2017 World Rally ChampionshipRally 

  • Thread starter Accro2008
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prisonermonkeys
They're free to enter more cars, but those cars would be ineligible to score points regardless of where they finished.
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I can understand they would give him a seat now with only 7 rounds left but next year? The calendar will likely expand to 14 rounds and they are gonna afford 4 cars?
 
Simmpa
I can understand they would give him a seat now with only 7 rounds left but next year? The calendar will likely expand to 14 rounds and they are gonna afford 4 cars?
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M-Sport are running on a shoestring budget and they can do it just fine.
 
prisonermonkeys
M-Sport are running on a shoestring budget and they can do it just fine.
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But how will they do when Fia plans expansion of 16 rounds? It could probably work only allowing 2 cars but too bad WRC is not like F1 where they have a whopping 10 teams compared to WRC:s abysmal 4. Even if VW stayed and Ford joined it would not give enough seats for drivers.
 
Rally Poland entry list has been published. Teemu Suninen will make his WRC début, while Lefebvre is back in the Citroën.
 
Meeke has once again crashed out of the lead of a rally this year.

Meanwhile, Lappi wins a stage without 2nd gear and the top 3 is currently Paddon, Hanninen, Ostberg.

Road sweeping appears to be a massive hindrance so far.
 
All three Toyotas somehow survived the most roughest and hottest rally on the calendar, apparantly Toyota fixed the overheating problem, too bad It´s too late for Jari-Matti to take the WDC unless Ogier retires 2 times.

I really wonder if this is true

Wikipedia
On the 16th of December it was announced that Kris would have a 3-year contract with Citroen, up until the end of 2018
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris_Meeke

Also anyone remember reading this?

http://www.worldrallyblog.com/2017/01/13/wrc-news/13214/

"2017 will be Citroens year" before this season started I knew Citroen would screw up badly because of Kris Meeke
 
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Simmpa
too bad It´s too late for Jari-Matti to take the WDC unless Ogier retires 2 times.
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I don't know where you're getting the idea that Latvala is a genuine contender for the title from. The car simply isn't developed enough to be a regular contender for rally wins, and its success is down to being well-suited to individual events. Even if Ogier retire twice, Neuville will be the beneficiary.
 
I think Meeke needs to take a long hard look at his own approach to rallying. If you want to have any conceivable chance at a championship, you first and foremost need to be consistent and reliable. No point in being blisteringly fast if it means you'll put the car in a ditch or around a tree 50% of the time.

By all means, this is good new for Mikkelsen. The more seat time he can get in the new spec cars the better.
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
I was going to say that but I felt it better said by a Brit, good job.
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He's had four rolls in three rallies, and two of those caused terminal damage. I don't think anyone could be faulted for criticising him.

[Nor]MclarenF1
I think Meeke needs to take a long hard look at his own approach to rallying.
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I think I have said this before, but Meeke reminds me of Lewis Hamilton circa 2011. McLaren had a good car, but couldn't compete with Red Bull, and Hamilton over-drove to compensate, which in turn led to silly errors. Meeke is simply pushing too hard for too long, and so the slightest lapse in concentration sees him cartwheel into the scenery. It probably doesn't help that the drivers apparently have to adopt a new style to get the most out of the C3.
 
prisonermonkeys
It probably doesn't help that the drivers apparently have to adopt a new style to get the most out of the C3.
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True. In addition, a lot of the current drivers have never driven a WRC car with an active centre diff. If the C3 in itself requires further adjustments to your driving style, then you risk coming up short quite often.
 
[Nor]MclarenF1
If the C3 in itself requires further adjustments to your driving style, then you risk coming up short quite often.
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I was watching the Rally Italy review shows, and the commentators mentioned that the drivers have been struggling because to get the most out of the C3, they have to be travelling sideways to carry speed through the corner, especially in slow-speed corners.

[Nor]MclarenF1
In addition, a lot of the current drivers have never driven a WRC car with an active centre diff.
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As far as I know, Hayden Paddon is the only driver who was at a real disadvantage. Hyundai pretty much had to dial the centre differential out to get the car to feel like last year's so that Paddon could learn to handle the new aerodynamics and then gradually feed it back in. It was only in Portugal that he started running a proper setting, which explains his speed in Italy.
 
It looks like it's not that the Citroen is slow per se - it has won a rally, after all. It's just that any attempt to take it up to top speed results in it becoming wildly out of control and then crashing. Which is why they've dropped Meeke. Because they're basically having to rebuild his car every rally. Breen is more conservative, but keeping the Citroen under wraps makes it instantly slower than the rest. Lefebvfefe isn't really a factor as he's a newbie and is learning a lot of rallies as he goes along and Mikkelsen hasn't driven it enough.

Bet they're crying out for a nine-times champion right now...
 
C-ZETA
Lefebvfefe isn't really a factor as he's a newbie and is learning a lot of rallies as he goes along
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Lefebvre has actually been with Citroen for a long time now, he was placed in the junior program by Loeb. He has more experience at this level than Breen but doesn't show any of it on a regular basis. I think he'll be the first to go in order to make way for someone else.

Personally I would like to see a Meeke/Ogier swap at the end of the season. Ogier will have a team that can afford to pay him and Meeke will have the guidance of a boss that has proven to be able to turn fast but accident prone drivers around.
 
Well, a lot of rallies are new to Lefebrevere at any rate. But no matter what, his talent deficit is noticeable. That's what'll get him dropped.

And yes, Ogier would probably do the Citroen a world of good. As for Meeke in a Ford, who knows what happens there.
 
Have Ford ever backed M-Sport? Looking back it seems Ford entered seperate from M-Sport as a manufactuer, it would be good if Ford entered as a seperate team because that would bring more seats for drivers
 
Simmpa
Have Ford ever backed M-Sport?
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Yes. M-Sport operate all of the Fiestas that are currently running. Their relationship stems back to 1997 when they ran the Escort WRC and then Ford contracted them to build the original Focus WRC. When Ford last ran as a factory team in 2012, the cars were built and run by M-Sport, who also ran a satellite team under the M-Sport name.

Even today they have a very close relationship. Ford offer M-Sport a lot of technical support; they just don't put their name on the team.
 
M-Sport have been running the official Ford program since 1997.

Ford have always provided technical support but Ogier wants a much larger commitment from them. M-Sport can't afford to pay him beyond this season anyway unless they find a major financial backer, however from the sound of Ogiers interview it can only be Ford that will keep him in the team.

It's clear from previous rallies that he is frustrated with the car and maybe he believes that will be resolved with Ford committing more to the series.
 
boiltheocean
It's clear from previous rallies that he is frustrated with the car and maybe he believes that will be resolved with Ford committing more to the series.
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It got better once they built him a new car. He was using the original Fiesta WRC test car, so it had a lot of mileage on it. Once he got a brand-new car, a lot of those issues went away.

Ford and M-Sport already have a very tight relationship. The only thing that's really missing is the Ford name. So I'm not sure if this is a threat or a plea; if Ford are toying with getting back into the sport as a factory team, this could be Ogier lobbying for it. If it reads like a threat, that's because Ogier is Ogier - he's not exactly tactful.

EDIT - an op-ed from David Evans on why Ford should come back:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/130172/why-ford-has-to-back-ogier-and-msport
 
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