaya attend only selected rounds.

To improve relationships between office-based staff, the team has taken the move to directly involve more Japanese staff in the day-to-day running of the operation. On events at least one Japanese engineer is on site, while several Japanese staff work at Banbury. Farrell believes the move is a positive one. "It's essential to have Japanese engineers integrated into the team, with real roles to fulfil. The only way to get a full understanding of the operation is to join in with the meetings, make suggestions and contribute to the final answer. If you're a long way away, you'll only see the problem and then the proposed solution, you'll have missed all the interim steps and may not be able to link the two together." Farrell concludes, "It helps to build confidence between each other."

Copyright © STI

Building confidence is crucial when the two cultures are completely different. Taylor admits to visiting Japan over 50 times in his life, and only understanding a small fraction of the rich Japanese culture. Even the vital meetings could be one potential hazard; whereas Western meetings can be conducted with a level of informality that suggests the attendees have known each other for years, in Japan, meetings are much more formal. Watch for the business card exchange too - in the Western world, cards are handed out informally, often stored in a pocket until needed. In Japan, however, cards are exchanged at the beginning of a meeting with utmost respect. The giver must face the counterpart, bow slightly and hand the card either with the right hand or both hands.

In addition to Taylor, Farrell and Azuma, however, one of the principal links between the team and Japan is Petter Solberg himself. As the team's lead driver, he makes regular trips to Japan to help engineers in the initial stages of design and make tweaks to the final model. His last trip to Japan was at the beginning of July where he test drove the new Legacy, which is only available in Japan at present, and the new Impreza, which hasn't been seen by a member of the public yet.

Copyright © STI

Azuma comments that, "Petter is a great ambassador for Subaru. He understands the philosophy of what we are trying to do with the rally programme, he understands the engine, the handling and how we can improve the car's performance. When Petter comes to the headquarters in Japan he talks to everyone, he has a great influence in the team. I don't think any other driver could do it," Azuma adds.

The relationship between Japan and the UK looks set to become even stronger next year. More Japanese engineers will work in the factory and on events as secondments from Subaru Japan, designing and developing new parts will be done jointly, plus of course, the regular meetings will continue. Taylor explains, "It's looking at how to make the relationship work best and going from there. Taking into account different cultures and skills, it's really the old trick of trying to get the total to be more than sum of the parts. You have to adapt and except that cultures are different and the approaches to business vary, but at the end of the day we're trying to achieve the same thing. It's about finding the right balance for the best possible end result."