International Rally Driver of the Year - 2017

[GravelBen]

I still think Juha Kannkkunen is better than both and is thr GOAT. But as in my first post, thats my opinion.

I'm inclined to agree, the variety of machinery he competed/won with and the length of time he was among the top drivers is quite remarkable.

Very hard to compare between different eras though - truth is we will never know if Loeb would have kept winning in different cars, because he stayed with the same team and the rules stayed more or less the same. And we will never know if Kankkunen would have won more championships if he had the chance to stay in one consistently dominant team and style of car for his whole career.

Regarding this season, I think its Tanak who has impressed me most with his improved speed and consistency over previous years.

[wia5958]

Has to be tanak for me. He was a different man this year altogether plus that power stage in monte really seals it for me. Closely followed by latvala. Unfortunate mechanical issues and it could of been a diff story. Cant see why meeke or evans are there. N im a fan of both. Maybe meeke for his victories in a problematic car and evans for his win on d macks but not really enough to warrant being on the list

[Mirek]

Very hard to compare between different eras though - truth is we will never know if Loeb would have kept winning in different cars, because he stayed with the same team and the rules stayed more or less the same. And we will never know if Kankkunen would have won more championships if he had the chance to stay in one consistently dominant team and style of car for his whole career..

Fully active 2.0 WRC cars at Loeb's start were quite a lot different from completely mechanical 1.6 WRC cars with less power and way less torque. It's wrong to say that the rules stayed same all the time. They didn't.

The argument about staying with the same team is pretty lame. He was the one who helped to build the team and get it where it was. When he retired the team suddenly stopped dominating. Before people were crying how he kept winning thanks to his car but strangely other drivers with the same car never managed to be dominant. When he returned from retirement for just one rally in 2015 after just 7 stages of first leg he was already two minutes ahead of his team mate Meeke and nearly three mintes ahead of Ostberg . After nearly two years long pause with the very same car like them! Hirvonen hasn't achieved a single victory with the same car while Loeb from only three starts in the same year scored two victories and one second place (against Ogier in Polo). Out of those three starts Loeb scored more than half of points of No.1 driver Hirvonen in the whole season.

In his first full works season Loeb defeated both his teammates which were none else than Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae. He lost the title with Solberg by 1 point.

Also as Adler pointed out. In 2006 Loeb with semi-works team managed to take the title when he did only 12 events of 16 (due to injury) and scored 8 victories and 4 second places.

[steve.mandzij]

I'm super impartial, but I'd have to give it to Latvala for driver of the year. The standings don't tell the whole story: his win in Sweden was unprecedented, and there was no denying that he was in a class of his own in Finland. It's sad that the Yaris cost him so many points in Mexico, Argentina, Italy (?), Poland, Finland and Germany (and maybe Spain) because of reliability issues, because he was consistently on the pace for the whole season. I reckon he'd still be in the title fight going into Australia if his car hadn't let him down. Even more remarkable is the context in which this season took place: he bounced back from a crippling career low to become a main title contender for most of the season.

Tanak is a close second, but ultimately he's still growing; not in terms of raw pace, but mentally. He pushed too hard in Poland, slipped off the road in Corsica, lost time during the first night stage in WRGB, etc. He's incredibly quick and a much more worthy title contender than Neuville IMO, but he's not quite complete yet.

Neuville is pretty obviously a bad choice. Even though he was the quickest driver in terms of raw pace, period, he was one of the most mistake prone. He just got lucky many times (rather than unlucky, i.e. Monte or Sweden, which were 100% driver error.). His consistency was what lost him the title...

...unlike the story for Ogier. While he still won the championship, he was only the cleverest driver, not the best. Speedwise, he kept himself moderated: again, smart, but effectively it means he won the title much more from others' mistakes and misfortune other than his own speed.

Meeke is a joke on this list, seriously.

Evans wasn't consistently quick enough to warrant a best driver of the year award at all.

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[wrc2017]

Your a sad individual.

If we are looking at the DRIVER.. Meeke was walking Corsica. Otherwise we would have 3 wins. He lead most rallys and maybe close to the most stage wins in 2017.

All this while you have got piles sitting infront of your keyboard too long.

He is not going to win it, but if they have to nominate 6.. he is eligable.

Let me know when you make the shortlist for anything on the world stage.

Ogier - involuntarily new team and car, immediately wins first rally and then the title due to both speed and consistency

The others in just about this order:
Tanak - sure he put himself on the map with 2 wins, but he also was involved with the fiesta from the very start and didn't win the title, now probably also lost 2nd (should have done the award after australia), so barely behind Ogier in my eyes.
Neuville - fastest driver of the year and a real title contender, but showed he still needs some more consistency (Sweden stands out the most)

Latvala - after disastrous 2016 and declining form he was actually both fast and stable in an new car, good job. But he has been driving and winning rallies on this level for quite a while, so nothing totally new.

Evans - really impossible to judge performance both ways, say if DMACK was 0.5s faster in Wales that would mean that on equal tires he could have ended 7th. Similarly maybe DMACK was 0.5 slower on tarmac or other gravel rallies and he had rally winning speed... pretty impossible to judge with only 1 driver on those tires.


Meeke -bad joke from brit. journalists? The only real positive is winning in Spain after crashing/mistakes in 5 consecutive rallies. But as mentioned here he has done that many times before, win something after crashing a lot. Considering he was pointed as main title candidate before the start of the year I can't see how this qualifies for any award. Also Finland and Germany have shown that others can also drive the C3 faster than him.

[wrc2017]

Dont you guys see the heat is now totally off Meeke since an engineering cull within Citroen and Loeb tested the car. Join the dots.
Ogier walks this award.

I would vote for Ott. He was the guy that really upped his game this year. If he was able to stay a bit calmer during the final day of Poland, his season would have been nearly flawless. Ogier was excellent but there were so many days this season that he looked vulnerable. Nobody was there to bit him most times, so that should be a plus for him. Neuville had the most pure pace this year but the early costly mistakes and the really bad showing in NORF, undermined his challenge. JML finally managed to mount a consistent campaign for the whole season and without NORF and Poland mechanicals, he would have been even higher. Sadly, Meeke is probably lucky that he still has a contract for 2018...

[N.O.T]

How can the world champion not be the driver of the year ??? isn't the championship there to decide that ???

I think the title of the international useless dog of garbage is far more interesting...

the natural born loser potato nobody wins that hands down... Never before in history of the sport a person loses the championship driving the best car by retiring 2 times in in super specials and while leading by about a minute.

[cali]

Certainly not downplaying...if VW stayed long enough i think ogier would have matched his 9 wdc to make a point. Im saying i think him winning this year in a new car in a privateer team againts 3 full works teams is something special. One hell of a risk to put his reputation and legacy on the line but he did. Im fairly sure Loeb was offered a contract by Ford and even test drove the focus but decided to stay at citroen.

I still think Juha Kannkkunen is better than both and is thr GOAT. But as in my first post, thats my opinion.

Kankkunen was crap on tarmac. Not a complete driver IMHO.

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[L555MAT]

Very good point he was weak on tarmac. Probably one of the few negatives he had

[AL14]

How can the world champion not be the driver of the year ??? isn't the championship there to decide that ???

I think the title of the international useless dog of garbage is far more interesting...

the natural born loser potato nobody wins that hands down... Never before in history of the sport a person loses the championship driving the best car by retiring 2 times in in super specials and while leading by about a minute.

That's a prize they give to make everyone happy, better again if they're british.