WRC Season ArchiveRally 

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Simmpa
I suppose wikipedia cannot be trusted, when will they expand the calendar? 13 rounds is too few
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The teams feel that thirteen is the maximum manageable at the moment. There have been attempts to revive Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Jordan and China, and to get events going in South Africa, Russia, the UAE and Brazil, but they just can't get traction. Rallying is still a very European discipline of motorsport.
 
prisonermonkeys
The teams feel that thirteen is the maximum manageable at the moment. There have been attempts to revive Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Jordan and China, and to get events going in South Africa, Russia, the UAE and Brazil, but they just can't get traction. Rallying is still a very European discipline of motorsport.
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While I agree that returning to 16 rounds would be a problem especially trying to get rounds wich have never been in the calendar, but how hard would it be to bring back New Zealand as a 14th round? And now we have a promising Kiwi driver Paddon I think there´s no other rally that deserves to get back to the calendar.
 
Have there been any attempt at establishing a WRC round in the US or Canada? Both rally and rallycross are increasing in popularity in the US at least.
 
[Nor]MclarenF1
Have there been any attempt at establishing a WRC round in the US or Canada? Both rally and rallycross are increasing in popularity in the US at least.
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Vermont would be a perfect location. A tarmac rally in the winter would actually be quite interesting here. Plus there are plenty dirt/back roads around here. That or New Hampshire, New York or Pennsylvania.
 
Simmpa
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/120861

They are gonna keep Kris Weak for yet another season? :facepalm:
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He's probably not exactly the most expensive driver to have, which by their budget is a good thing and he's the only driver, who doesn't work for the currently very controversial car company, who has won a WRC event this year, so he can't be the worst driver with a team contract.
 
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Simmpa
How about Stephan Lefebvre?
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Meeke was consistently faster than Lefebvre in Rally Australia and in fact lead the rally for some time. I fail to see how Lefebvre is better than him.
 
Ettick
Meeke was consistently faster than Lefebvre in Rally Australia and in fact lead the rally for some time. I fail to see how Lefebvre is better than him.
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Keep in mind that Stephane have very limited experience in a WRC car and since Stephane replaced Mads Ostberg in the last minute he was not able to practice and Kris Meeke have been driving for a very long time, not fair to compare.
 
Want a slightly offbeat choice?

Kajetan Kajetanowicz. Has both the pace and consistency.
 
prisonermonkeys
The teams feel that thirteen is the maximum manageable at the moment. There have been attempts to revive Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Jordan and China, and to get events going in South Africa, Russia, the UAE and Brazil, but they just can't get traction. Rallying is still a very European discipline of motorsport.
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Turns out my hopes of 14 rounds came true afterall and now It´s confirmed by the FIA not Wikipedia

http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/september/fia-world-council/page/2835--12-12-.html
 
Crazy rally in Spain - as they were doing a live interview with Andreas Mikkelsen following the power stage, Ogier crashed out, handing Mikkelsen his first WRC victory.
 
So, any chance ERC might get some attention here?

catamount39
Vermont would be a perfect location. A tarmac rally in the winter would actually be quite interesting here. Plus there are plenty dirt/back roads around here. That or New Hampshire, New York or Pennsylvania.
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There some locations the SCCA Pro Rally visits that would be good for WRC (I believe Michigan is one, I might need to check again).
 
Really nice to see Mikkelsen finally get his first rally win. It'll be interesting to see how the 2016 season will go down now that he got a renewed contract with equal terms to Ogier and Latvala.

A bit random for Ogier to make this kind of mistake with the victory pretty much in his pocket.
 
[Nor]MclarenF1
A bit random for Ogier to make this kind of mistake with the victory pretty much in his pocket.
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It wasn't actually that bad, and it was certainly something that he could have recovered from without losing too much time - but he had the misfortune of hitting one of the posts holding the barrier up, and that's what ripped the car apart.
 
You have to admit, it was a strange accident. Did he push too hard on the exit? It looks like the car is going into a slide just as it hits the armco. Considering he had almost a minute lead, there would be no reason for him to do anything other then keeping a safe pace and just getting the car across the line.

