Time for a fine for bringing the sport into dispute?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AndyRAC

I think they'd already pulled out through lack of money - and a disagreement between MSD/Hyundai.....

.....which resulted in the fine.

---

I agree

Surley the actions of the last 2 WRC rallies in Australia and France have taken the sport into disrepute?

Latvala should have won in Australia but Malcolm Wilson made Hirvonen win, a move which took him a step closer to being a 'paper champion' after takeing a 'paper win'.

Then today Malcolm Wilson made JML take out a 2 minuete penaly for being early, penanlties are for people who break the rules, and Malcolm Wilson effectively 'forced' JML to break the rules.

All of this is giving Mikko Hirvonen a better advantage of the championship win, the point of the championship is that the fastest driver wins, so if a driver with the more points in a team is slower than the 2nd driver, it should stay that way.

Team orders are still legal, so while what happened wasn't perfect, it was perfectly acceptable.
All teams have used them down the years; Lancia, Citroen, Subaru, Mitsubishi, etc

While I like Mikko, who is a good driver, but not a No1 - I hope either of the Sebs win the WRC....they've actually gone out to win events.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Langdale Forest

Surley the actions of the last 2 WRC rallies in Australia and France have taken the sport into disrepute?

Latvala should have won in Australia but Malcolm Wilson made Hirvonen win, a move which took him a step closer to being a 'paper champion' after takeing a 'paper win'.

Then today Malcolm Wilson made JML take out a 2 minuete penaly for being early, penanlties are for people who break the rules, and Malcolm Wilson effectively 'forced' JML to break the rules.

All of this is giving Mikko Hirvonen a better advantage of the championship win, the point of the championship is that the fastest driver wins, so if a driver with the more points in a team is slower than the 2nd driver, it should stay that way.

---

I think that taking those road penalties is much more reasonable choice than hanging around the stage a few tens of minutes or so..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AndyRAC

Team orders are still legal, so while what happened wasn't perfect, it was perfectly acceptable.

---

I couldn't agree more. Also, rules banning team orders are always impossible to implement.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BDunnell

I couldn't agree more. Also, rules banning team orders are always impossible to implement.

---

A way to minimise the effect of team orders is to award a proportion of the championship points on any event for each stage won. This would have minimised the benefit to any driver who is 'allowed' a win on the final day / stage. I haven't thought through the ramifications, but if, as our Hellenic friend pointed out, Ogier was sandbagging Sordo then he would have been giving up points by not trying to win every stage he could.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mintexmemory

A way to minimise the effect of team orders is to award a proportion of the championship points on any event for each stage won. This would have minimised the benefit to any driver who is 'allowed' a win on the final day / stage. I haven't thought through the ramifications, but if, as our Hellenic friend pointed out, Ogier was sandbagging Sordo then he would have been giving up points by not trying to win every stage he could.

---

The main ramification of such an idea, as far as I'm concerned, is to over-complicate matters.

True, but it would act against unworthy wins

Oportunity to win without taking first place in every stage (or maybe in any stage at all, remember Gronholm victory in Cyprus 2002) is a part of the sport. Trying to minimize effect of team orders in that way would take out one of the key factors of rallying - importance of surviving.

Stage wins

Loeb 55
Latvala 51
Ogier 49
Hirvonen 32 (13 of those around 10kms from his house)

paper champ is an understatement.