WRC Season ArchiveRally 

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Found some pre-seasom testing photos on another forum:

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And you'll notice that Latvala has already bent it:

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I've also got this, a video of Eric Camilli testing the Fiesta:



I know everyone was surprised and a little bit sceptical when his signing was announced, but apparently M-Sport are raving about him. From the looks of things in the video, he's got the goods.

Elsewhere:
  • Bryan Bouffier has been entered as a manufacturer team under the name "M-Sport WRT", leading to speculation that Elfyn Evans could make appearances in the car later in the season given the rules about the minimum number of events a manufacturer team needs to compete in in order to be classified (the same rule that caught Kimi Räikkönen out in 2011).
  • Robert Kubica is entered under his own name for Monte Carlo, and a lot of the M-Sport crew who ran his car in 2015 have been reassigned. There is talk that he couldn't get a Citroën DS3 with a gear shift converted over to accomodate his arm in time for the rally, so he could start the season in a Fiesta before switching to a DS3 mid-season.
  • We know Kevin Abbring will drive an i20 ar some point this season, but he won't be in Monte Carlo. Likewise the talk of a second DMACK. There's definitely spare numbers to go around, though.
  • Martin Prokop isn't on the entry list, which is disappointing. He might not have been the fastest driver, but he was a good, reliable privateer, so it would be a shame to see him go. There's no word on his future plans.
  • WRC-2 is shaping up quite nicely, with Esapekka Lappi, Ole Christian Veiby, Julien Maurin and a few others of note alongside Elfyn Evans. Nasser al-Attiyah is out, though, as he prepares for the Olympics in Rio De Janeiro (he's also a competitive shooter). No Yuriy Protasov, either.
  • I have no idea who Felice Re is, except that he is runninh a private DS3. Otherwise, I have never heard of him. Come to think of it, I don't even know if Felice Re is male or female.
Will post anything else of interest that I find.
 
Is that white bumper on the Polo final? Looks kinda weird, like they had to cut down on vinyls because of dieselgate.
 
No idea. It's more likely that they're just running 2016 parts. Or maybe Latvala bent the blue bumper, too ...
 
prisonermonkeys
Elsewhere:
  • Martin Prokop isn't on the entry list, which is disappointing. He might not have been the fastest driver, but he was a good, reliable privateer, so it would be a shame to see him go. There's no word on his future plans.
  • WRC-2 is shaping up quite nicely, with Esapekka Lappi, Ole Christian Veiby, Julien Maurin and a few others of note alongside Elfyn Evans. Nasser al-Attiyah is out, though, as he prepares for the Olympics in Rio De Janeiro (he's also a competitive shooter). No Yuriy Protasov, either.
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Well Prokop is doing the Dakar at the moment, he wanted to do both Monte & Dakar but with the short turn around it would have been impossible. I'm sure we'll see him back in the WRC in Sweden.

As for WRC2, I honestly believe this is where the excitement is going to lie this year. Reduced programs from the big boys in WRC (mainly Citroen) could mean that it's another Volkswagen walk over. Some great competition in WRC2 with M-Sport trying to prove their car can stick it to the Skoda's. Should be exciting to watch. You'll probably find that some guys skip Monte though and appear later in the season - I imagine Protasov might well be doing that.

Talking of exciting to watch...wonder where the RGT cars have gone? There's none on the entry list for Monte. Dumas is Dakar'ing but somewhat surprised there isn't a Tuthill car there.
 
So Sordo is now lead driver for Hyundai, do anyone knows what it means? What advantage do Sordo have over Neuville? When it comes to the championship I am 100% certain Ogier is gonna take his fourth title in a row.
 
Sordo keeps it on the road for one. Neuville completely lost it in the second half of last season, so much so that he got dropped in favour of Paddon while Hyundai were chasing manufacture points.

I think we'll see how the championship will unfold by the time Portugal roles around. Hyundai have a completely new car they've been working on for some time now. They have talented drivers and the car should have the potential to challenge VW this year.

VW are in a push/pull situation in that they still want to secure this years championship but also want to switch to full time development of the 2017 car as soon as possible so they can challenge Citroen in coming years.
 
Just figured I'd pop in to ask: is WRC worth watching this season? I've faded away over the past few years as the teams/cars/competition/rallies have become terribly boring. Anything new/fancy/interesting this year? If not, I'll stick to ERC which has been pretty excellent.

Is VW going to stomp everyone again?
 
TheElbows
Just figured I'd pop in to ask: is WRC worth watching this season? I've faded away over the past few years as the teams/cars/competition/rallies have become terribly boring. Anything new/fancy/interesting this year? If not, I'll stick to ERC which has been pretty excellent.

Is VW going to stomp everyone again?
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With a new Hyundai car, a promising New Zealand driver and expanded calendar I think this season will be good.
 
TheElbows
Just figured I'd pop in to ask: is WRC worth watching this season? I've faded away over the past few years as the teams/cars/competition/rallies have become terribly boring. Anything new/fancy/interesting this year? If not, I'll stick to ERC which has been pretty excellent.

Is VW going to stomp everyone again?
Click to expand...
It's quite difficult to say at this point, but it's quite likely that this season won't be much more interesting than the last one.

It's still somewhat worth it to wait until Mexico, as that's usually when the real performance differences between each team/driver are starting to show.
 
You can do whatever you want to the cars but if no one can challenge Ogier it's all the same.
 
It is believed that Rallye Monte Carlo will be Robert Kubica's last WRC event.

Meanwhile, there have been seventeen WRC entries for Sweden, including Henning Solberg in a revived Adapta WRT, WRC debutant Yazeed al-Rahji, and two Eurolamp Minis.
 
Robert Kubica is on the Sweden entry list, but his co-driver says "it's just an option" - is looks like the organisers included them so that an entry was guaranteed if they can make it.
 
prisonermonkeys
Meanwhile, there have been seventeen WRC entries for Sweden, including Henning Solberg in a revived Adapta WRT, WRC debutant Yazeed al-Rahji, and two Eurolamp Minis.
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Henning has been on quite a few entry lists over the past year and never turned up. I don't think he'll be in Sweden as, like most other rounds, he doesn't have the budget.

In other (huge) news, Jost Capito will be leaving VW for McLaren F1 at some point during the 2016 season.

http://m.crash.net/f1/news/226081/1/jost-capito-appointed-mclaren-racing-ceo.html
 
boiltheocean
Henning has been on quite a few entry lists over the past year and never turned up. I don't think he'll be in Sweden as, like most other rounds, he doesn't have the budget.
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He has contested Rally Sweden every year since 2000, with the only exception being 2009 when it wasn't on the WRC calendar.
 
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