WRC, ERC and national rallying 2024Rally 

If the big O is doing 10 rounds and without Kalle doing a full season and Tanak getting reacquainted with his new/old car, they are all in trouble. It's quite likely he will bag his 9th championship and match the goat.
 
MrCrynox
If the big O is doing 10 rounds and without Kalle doing a full season and Tanak getting reacquainted with his new/old car, they are all in trouble. It's quite likely he will bag his 9th championship and match the goat.
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Yeah, we’ll have to await confirmation of what he’s doing. Rumour is there may be some rounds where Ogier and Kalle driver and if that’s the case, Katstuta will be expected to give his seat up.
 
Sami Pajari has now officially been confirmed as a Toyota Rally2 entrant.


The livery:


Rumours are also strengthening around Lancia returning to the WRC as early as 2025 with a Rally2 machine and 2027 in the top class. Likely with the Ypsilon as the base.

And the Irish motorsport president is confident that Rally Ireland will be on the 2025 calendar as 3 potential venues are being inspected this week.
 
I live in Tralee which is one of the 3 locations for Rally Ireland 2025.

3 members of the bidding team were on Radio Kerry yesterday talking about the Tralee bid. Apparently we are in with a big chance of winning which would be huge for the region. The final decision is this Tuesday so fingers crossed!!

You can listen to the 15 minute interview here;

www.radiokerry.ie

Going for Glory: Tralee’s World Rally Championship Bid – January 5th, 2024 | RadioKerry.ie

Karl O’Sullivan, Nathan McDonnell and Sean Moriarty are part of the team that has made the bid for Tralee to host the FIA World Rally Championship in 2025.
www.radiokerry.ie www.radiokerry.ie

Edit; Here is the Spotify link if the above one doesn't work.

 
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GTP_unkymo
I live in Tralee which is one of the 3 locations for Rally Ireland 2025.

3 members of the bidding team were on Radio Kerry yesterday talking about the Tralee bid. Apparently we are in with a big chance of winning which would be huge for the region. The final decision is this Tuesday so fingers crossed!!

You can listen to the 15 minute interview here;

www.radiokerry.ie

Going for Glory: Tralee’s World Rally Championship Bid – January 5th, 2024 | RadioKerry.ie

Karl O’Sullivan, Nathan McDonnell and Sean Moriarty are part of the team that has made the bid for Tralee to host the FIA World Rally Championship in 2025.
www.radiokerry.ie www.radiokerry.ie

Edit; Here is the Spotify link if the above one doesn't work.

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Great news. Hopefully the government agree the funding and it’s all systems go!

www.bbc.co.uk

Location for Rally Ireland WRC bid to be announced - BBC Sport

The location for a bid to bring the World Rally Championship back to Ireland from 2025 will be announced on Tuesday by Motorsport Ireland.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Meanwhile in Austria, at the famous Janner Rally:
 
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The more I think about it I'm 99% convinced that my hometown of Tralee will win the bid.

There is zero chance of County Waterford hosting this on its own. It's too small to host the 100,000+ people that will turn up. It will have to share with other counties in the South East of Ireland (Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny and Tipperary).
The problem with these counties are that most of them are fairly flat so the stages might be boring.

Limericks bid isn't too bad. It could host a crowd that size but it would probably have to share with Clare and Tipperary. But, again, these counties are also fairly flat as well so the stages might not be the greatest either.

The Tralee bid has its base in County Kerry. County Kerry is 4800km in area while County Limerick is 2700km in area and County Waterford is 1800km in area.

So you can fit the whole counties of Limerick and Waterford into County Kerry!

So Kerry is by far the bigger of the counties and can host it on its own and it also has the world class facilities in the Munster Technological University (MTU) in Tralee where the teams will be based and has some of best known stages not only in Ireland but all around the world.

So as I said I'm 99% convinced that the Tralee bid will win and hopefully I will have the WRC in my hometown next year!
 
GTP_unkymo
The more I think about it I'm 99% convinced that my hometown of Tralee will win the bid.

There is zero chance of County Waterford hosting this on its own. It's too small to host the 100,000+ people that will turn up. It will have to share with other counties in the South East of Ireland (Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny and Tipperary).
The problem with these counties are that most of them are fairly flat so the stages might be boring.

Limericks bid isn't too bad. It could host a crowd that size but it would probably have to share with Clare and Tipperary. But, again, these counties are also fairly flat as well so the stages might not be the greatest either.

The Tralee bid has its base in County Kerry. County Kerry is 4800km in area while County Limerick is 2700km in area and County Waterford is 1800km in area.

So you can fit the whole counties of Limerick and Waterford into County Kerry!

So Kerry is by far the bigger of the counties and can host it on its own and it also has the world class facilities in the Munster Technological University (MTU) in Tralee where the teams will be based and has some of best known stages not only in Ireland but all around the world.

