WRC Season ArchiveRally 

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Absolutely horrendous crash for Paddon and Tänak today. Not the slightest clue how everyone escaped unhurt.

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Massive credit to the officials and fans in the area. Tanak's Fiesta would have gone up in flames too without their assistance.

 
It doesn´t really matter if Ogier don´t win he have such a huge points lead that only if he makes 4 non points finnishes that anyone can take the drivers title.
 

Very interesting, altough a pity there won´t be more than a 14 round calendar, I would really like to see new places wich have not been on the WRC calendar before but unsure if Malaysia could get on the calendar consider the hot tropical weather wich was a huge issue when Rally Indonesia was in the WRC 96-97. I think some current rallies could be replaced, if the Swedish rally would still be lacking alot of snow and ice I think either Russia or Canada would be a great replacement and Turkey replacing Poland as we really need a rough gravel rally, New Zealand replace Australia and maybe Chile replace Argentina for one year just to see how things works out. But when it becomes more difficult, some rounds like Monte Carlo or Corsica just can´t be replaced because they are so iconic.
 
unsure if Malaysia could get on the calendar consider the hot tropical weather wich was a huge issue when Rally Indonesia was in the WRC 96-97
It wasn't the weather that was the issue - it was civil unrest in East Timor.
 
It wasn't the weather that was the issue - it was civil unrest in East Timor.

I know the reason they removed it was because of civil unrest but I still think things like the hot climate wich bordered drivers back when would be taken more serious today, consider how much softer WRC is today with vastly shorter stages and overall lenght of the rally.
 
Wow great performance by Neuville. What a pity both Hyundai victories have been with the second squad wich means these points been wasted trying to win the manufacturer title. This is the first time since 1998 we had 5 different winners in a row.
 
Beating VW in the manufacture championship will be impossible anyway.

Also it looks like Kevin Abbring in the 4th Hyundai is looking like a Future Talent, Dispite having mechanical issues with the car he won a SS stage and he got 2nd in the Powerstage.
 
Beating VW in the manufacture championship will be impossible anyway.

Also it looks like Kevin Abbring in the 4th Hyundai is looking like a Future Talent, Dispite having mechanical issues with the car he won a SS stage and he got 2nd in the Powerstage.

It would not be impossible they just been unlucky, if Paddon drove for the main squad in Argentina and Neuville in the main squad in Sardinia they would have 150 pts compared to Volkswagen 178 pts, currently Hyundai only have 108pts. Ogier is the only Volkswagen driver who have scored points on every round while Latvala and Mikkelsen have had some bad luck. As it looks now I think Ogier is already world champion unless he makes a non points finnish on 4 rounds wich I find very unlikely and he have a comfortable 64 points lead over Sordo.
 
Hyundai put Neuville in the N squad for the same reason Red Bull shuffled Daniil Kvyat into Toro Rosso - he wasn't performing.
 
I risk sounding like Sebastien Ogier here but the running order rules are ridiculous, we all know that for the last 4 rallies the best driver hasn't won. It will be the same next rally too, Mikkelsen already stopped at the end of the rally to avoid the risk of scoring points (crazy!) so he would get a better road position for Poland. It's like a more exaggerated version of DRS, it's like wrestling or DRS, it's not interesting if we all know it's fake.

Edit: It turns out Hyundai have been running an illegal car for the whole season with the incorrect rear windows, something I seem to remember M-Sport doing once and having all of their cars excluded. Hyundai get a fine. http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/june-2016/hyundai-fined/page/3631--12-12-.html

Edit 2: I remembered incorrectly, every Focus WRC at the 2007 Rally Portugal was given a 5 minute penalty for having windows half a centimetre too thin.
 
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I risk sounding like Sebastien Ogier here but the running order rules are ridiculous, we all know that for the last 4 rallies the best driver hasn't won. It will be the same next rally too, Mikkelsen already stopped at the end of the rally to avoid the risk of scoring points (crazy!) so he would get a better road position for Poland. It's like a more exaggerated version of DRS, it's like wrestling or DRS, it's not interesting if we all know it's fake.

