Testing is a marathon not a sprint, and it requires total commitment from all the members of the development team, not only at ŠKODA Motorsport’s base near Mladá Boleslav, but also on test tracks right across Europe. As a result, the white and green ŠKODA Motorsport caravan has made its way to Spain, France, Corsica, Germany and Finland.

On the border of the Arctic Circle engineers tested the new car in the unforgiving conditions of deep Scandinavian winter, putting the car through its paces on an icy surface with studded tyres. Top drivers took turns behind the wheel of the camouflaged prototype. Current WRC2 category world champion and European champion Andreas Mikkelsen was joined by Finnish champion Emil Lindholm and experienced WRC category driver Kris Meeke.

They were all very complimentary about the new car’s performance on the snow. “I already had a very good feeling about the car on asphalt and gravel, and now I can now say the same on snow. I feel very, very good in the car. From the driver’s point of view there isn’t that much difference between snow and gravel, but both you and the car still have to adapt. I think the development is going in the right direction and I’m happy with the progress the car is making,” Mikkelsen said.

Meeke, who likes driving on snow best of all was also satisfied. “The entire test went smoothly, we didn’t have any major setbacks. The engineers tried out various elements on the car, and I think we managed to test everything we’d planned to. I have to say that I really enjoyed driving the new car.”