WRC, ERC and national rallying 2024Rally 



WRC

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Some cool tweaks, less purple and more light blue. Kind of expected more but its much cooler up close than in standard wide angle shots.
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The itinerary for round 1 of the season. The now customary opening in Monaco followed by evening stages on the Col de Turini on Thursday. Is there a series that has a more iconic opening?
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Sebastien Ogier tops the shakedown. Rovanpera, Neuville, Evans and Sordo round the top 5. Tanak 7th behind his M-Sport team mate Loubet.

SS1 coming up 8pm local time.
 
www.wrc.com

Masterful Ogier builds early Monte-Carlo lead

Sébastien Ogier threw caution to the wind on Thursday evening’s opening leg at Rallye Monte-Carlo to end a spectacular opening night of the 2023 FIA World Rally Championship season with a useful advantage.
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Sebastian Ogier proving his Monte ability, 6 second lead over Evans after todays stages. Decent start for Tanak in his first Puma outing in 3rd, 15 seconds behind but completed both stages without 5th gear. Neuville in 4th lost 8 seconds after spinning and stalling. Reigning champ Kalle Rovanpera sits 5th, 17 seconds down, went on the soft tyres but had trouble with overheating his tyres, as many did, due to the unusually dry stages.
 
That bit of black ice on stage 2 was sketchy. It was weird how there were clear tire marks of a car going off at that corner, but the 0 cars ahead didn't seem to mention any ice beforehand.

It was also weird how there were so many spectators with cameras and what appeared to be professional levels of lighting there. The commentators did mention that maybe the spectators may have purposefully put some water there which could be likely since the rest of the stage looked pretty dry
 
Ogier isn't full time, right? As in currently no one can challenge Loeb, or for that matter Ogier himself in terms of their performance like championships, wins or stage wins if I'm not mistaken. It's rather incredible that between 1977 and 2022 there were 46 world championships for drivers and 25 of them was won by 4 drivers... especially the Sebastien era between 2004 and 2021 apart from the little hiccup in 2019 :)
 
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TheHun99
Ogier isn't full time, right? As in currently no one can challenge Loeb, or for that matter Ogier himself in terms of their performance like championships, wins or stage wins if I'm not mistaken. It's rather incredible that between 1977 and 2022 there were 46 world championships for drivers and 25 of them was won by 4 drivers... especially the Sebastian era between 2004 and 2021 apart from the little hiccup in 2019 :)
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Correct, he is a part time driver sharing the 3rd point scoring Toyota. He's expected to do 6 rallies, as he did in 2022, though 7 is a real possibility because he loves Mexico, and the new central European rally has interested him.

Technically, nothing is stopping Ogier from winning the title and attempting to equal Loebs championship tally. Though he is almost 300 stage wins behind and 25 event wins behind so, those are unlikely. For him to win a 9th though, other drivers would have to be inconsistent and failing to score regularly. 180 is his max for 6 rallies and 210 for 7. With the current points system, those totals would only gave won him the 2020 championship, which was reduced in rounds and won by him, with 122 points. So it's extremely unlikely, but not impossible.
 


Ogier held the overnight lead with another stunning day, 36 seconds clear of team mate Rovanpera. Neuville 3rd ahead of Tanak with Evans dropping back after a puncture.
 
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Vigilant Ogier puts one hand on Monte-Carlo crown

Sébastien Ogier sits on the brink of a record-breaking ninth Rallye Monte-Carlo victory after producing another faultless drive in the French Alps on Saturday.
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Ogier continued to lead overnight. Choosing to preserve his lead rather than push. Rovanpera went on the charge however and Slashed Ogiers lead in half to 16 seconds with 4 tough stages to go on Sunday. Neuville struggled to live with that pace and found himself a further 16 seconds back. Evans had a great charge nack from his puncture, sitting 4th having leapfrogged Tanak who is 5th, almost 2 minutes off the lead.
 


Excellent victory for Ogier, a record breaking 9th Monte win. Rovanpera took 2nd place, 18 seconds behind for a solid 1-2 for Toyota. Rovanpera also won the power stage for the bonus 5 points, an early benchmark for the champ. Neuville came home 3rd with Evans 4th and Tanak a distant 5th. Though he did lose a lot of time looking after his soft tyres for the power stage, finishing 2nd, missing the win by just half a second.

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dirtfish.com

FIA president Ben Sulayem: We can fix the WRC – DirtFish

WRC – In an exclusive interview with DirtFish, Mohammed Ben Sulayem promised to give more attention to rallying from now
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Ben Sulayem admits getting sucked into F1, promises to 'fix' the WRC.

Question is, what needs to be done? The highs of the mid 2000s and early 2010s haven't been hit and the even then the series was a far cry from is immense popularity in the 90s and early 2000s.

A common thing i see, and have said many times myself, is a need to scrap the top class as it is. Yeah the cars are insane to look at extremely fast etc, but it's also incredibly expensive. 3 manufacturers (if you count Ford, really M-Sport are a privateer with some Ford backing), is a far cry from the peaks this series has seen, and with prohibitive costs for private teams, there simply aren't any. 6 full time drivers will contest the championship and thay simply isn't right.

I think, the Tally2 class is a prime candidate to be the top tier formula, increase the restrictor size, develop an independent spec hybrid system (ala BTCC), and straight off the bat you have 5 manufacturers ready to to. Plus a big incentive for new manufacturers to join with the significantly lower cost of developing and running a rally2 spec car. That cost also brings in more private teams which boosts the field.

