2017 World Rally Championship

[Alex Langheck]

In Monte Carlo there were comments from other teams that Citroen have designed a Touring car for the WRC; rather than a Rally car. It certainly looks a handful, and is giving the drivers no confidence at all. One fastest stage time after 2 events isn't great.

Saying that, the time to make a proper judgement is at the season end; but it could be a long year if they can't sort it out.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Alex Langheck

In Monte Carlo there were comments from other teams that Citroen have designed a Touring car for the WRC; rather than a Rally car. It certainly looks a handful, and is giving the drivers no confidence at all. One fastest stage time after 2 events isn't great.

Saying that, the time to make a proper judgement is at the season end; but it could be a long year if they can't sort it out.

Perhaps Mr Loeb needs to take one for a burn thru the forests...

[Hiro]

Congrats to Toyota. If Latvala hadn't joined Toyota early and brought what he earned with VW, the results would have been miserable.

[chunder]

Mr Loeb has achieved all he ever wanted to to in WRC and probably got very bored!

I think they have built a pup simply put. I doubt much can sort it out, unless there is an obvious problem, it might just be they have built a bad car for the first time in their life.

Shame for Meeke, but he will simply either drive for finishes or throw it away more than he does now. Breen is the one I feel sorry for.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by Hiro

Congrats to Toyota. If Latvala hadn't joined Toyota early and brought what he earned with VW, the results would have been miserable.

This is a good point - if Toyota didn't have Latvala would their results be as good? Seems unlikely - I think Haninens pace is more what we'd see from both cars.

Originally Posted by chunder

Mr Loeb has achieved all he ever wanted to to in WRC and probably got very bored!

Loeb is off doing Dakar and WRX for Peugeot - it's not a huge leap to see him testing the Citroen but I don't see it happening. As you say he's really got nothing to prove by doing it and nothing to gain.

Originally Posted by chunder

I think they have built a pup simply put. I doubt much can sort it out, unless there is an obvious problem, it might just be they have built a bad car for the first time in their life.

Shame for Meeke, but he will simply either drive for finishes or throw it away more than he does now. Breen is the one I feel sorry for.

It may be the case that as Alex says above Citroen have basically built a touring car - if it's brutally quick on the tarmac events later in the year that theory may well be proved. Certainly from the testing it looked like the Citroen was going to be the car to beat - they had the car out testing early and were pounding the miles in, it was a surprise to hear the drivers complaining about the car being so unsettled and the handling so bad.

[crossfades]

Loeb said a while back that he would have tested for Citroen if he had been offered. He never was though ...

Seems odd that they complain about the car, they have tested it quite sometime like you say. This was a very tough rally but still. Looking forward to Mexico, will be exciting to see how things turn out there.

[S griffin]

Saw the highlights on C5 last night. Shame for Neuville, but congrats to Latvala, proving all that hard work they've prepared coming to bear fruit. Tommi Makinen was over the moon when interviewed. And Ogier proves he's not perfect

[tbtstt]

I can't stop watching the clips from SS9, that sustained speed on snow seems unreal!

Decent highlight programme on Channel 5 last night and I watched all the shows on Red Bull TV over the weekend. It's still early days but, thus far, it really feels like the 2017 cars have been deserving of the year of hype we have had for them. I can't wait to see how things pan out when we get to tarmac.

[tyronnezx]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

I can't stop watching the clips from SS9, that sustained speed on snow seems unreal!

Decent highlight programme on Channel 5 last night and I watched all the shows on Red Bull TV over the weekend. It's still early days but, thus far, it really feels like the 2017 cars have been deserving of the year of hype we have had for them. I can't wait to see how things pan out when we get to tarmac.

where can i find these clips??

[cg7aa]

C'est pas possible, Thierry! Such a shame. Might he rue these chances going begging come season's end?