 
[Nor]MclarenF1
You have to admit, it was a strange accident. Did he push too hard on the exit? It looks like the car is going into a slide just as it hits the armco. Considering he had almost a minute lead, there would be no reason for him to do anything other then keeping a safe pace and just getting the car across the line.

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Looks like he just didn't turn enough on the exit. Maybe he expected to just tap the guard rail and keep going, I dunno.
 
I didn't watch rally GB this weekend (where Ogier took an understandably sombre victory), but this article caught my attention - apparently running on the last day was nearly cancelled because, in addition to the poor weather, a skeleton was discovered next to a stage :sick:

The entire final day of Rally GB came close to being cancelled due to a combination of the extreme weather and the discovery of human remains close to the route.

While the hurricane-force winds and incessant rainfall had been a concern all week, the biggest threat to the World Rally Championship's last day of 2015 came when a spectator erecting a tent next to the Brenig stage on Saturday night found a skeleton.

Police established an exclusion area 300 metres from junction six on Brenig - which was used as both the leg opener and the powerstage on Sunday.

Organisers came up with a possible route that would have reduced the six-mile stage to two miles, but were concerned the whole stage would have been declared inaccessible.

That would have forced the abandonement of the following Alwen stage too, leaving only the short Great Orme stage - from which spectators had to be barred due to the very strong winds.
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prisonermonkeys
Citroën will withdraw from the WRC in 2016, and focus on developing a new-for-2017 car:

http://m.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/121865/citroen-picks-wrc-over-wtcc-to-miss-16

Wouldn't be surprised to see Meeke or Ostberg at M-Sport following reports Tanak and Evans could share a car next year.
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Not too surprising, there have been murmurs about Citroen pulling out of WRC for years. Looks like they lost a lot of their momentum when Loeb called it quits.
A one year hiatus could be what is needed to get their WRC program back on track.

I'm very excited to see what the changes for 2017 will bring, WRC desperately need to up their game to regain popularity.
Hopefully we'll see VW, Citroen, Hyundai and Toyota going all-inn.
 
Very surprised they decided to pull out of WTCC instead of WRC consider they win all the time in WTCC. But I am happy with the decision as I do not care much for circuit racing as I do for rally, finally we will have 4 manufactuer teams for 2017.
 
Simmpa
Very surprised they decided to pull out of WTCC instead of WRC consider they win all the time in WTCC. But I am happy with the decision as I do not care much for circuit racing as I do for rally, finally we will have 4 manufactuer teams for 2017.
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Their utter domination may be the reason why WTCC isn't very popular. They did basically the same thing Chevrolet did a few years ago.
 
catamount39
4? What about Ford (M-sport I know but still)? Are they not making a new car for 2017?
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One of the only reasons why M-Sport can continue is the relative stability of the regulations. Their entire business model is based on building various specifications of the Fiesta RS WRC and selling them. However, 2017 will bring with it substantial regulation changes, which means a complete redevelopment of the car, and M-Sport may not have the budget to do that - even if they continue to run pre-2017 Fiestas for privateer teams.

Ford have scaled their global motorsport portfolio right back, even in series - like V8 Supercars - where their cars are dominant. They have recommitted to Le Mans and GT racing, but I think their future in rallying is in jeopardy and may well hinge on the success of the China Rally next year.

It would be a shame to lose them - M-Sport have really captured the spirit of the privateer, and I think that rallying offers manufacturers a unique platform for brand awareness: affordable, recognisable cars competing in a diverse series of environments. But they have really been let down by poor promotion.
 
So what do we think Loeb will do next?

I doubt he's ready to call time on his career, but I'm not convinced he'll return to WRC full-time.

My theory is a Toyota WEC program with some development of their WRC car and maybe a few wild-card entries at classics like the Monte.

I've wrote an article on the matter, which I'll link below. I don't see him focusing on Rally Raid with Peugeot since his recent career progression suggests he'd want to do some more circuit racing.

Am I wrong? Does anyone think he'll be happy just doing Rally Raid?

http://downforce-radio.co.uk/where-does-sebastien-loeb-go-now/
 
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