Edit: It turns out Hyundai have been running an illegal car for the whole season with the incorrect rear windows, something I seem to remember M-Sport doing once and having all of their cars excluded. Hyundai get a fine. http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/june-2016/hyundai-fined/page/3631--12-12-.html

Edit 2: I remembered incorrectly, every Focus WRC at the 2007 Rally Portugal was given a 5 minute penalty for having windows half a centimetre too thin.

I agree with you fully, altough I hate seeing same driver win all the time trying to even it out by punishing success is just insane, and when drivers try avoid taking points just to get a better road position it gets really ridiculous. If the rules where the same as of 2014 Ogier would most likely have won all 6 rallies. Bring back qualifying making it more fair so a good road position is something you have to earn.
 
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Martin Prokop has rage-quit the WRC over a five-minute penalty he got in Sardinia for breaking the seals on his gearbox despite FIA approval for privateers to be able to. It's a shame, because the sport needs privateers, but he would probably struggle to get a drive next year because it's believed that there will be a shortfall in 2017-specification cars (at least to start with) and the current generation probably won't be able to compete with the new cars.

Meanwhile, Ma Qinghua will make his WRC début in China with Adapta WRT. There's no word on what he will actually drive; Morten Østberg is talking with Ford, Citroën and Hyundai about running a car.
 
VW respond on official facebook page to allegations of them being WRC crybabies :lol:
It's actually in celebration of the birth of Ogier's son Tim, but nice theory. :p
 
I´m not impressed with the route, several stages are gonna be the same except they drive in the opposite direction and only 300km
Stages have been run in the opposite direction from one year to the next in the past, and drivers have commented that the character is completely different.
 
Stages have been run in the opposite direction from one year to the next in the past, and drivers have commented that the character is completely different.

Character completely different? I don´t think so. Was it too costly to have many stages or is it just like this because It´s first time in China since 1999?
 
Character completely different? I don´t think so. Was it too costly to have many stages or is it just like this because It´s first time in China since 1999?

you're a rally driver are you? Every round has reverse stages.
 
I can´t see the reason behind this. Why are manufacturer drivers better?
It's because they're more experienced. The 2017 cars will not simply have more horsepower, but less weight and more aerodynamic grip. They will be closer to Group B than anything that has competed since Group B was banned. The FIA is concerned about pay drivers getting access to the cars when they aren't up for it. If it's an experienced part-timer like Bryan Bouffier, they're fine with it; they're more concerned about the likes of Valeriy Gorban and Paulo Nobre - guys with money to burn. Back in 2012, M-Sport put a guy named John Powell, a Trinidadian local champion, in a car for Rally Catalyuna. Afterwards Powell said he thought he was prepared, but found it so intense that he had to pull over in the middle of stages and take a break.

Plus, there's only going to be a small handful of 2017-spec cars available at the start of the year. The manufacturer teams will no doubt be concerned about taking unnecessary risks with them, but M-Sport's entire business model is based on providing customer cars.
 
It's because they're more experienced. The 2017 cars will not simply have more horsepower, but less weight and more aerodynamic grip. They will be closer to Group B than anything that has competed since Group B was banned. The FIA is concerned about pay drivers getting access to the cars when they aren't up for it. If it's an experienced part-timer like Bryan Bouffier, they're fine with it; they're more concerned about the likes of Valeriy Gorban and Paulo Nobre - guys with money to burn. Back in 2012, M-Sport put a guy named John Powell, a Trinidadian local champion, in a car for Rally Catalyuna. Afterwards Powell said he thought he was prepared, but found it so intense that he had to pull over in the middle of stages and take a break.

Plus, there's only going to be a small handful of 2017-spec cars available at the start of the year. The manufacturer teams will no doubt be concerned about taking unnecessary risks with them, but M-Sport's entire business model is based on providing customer cars.

I still think they overreact with forbidding them from driving the cars It´s 80 extra horsepowers not 300.

By the way I saw this on wikipedia altough nothing is confirmed I would love to see this kind of calendar, Italy, France and Poland are replaced.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Rally_Championship_rallies
 
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