The cars would be closer to the road going counter parts and therefore more identifiable, the field size increases and becomes more competitive, the spec hybrid keeps the cars relevant and performance won't be far off the 2l and 1.6l rally cars of a decade ago.

Interested to hear others thoughts on what the WRC can do to improve where it currently is.
 
MagpieRacer
dirtfish.com

FIA president Ben Sulayem: We can fix the WRC – DirtFish

WRC – In an exclusive interview with DirtFish, Mohammed Ben Sulayem promised to give more attention to rallying from now
dirtfish.com dirtfish.com

Ben Sulayem admits getting sucked into F1, promises to 'fix' the WRC.

Question is, what needs to be done? The highs of the mid 2000s and early 2010s haven't been hit and the even then the series was a far cry from is immense popularity in the 90s and early 2000s.

A common thing i see, and have said many times myself, is a need to scrap the top class as it is. Yeah the cars are insane to look at extremely fast etc, but it's also incredibly expensive. 3 manufacturers (if you count Ford, really M-Sport are a privateer with some Ford backing), is a far cry from the peaks this series has seen, and with prohibitive costs for private teams, there simply aren't any. 6 full time drivers will contest the championship and thay simply isn't right.

I think, the Tally2 class is a prime candidate to be the top tier formula, increase the restrictor size, develop an independent spec hybrid system (ala BTCC), and straight off the bat you have 5 manufacturers ready to to. Plus a big incentive for new manufacturers to join with the significantly lower cost of developing and running a rally2 spec car. That cost also brings in more private teams which boosts the field.

The cars would be closer to the road going counter parts and therefore more identifiable, the field size increases and becomes more competitive, the spec hybrid keeps the cars relevant and performance won't be far off the 2l and 1.6l rally cars of a decade ago.

Interested to hear others thoughts on what the WRC can do to improve where it currently is.
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Sounds reasonable. I watched a video where two rally drivers discussed the Monte (one of them was a 2-time European champion, unfortunately now in a wheelchair), the other has a lot of R5 experience. They mentioned that the ICE+hybrid combined power is around 520ish HP, pretty close to the Group B days - obviously safety and tire technology is way better compared to the '80s but it's a far cry from the initial Group A power levels (they were like 300ish HP if I can remember correctly) and they argued that WRC should do away with the Rally1 cars and use the Rally2 cars instead, same as you. They haven't mentioned the hybrid but it's a no brainer in this day and age.
 
I'm excited to see what Tanak can do in the Puma over a season. He's the only driver not named Sebastien to win the WDC since 2003. How to solve the Rally1 problem, just make do Rally2/R5 cars with the hybrid system from the Rally1 car. That might entice Skoda into the top category.

BTW, Hi! Lifelong WRC fan, went to a national rally in 2000 and obsessed ever since. They did lose me for a few years in the 10's, but I'm back. Very much looking forward to Kalle running away with the championship again!
 
dirtfish.com

Renewed hope for UK's WRC round in 2024 – DirtFish

WRC – Stakeholders have until April to source the required funds to hold a WRC event
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We will know by April if there will be a UK round of the WRC for 2024. Hasn't featured since 2019, which is an absolute travesty, due to funding issues after the Welsh government dropped support. It's expected to take place in Northern Ireland if confirmed and they are confident it will go ahead.
 
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Sweden battle intensifies as Breen and Tänak lock horns

Craig Breen was unable to widen his advantage over Ott Tänak, despite outperforming his rival on two out of Saturday morning’s three stages at Rally Sweden.
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Been and Tanak battling at the top, separated by 3 seconds at the end of Saturday morning. Tanak has since overhauled that disadvantage and leads by 2.3s going into the final stage of the day.

Katstuta and Rovanpera have had some close calls today but Lappi got stuck on SS13, losing 7 minutes, effectively ending his podium hopes. Leaving Neville and Rovanpera on the same times battling for that 3rd spot.
 
Still incredibly right on the final day, with just a few stages to run, you'd have to think Tanak is safe unless he has any issues. But it's been a brilliant drive from Breen to be in the mix for the win all weekend.

Shout out to Oliver Solberg as well, favourable rally for his skillset but that should shut the haters up for a while. Solid WRC2 win as long as makes it to the end.
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Ahead of the power stage, team orders at play perhaps?

BREEN RECEIVES 10-SECOND TIME PENALTY
Craig Breen has checked into the regroup one-minute late, resulting in a 10 second penalty. This drops the Irishman to third overall, promoting team-mate Thierry Neuville up to second.



With Breen only contesting a part-programme this season, there's a potential this could be a deliberate move to help full-time driver Neuville net more drivers' championship points - although Hyundai has not confirmed this.

Tanak takes the W.
 
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MagpieRacer
Ahead of the power stage, team orders at play perhaps?

BREEN RECEIVES 10-SECOND TIME PENALTY
Craig Breen has checked into the regroup one-minute late, resulting in a 10 second penalty. This drops the Irishman to third overall, promoting team-mate Thierry Neuville up to second.



With Breen only contesting a part-programme this season, there's a potential this could be a deliberate move to help full-time driver Neuville net more drivers' championship points - although Hyundai has not confirmed this.
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Cyril confirmed that it was team order




Unfortunate given how Breen was doing up to then. He was so emotional when he was doing well again after having a terrible season last year
 

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