2022 Rallying

[justracing]

Originally Posted by ArnageWRC

https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/t...-bid/10330388/

How has our event come to this? Some epic mismanagement......

Shambles!

[S griffin]

Hopefully something is worked out so Rally GB can return to the calendar. It's not been the same without it

[ArnageWRC]

Hope won't be enough; cold harsh £££££ is needed. And nobody is willing to part with it to fund a UK round of the WRC. And is anybody really surprised?

MSUK hosted a British motorsport day in Parliament on Monday; from their tweets, I can't recall seeing rallying mentioned/ featured at all.

[cg7aa]

How long has Hyundai been in the championship? The reason for asking is that I wonder if the program has got to the point where the board may start questioning the returns on investment to date?

[NaBUru38]

Since 2014. Neuville was runner-up in 2016/17/18/19 and third in 2021. Tänak was third in 2020. About 21 wins out of 100 races.

[BertMk2]

Another win for Rovanpera - just hand him the title now! Impressive performance again, he really is the class of the field at the moment. Another disappointing showing from M-Sport though, seems to have been the usual pattern - flashes of speed but mistakes and reliability problems again.

[ArnageWRC]

It's certainly impressive from young Kalle; though it helps when your opposition continually self-destructs.

Hyundai can't seem to make their car reliable enough, and it seems to have issues due to lack of development, which is due to the late start. The team is a mess.....

M-Sport is as expected, due to lack of financial backing. Unless Ford decides to commit properly, then they're not going to get much better. Is the car quick? In Loeb's hands it seems reasonably quick, in certain conditions.

It's not great for the sport, when you know what is likely to happen before an event starts....
Of all the major global motorsport series, the WRC is probably the least interesting.

[cg7aa]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

...Another disappointing showing from M-Sport though, seems to have been the usual pattern - flashes of speed but mistakes and reliability problems again.

Just goes to show just how little we all know (I include the so called-seasoned commentators and insiders in the mix); I recall all the predictions about how M-Sport were going to be really strong in the new era; they got their car out first, they have experience with this and that unlike so and so manufacturer. All pure conjecture and guesswork, doesn't mean much when reality intrudes.

[cg7aa]

Originally Posted by ArnageWRC

...
Hyundai can't seem to make their car reliable enough...

That still baffles me; I can't understand it. I remember when they first entered and all the breakages they were having on the rougher events..fast forward x years later and some of the same things (I may be mistaken on this) are still breaking on the tougher events. Is it a deliberate engineering philosophy or an inability to conduct proper root cause analysis and learn from it? Who knows!

Originally Posted by ArnageWRC

...
Of all the major global motorsport series, the WRC is probably the least interesting.

I fear we may lose a manufacturer sooner rather than later and then the championship will look very hollow indeed. Sad. There doesn't seem to a queue of manufacturers queuing to enter for the last 10+ yrs it seems. Are the promoters and FIA even actively courting manufacturers? A serious rethink in needed before the whole think collapses in on itself.

[ArnageWRC]

I sometimes think they live in a bubble - and think the sport is far bigger than it actually is. I look at Sportscars, and they're collecting new manufacturers every month...(or so it seems). How long they stick around is another matter....

Something isn't right; and I'll continue to say, that having nearly all of the coverage behind a paywall is a massive mistake. Where is the return on investment? Is it any surprise no new manufacturers are queuing up to join.

This forum is like others, a handful of users commenting.....the sport isn't attracting interest.

[NaBUru38]

Loeb won at Monte Carlo with a Ford.


It's not the car, it's the drivers.

[ArnageWRC]

The Monte is a specialist event, and can't be taken as a true reflection of a car's outright pace.

However, it might help if a true top line driver was in it; but on another forum it was reported they didn't do a pre Finland test.

[TzeiTzei]

WRC puts a lot of stuff on their Youtube channel, but it's all quite short and not very inviting. If they want grow their fan base, then these days I think that a strong presence on platforms like Youtube is the way to go.

[ArnageWRC]

Yes, it's all pretty poor. And having WRC, ERC & WorldRX behind a paywall is a massive mistake.

[NaBUru38]

I understand that they charge 10-15 dollars per month for live streams of every WRC1 car. I don't understand two-minute daily highlights.

[pimmy]

You can still watch the daily highlights on Red Bull TV. It's not all behind a pay wall.

[ArnageWRC]

25 min daily highlights are nice to watch, but aren't going to bring in more sponsors, manufacturers, etc
Fine in the 90s/early 00s but not in 2022. The WRC needs some free to view live action....

[justracing]

A rare mistake from the young maestro in Belgium and Tanak takes the win by a slim margin from Evans. Rovanpera's off was absolutely huge, how on earth the team repaired it in 4 hours is beyond me and Craig Breen's excursion in the Ford along with the Hyundai of Neuville in the closing stages must have been a real blow to their teams chances.
I'm lucky enough to be able to watch on BT Sport but as others have said putting the whole event behind a paywall is very damaging, the Red Bull TV offering hardly constitutes full coverage.

[S griffin]

Yes, that could be a very costly mistake from Rovanpera. Great win from Tanak and good charge by Evans. Seems a very challenging rally, where mistakes are easily punished. Great coverage by ITV4 as always

[Tel 911S]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Yes, that could be a very costly mistake from Rovanpera. Great win from Tanak and good charge by Evans. Seems a very challenging rally, where mistakes are easily punished. Great coverage by ITV4 as always

Ypres is very challenging .
Have done it several times , and the ditches are not very forgiving .
Pace notes must be spot on , with cuts on the corners needing to list how deep, and how early or late .
And some places on the tarmac are so slippery that you can spin just from lifting off the throttle .

But a very good , although hard work , event .

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Yes, that could be a very costly mistake from Rovanpera.

I don't think it'll have much impact - his lead is still pretty healthy looking. It'll take a couple more dnf's from Rovanpera (and some consistency from his rivals) to make the title fight interesting.

[S griffin]

True, but he needs to make sure he doesn't repeat the mistake or let it get to him.

[justracing]

South Down Stages 3rd December http://southdownsstages.co.uk/
Wrap up warm!

[BertMk2]

So Hyundai finally get a good result: 1-2-3 a clean sweep of the podium. Again M-Sport seemed to have the pace in the car to get a decent result but manage to somehow come away without a car on the podium even when the Toyotas falter. Strange weekend really with the Toyotas not really being in contention - not often that's been said this year. Hyundai certainly made the most of the opportunity.

[NaBUru38]

Standings after the Acropolis Rally:

• 1. FIN Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota), 207 pts
• 2. EST Ott Tänak (Hyundai), 154
• 3. BEL Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), 131
• 4. GBR Elfyn Evans (Toyota), 116
• 5. JPN Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota), 100
• 6. IRL Craig Breen (Ford), 77
• 7. FIN Esapekka Lappi (Toyota), 58
• 8. ESP Dani Sordo (Hyundai), 49
• 9. GBR Gus Greensmith (Ford), 36
• 10. FRA Sébastien Loeb (Ford), 35
• 11. FRA Sébastien Ogier (Toyota), 34
• 12. FRA Pierre-Louis Loubet (Ford), 30

Next round is at Auckland, New Zealand on September 29 - October 2.