2015 World Rally Championship

[Alex Langheck]

That's as good as you're going to get for any non F1 Motorsport. In fact, a few newspapers had Mick Schumacher winning a F4 race as a bigger story.......

Go on any motorsport websites/ forums and there isn't great interest in the WRC, apart from the dedicated rally forums.

[cg7aa]

He did it! He did it! I don't remember the last time I was that nervous watching a rally except maybe the last time he cudda won but threw it away! I watched the first two days and it was nerve racking. I didn't see the final day highlights until last night. I kept expecting a small error to rip off a wheel like Mikkelsen and Neuville. I had slightly moist eyes when he dedicated it to Colin among others.

[cg7aa]

Congrats to Elfyn and Barritt too!

Other notable points for me were Dmack tyres strong showing in WRC2, Sodo's speed on gravel (he's matured into an all rounder now I feel).

Does anyone know why Andreas seems to swap co-drivers? I don't recall seeing Ola alongside him this season so far.

Poor old Latvala, might as well write off the season or is there still time?

Finally, best wishes to the seriously injured spectator who I think is still in intensive care and a speedy recovery to the others who were injured but have since been released from hospital. I've gotta say though,the modern motorsport journalistic trope of briefly mentioning there has been an incident and then not elaborating further is very irritating. No sane person wants speculative news but at least inform the viewer of the facts known at the time. Is that too hard to do?

[mikuni]

Holy crap, that was intense. What a great rally to watch. I only just caught up with the highlights after making sure I didn't find out the winner (as mentioned above, it wasn't difficult to avoid the coverage!).

I'm overjoyed with Meeke winning. I'm not a huge fan, but anyone who wears his heart on his sleeve and is so openly emotional about what he does, is a good bloke in my book. His mentioning of Colin certainly brought a tear to my eye.

Now for the negative. I was shocked at the brief mention of the stage being cancelled due to a "serious accident with Hayden Padden". As a kiwi, this would have been heart breaking news to hear with no further information. Luckily I follow Hayden on Facebook, so despite knowing it was a terrible accident with serious injuries, at least he told us there were no fatalies. I was very disappointed with this lack of coverage and I wonder what the politics are behind it. The fans in Argentina do push the limit at times, and I for one wouldn't have a problem with some slightly more strict safety requirements.

[S griffin]

I'm so glad the monkey is off his back. True there was a bit of luck, but this time he didn't throw it away. Show's the brits can still do it and that despite Ogier's dominance, it's still more open than the Loeb era. And Evans third makes it better.

[cg7aa]

DS3 livery for Portugal; what do we make of it?

http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/may/n...1--12-12-.html

[BertMk2]

Looks better I think - the gold never really worked (has it ever on a competition car?). The Fiestas are upgraded for this event too so hopefully they'll be closer to the VW's.

[Alex Langheck]

Rallye Portugal - 1 stage to go and normal service resumed??

[NaBUru38]

Standings after Portugal:

1. Sébastien Ogier (Volkswagen), 105
2. Andreas Mikkelsen (Volkswagen), 63
3. Mads Østberg (Citroën), 57
4. Kris Meeke (Citroën), 47
5. Jari-Matti Latvala (Volkswagen), 46
6. Elfyn Evans (M-Sport Ford), 41
7. Dani Sordo (Hyundai), 36
8. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), 35
9. Martin Prokop (Czech Ford), 27
10. Ott Tänak (M-Sport Ford), 22

[cg7aa]

Originally Posted by Alex Langheck

Rallye Portugal - 1 stage to go and normal service resumed??

From a manufacturers perspective, yes but different driver though and about time too! It's been a bit of a wait for him.

I thought Ogier's comments afterwards was a bit catty unless something was lost in translation in his head! He was saying the 'best' did not win the rally and some people being bored when the 'best' wins all the time.

What has happened to Hyundai and Neuville? Sordo has probably been the most impressive for me so far this season from that camp. I was really hoping Hyundai would make VW work extremely very hard for wins this season.

[BertMk2]

Sardinia is underway and so far Ogier is 'only' 3rd - road position possibly the problem there? Latvala 2nd and Paddon leads Didn't see that coming! Meeke has rolled and is out Mikklesen has also had problems and may well be out (fueling issues on a road section). The Fords look to be off the pace (or is it just the Hyundais are flying?).

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

The Fords look to be off the pace (or is it just the Hyundais are flying?).

First for Tanak in SS7, so hopefully there is some life left in the Fords yet!

[BertMk2]

Ogier wins again but Paddon and Neuville get on the podium - good showing from Hyundai and Evans picks up 4th. I didn't see any of the coverage but I'll try and catch the highlights at some point - looks like it was an interesting event.

[Alex Langheck]

Looked an interesting event; but overshadowed by events in France. What made then hold it the same weekend is baffling.

[m355y]

the likes of Meeke really need to stop stuffing up early on. It's getting to the point where you check the results after a few stages and almost expect to see Meeke, Kubica et al missing from the leaderboard despite their obvious speed. Nobody's going to take the fight to Ogier over a season at this rate, ever.

[chunder]

SAme story differnet rally for me.

Other than the resurgence of Hyundai, helped artificially by the road conditions, there really is only one team taking this seriously.

LIke watchign Citroen years ago and now in WTCC.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by chunder

there really is only one team taking this seriously.

LIke watchign Citroen years ago and now in WTCC.