I can understand Hyundai's frustration but if you remove their 'star 'driver, who is going to do the winning for them consistently? Sordo might do something on a tarmac event or two and Hayden might grab a win on gravel (I would love him to as I'm a fan) but it seems neither have a grasp as yet on the new car like Neuvile.

I don't begrudge Jari and Toyota the win, well done them but I really wanted Ott to break his duck.

[cg7aa]

Originally Posted by tyronnezx

where can i find these clips??

I presume you're after the onboards? I can't help with that but for really enjoyable spectator footage, search youtube with something like 'WRC 2017 Rally [Insert rally of choice here] Pure sounds', sit back and enjoy the stunning HD clips.

[chunder]

THe real issue with WRC begins once the main racing season starts, and you have a lot of other things vying for attention, then people will often watch other things.

No matter how exciting the first few rounds are. Why not have WRC in the winter months, you can rally in Australia, NZ, Japan, China this time of year and still have decent weather, then Europe in our summer. More coverage, more captive audience.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by tyronnezx

where can i find these clips??

If you watch the "Day 2" coverage on Red Bull TV they are shown as part of that program.

[cg7aa]

Given the stage cancellation in Sweden due to the 'high' speeds (who would have thought that allowing more power and downforce would mean they go quicker!), are going to see classic stages like Ouninpohja being broken up into multiple stages or modified with artificial chicanes?

[S griffin]

Well they should really do the calculations beforehand to see if the stages can handle it

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Well they should really do the calculations beforehand to see if the stages can handle it

That's really what the original comment was saying. Even the 2016 cars were running at over 80 MPH (average) on SS9 in Sweden, the organizers should have realized how fast it was going to be and taken measures to slow it down beforehand.

An awful lot of articles I have read relating to this story are using inflammatory headlines to get peoples attention: and giving them the wrong idea.

[crossfades]

Tänak had an average speed of 137,8 km/h on Knon (a couple of km from where I live actually, they drove right by my house on the way to the stage). The record at Ouninpohja is 136 km/h, which also was the record on a stage before Knon. Makes me wonder how the rallies in Poland and Finland are going to be

On average Rally Sweden does not have the same high speeds as those rallies. The roads where I live are very fast and not that technical for the most part. Knon is truly an exception from the rest of the rally.

[NaBUru38]

https://motorsport.com/wrc/news/fia-...speeds-874175/

After adopting bigger engines, wings and tyres, now FIA says that cars are going too fast.

[1975DCS]

So once again they are trying to kill it... And they only look for average speed numbers even if high speed straights are the safest in the world...

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by 1975DCS

So once again they are trying to kill it... And they only look for average speed numbers even if high speed straights are the safest in the world...

Is there such a thing as a straight in off road rallying though? Don't forget they've also got big jumps where things can go wrong, with scenery either side. But I do agree there's a lot of irony in the FIA making them faster, then the stages being slowed so we don't get see them in their glory. Tail wagging the dog

[cg7aa]

This one passed me by but I only learned recently that the reason we didn't see and won't see any privateer 2017 spec VW Polo WRC cars is because they were not homologated before the end of year deadline and the FIA rejected the subsequent application for a homologation waiver so that a privateer team (presumably with very deep pockets indeed) could run the cars.

[1975DCS]

I hate those stupid homologation rules! I can understand things have to be according to the rules, but those homologation rules, really bug me

[crossfades]

FIA would have let the VW's compete if the other manufactures had said yes. Because of different reasons though there was not a united yes and so the VW was not allowed.

Prokop and Red Bull were on the brink to run the cars and have Ogier in one of them. But then Qatar got involved and so everything got delayed until it was no longer possible. Mikkelsen also had a plan with Erik Veiby and Even Management after Prokop/Red Bull and Qatar to run one car privately.

[NaBUru38]

I hate homologations. If a team brings a car that is within the rules, then it should be allowed.

Rally homologations have killed national championship in several countries.

[S griffin]

And it's a big shame that Mikkelsen is stuck in WRC2 when he could have, if the rules let him, ran a private VW in the top class