So as I said I'm 99% convinced that the Tralee bid will win and hopefully I will have the WRC in my hometown next year!
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Given the scale of WRC events, I don't think they'll limit the stages to the ones in the county they're based in. I imagine they'll use stages across a few regions. Hopefully anwyay.
 
No, that isn't in the Kerry bid.

In the interview above on Radio Kerry one of them mentioned the planned route for the rally and 90% of rally will be in County Kerry (Tralee, Killarney and Dingle) and a few stages in West Limerick next to County Kerry.

He also said that if Limerick wins the bid that they will be able to have the stages in Killarney as well which will be part of the Limerick Rally being held in Kerry!
 
GTP_unkymo
No, that isn't in the Kerry bid.

In the interview above on Radio Kerry one of them mentioned the planned route for the rally and 90% of rally will be in County Kerry (Tralee, Killarney and Dingle) and a few stages in West Limerick next to County Kerry.

He also said that if Limerick wins the bid that they will be able to have the stages in Killarney as well which will be part of the Limerick Rally being held in Kerry!
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Ah that’s good info, thanks.

Going to be a cracker either way, the few times Ireland has been on the calendar it was a great watch and is always exciting to watch in the BRC as well.
 
They will be announcing the winner in about 20 minutes so fingers crossed for Tralee and Kerry!

Honestly if they don't win this I will be gutted. I think they have the best bid out of the 3 bids so hopefully Kerry wins and I get to see the WRC in my hometown!!
 
Well,Well, Well!!

Motorsport Ireland have decided to share it between all 3 venues over the next 3 years!

Edit; So at the start of the bidding process a few months ago, Motorsport Ireland decided that they only wanted 1 location for the next 3 years but after visiting each venue last week they changed their minds and decided to share it after the 3 venues met the standards.

It's a great day for us here in Tralee and Kerry. It looks like over the next 6 years, I will have 2 WRC events in my hometown of Tralee and 2 more in the county next door in Limerick which is marvellous news for the South West region of Ireland!
 
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GTP_unkymo
Well,Well, Well!!

Motorsport Ireland have decided to share it between all 3 venues over the next 3 years!

Edit; So at the start of the bidding process a few months ago, Motorsport Ireland decided that they only wanted 1 location for the next 3 years but after visiting each venue last week they changed their minds and decided to share it after the 3 venues met the standards.

It's a great day for us here in Tralee and Kerry. It looks like over the next 6 years, I will have 2 WRC events in my hometown of Tralee and 2 more in the county next door in Limerick which is marvellous news for the South West region of Ireland!
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Brilliant. Will make for 3 excellent events for sure. Any word on the government funding yet?
 
No official word yet but this will 100% get government funding in a few months time.

Motorsport Ireland have picked their locations and, most importantly for the Irish government, is that the FIA and WRC are happy as well. All the Irish government has to do is sign a cheque and we'll be good to go!
 


Something I was hoping for. Rally 2 based WRC cars open up a whole lot of prospects for more manufacturers. There were rumours Lancia/Fiat were joining in 2025 with the new Ypsilon and with this change it makes way more sense. Think of all the manufacturers who already have a avenue into top level WRC with out even knowing. Toyota, Hyundai, Ford, Citroen, Peugeot, Proton, VW, Mitsubishi all have homologated R2/5 cars. That goes without saying the other manufacturers who would be lured by the cars being based back on road car underpinnings. Would be way cheaper than the spaceframe Rally 1's of the present. Let alone the benefit of having actual road cars represented in top level competition. Technology development and transfer/Fans seeing cars they can buy in competition.

Also big respect to Ireland and the people involved for supporting the sport and looking like they are going to get a spot on the calendar. I can't believe we have left Wales Rally GB go as easy as we have done. It was so popular in South Wales and it just had something different to all the other Gravel rallies that we are missing. As a massive rally fan it pains me.

Still, At least we have Rali Ceredigion joining the ERC this coming season. Well done to the people up in West Wales for putting in the effort to accomplish that.
 
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RYAN


Something I was hoping for. Rally 2 based WRC cars open up a whole lot of prospects for more manufacturers. There were rumours Lancia/Fiat were joining in 2025 with the new Ypsilon and with this change it makes way more sense. Think of all the manufacturers who already have a avenue into top level WRC with out even knowing. Toyota, Hyundai, Ford, Citroen, Peugeot, Proton, VW, Mitsubishi all have homologated R2/5 cars. That goes without saying the other manufacturers who would be lured by the cars being based back on road car underpinnings. Would be way cheaper than the spaceframe Rally 1's of the present. Let alone the benefit of having actual road cars represented in top level competition. Technology development and transfer/Fans seeing cars they can buy in competition.