I'm not sure 'taking it seriously' is the issue - it's M-Sports core business so they have to take it seriously too. I think it's more 'overspending' - as you say Citroen came into the WRC with an open chequebook and have taken that approach to the WTCC as well. Volkswagens budget for the WRC is significantly bigger than the others - Hyundai have a budget to stick to, Citroen are running a much lighter operation than they were (due to the WTCC expense) and M-Sport are a privateer outfit now so don't have the big Ford wallet. It's the usual thing with works dominated categories - someone just outspends everyone else and then teams leave as it's too expensive to compete - eventually the category collapses.

[chunder]

It might have been MSports core business, but have you notoced how well theya re doing in GT racing with the Bentley?

ANy reason do you think why theya re looking at branching out? I think I can see one big one.

What is the answer. You can ony run a series when the world economy is booming like in the early 00's when you had Hyundai, Ford, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Skoda, SEAT, Subaru and a bit later Citroen?

Or the early 90's when you had guys like Nissan, Toyota, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Ford all involved?

Th series has been struggling for a very, very long time now for manufacturers. The lower categories of 4wd started with S2000 and now the sort of WRC2 concept both boomed nicely, and that is not really translating into the WRC for whatever reason.

I subscribe to a lot of foreign rally channels on youtube, and no matter where you look, Italy, France, Benelux, Ireland even, Germany, Eastern Europe there are decent feilds of WRC2 and S2000 cars still.

But for whetever reason it does not translate as well into ERC or WRC. There must be a reason.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by chunder

It might have been MSports core business, but have you notoced how well theya re doing in GT racing with the Bentley?

ANy reason do you think why theya re looking at branching out? I think I can see one big one.

Yep - I think they've seen that the writing may be on the wall so have diversified. Having said that they do seem to be doing a good trade in the lower spec Fiestas don't they? There are certainly plenty of those about!

Originally Posted by chunder

What is the answer. You can ony run a series when the world economy is booming like in the early 00's when you had Hyundai, Ford, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Skoda, SEAT, Subaru and a bit later Citroen?

Or the early 90's when you had guys like Nissan, Toyota, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Ford all involved?

I think that's the only way an expensive series can survive - if you look at other categories from the time - GT1 and Super Touring for example the same happened, costs went through the roof and the category died off.

Originally Posted by chunder

Th series has been struggling for a very, very long time now for manufacturers. The lower categories of 4wd started with S2000 and now the sort of WRC2 concept both boomed nicely, and that is not really translating into the WRC for whatever reason.

I subscribe to a lot of foreign rally channels on youtube, and no matter where you look, Italy, France, Benelux, Ireland even, Germany, Eastern Europe there are decent feilds of WRC2 and S2000 cars still.

But for whetever reason it does not translate as well into ERC or WRC. There must be a reason.

Agreed - the WRC has been on its arse for a while - the entries just aren't there and the competition is weak - the VW is king on all surfaces, it used to be the case that different surfaces suited different cars / drivers / tyres so the results weren't so much of a foregone conclusion.

As you say there is plenty of good rallying out there in various countries and classes - the WRC just isn't a good 'top' level of the sport at the moment. What can be done about it? That's the $64K question isn't ut?

[Alex Langheck]

I've no idea what the solution is. But the WRC 'insiders' seem to be happy with everything..... And that is worrying.
Maybe WRC just isn't fashionable anymore; the WEC seems to be all the rage at this moment in time.

[pettersolberg29]

My video from an amazing Rally Italia Sardinia - first time there but certainly not the last!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3zGG7fEC8Y

[cg7aa]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

Ogier wins again but Paddon and Neuville get on the podium - good showing from Hyundai and Evans picks up 4th. I didn't see any of the coverage but I'll try and catch the highlights at some point - looks like it was an interesting event.

That was a bit of a car breaker wasn't it? Some very narrow stages too. Delighted for Paddon and Kennard; road position or not, the drove very well and had a bit of good fortune too with the gearbox mounting problems. Possum would be proud. Looking at the wider motorsport world, you could say the Kiwis are coming; Evans, Hartley, Stanaway...

Sounds like Ogier copped some stick for his heat-of-the-moment post-rally comments in Portugal.

Anyway, regarding the general discussions about the state of the WRC, one thing isn't in doubt in my mind and that's the popularity among spectators. Look at any of the online videos people post and you can see the stages are always jammed-packed with so many people so it still appeals as a sport.

I was expecting a bit more pace from the revised Fords.

Depressing pattern for Kubica and Meeke to a degree.

[ArnageWRC]

WRC events get very good crowds, no problem there. The issue is elsewhere. On most forums/ websites you get very few comments for a WRC event, and usually the same people (like on here). The WRC trails massivley behind F1, BTCC and now even WEC. Even Meeke winning a WRC round hasn't really helped; Jerry Williams in MNews noted that hardly any newspapers reported it.

Maybe it's cyclical, and in a few years the interest will return. As already stated, at the moment, the WEC is flavour of the month.

[S griffin]

I think WRC is on the up, just needs more publicity in this country

[NaBUru38]

I think that the late 2000s crisis was partly caused by Loeb's domination and partly by a lack of proper promotion.

WRC had massive crowds in Europe, they often had to cancel rounds for lack of control. Now crowds are tiny and not coming back.

So the answer is television. But television coverage has been relegated to minor channels. Also, changing channels every season is also an issue. Compare with WTCC and IRC / ERC, which have been on Eurosport for a decade.