Also big respect to Ireland and the people involved for supporting the sport and looking like they are going to get a spot on the calendar. I can't believe we have left Wales Rally GB go as easy as we have done. It was so popular in South Wales and it just had something different to all the other Gravel rallies that we are missing. As a massive rally fan it pains me.

Still, At least we have Rali Ceredigion joining the ERC this coming season. Well done to the people up in West Wales for putting in the effort to accomplish that.
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I hope it’s true, but I also hope the package to make them ‘plus’, A; doesn’t cost too much that it negates the advantage of switching, and B; gives them a distinct performance boost over standard Rally2 specs. As in, not just a tiny power bump.

If they can get the package right, which I assume will be more open restrictors, bigger exhaust, more effective cooling etc, more comprehensive aero and higher performing tyres, it could be like a middle ground between the S2000+ spec and WRC+ spec.

I also hope it doesn’t push manufacturers like Hyundai away. If they opt to not make these cars hybrid, it may put some off in terms of questioning its purpose vs road cars.
 
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MagpieRacer
I hope it’s true, but I also hope the package to make them ‘plus’, A; doesn’t cost too much that it negates the advantage of switching, and B; gives them a distinct performance boost over standard Rally2 specs. As in, not just a tiny power bump.

If they can get the package right, which I assume will be more open restrictors, bigger exhaust, more effective cooling etc, more comprehensive aero and higher performing tyres, it could be like a middle ground between the S2000+ spec and WRC+ spec.

I also hope it doesn’t push manufacturers like Hyundai away. If they opt to not make these cars hybrid, it may put some off in terms of questioning its purpose vs road cars.
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I have a feeling Hybrid or some sort of regenerative technology will have to be part of the regs for a few manufacturers. The fact the cars will be based on road car shells and the technology transfer and development will be much more useful than the Rally 1's as a result makes the Hybrid make more sense in Rally 2+ Regs than the Spaceframe monsters of now.
 
RYAN
I have a feeling Hybrid or some sort of regenerative technology will have to be part of the regs for a few manufacturers. The fact the cars will be based on road car shells and the technology transfer and development will be much more useful than the Rally 1's as a result makes the Hybrid make more sense in Rally 2+ Regs than the Spaceframe monsters of now.
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Agreed. I hope, and I'm sure, they have discussed this at length with the manufacturers, the regulations are no guarantee of manufacturers stepping up the Rally2 cars to the new specs and likewise isn't a guarantee of the current Rally1 teams staying either. So hopefully they have done their homework and consultations for this to be genuinely viable in terms of strengthening the sport.

Almost disappointing though, if it is true, that we won't see the Rally1 hybrids on the Irish country roads.

So, best case scenario for the top class if all is true, WRC will have these manufacturers*:

Skoda
Ford/M-Sport
Hyundai
Toyota
Citroen
Volkswagen

With strong rumours of Lancia entering from 2025 (could have been a tip off that led to this). Though it may be at the expense of Citroen.

*based on WRC2 entries from 2023.

Peugeot, Proton and Mitsubishi also all have homologated Rally 2 machinery as well.
 
MagpieRacer
New livery for M-Sport:


Looks like the Polo WRC livery.
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I like it.

Rally 2 Yaris's without livery. The closest and most detailed photo's I've seen. Normally they are always in moving photos or from too far away. Plain white shows the details better too.

1705112260798.png
 
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My takes for 2024, some may be lukewarm:

- Evans will win the WDC*.

- But Hyundai will win the WCC.

- Tanak will outscore Neuville in his first season back at Hyundai.

- Formaux and Mikkelsen will win a rally each.

- A WRC2 car will finish on the overall podium in at least 1 event.

- Munster gets dropped in the first half of the season and replaced by Kris Meeke or Esapekka Lappi.

- *Unless Ogier does the rumoured 10 rounds, then he wins the WDC.
 
MagpieRacer
My takes for 2024, some may be lukewarm:

- Evans will win the WDC*.

- But Hyundai will win the WCC.

- Tanak will outscore Neuville in his first season back at Hyundai.

- Formaux and Mikkelsen will win a rally each.

- A WRC2 car will finish on the overall podium in at least 1 event.

- Munster gets dropped in the first half of the season and replaced by Kris Meeke or Esapekka Lappi.

- *Unless Ogier does the rumoured 10 rounds, then he wins the WDC.
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Elfyn has to deliver now. Pressures on, Thankfully he's normally a cool customer. Formaux winning a rally I cannot see myself, Even with my most optimistic M-Sport hat on. He hasn't shown enough to prove he could do that still in my opinion. Winning the BRC was a nice confidence booster and I think it was a clever idea from M-Sport as a sort of reset of sorts. I think a podium finish would be a realistic and achievable goal.
 

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