Gronholm 2008?

[Daniel]

Right. It's Catalan like Xevi Pons, but I try not to scream like him.

It's easy when you don't always go off the road

[Priorat]

It's easy when you don't always go off the road

Sure!

[janvanvurpa]

The sad fact is that all drivers reach a used-by date. There is nothing you can do about it. At around age 40ish eyesight and reflexes start to deteriorate and the speed slips away. Its very rare for a driver to realise its happening - they just seem to get slower.

Marcus is still IMO the most competetive guy for his age in rally history, he is always still fighting up the front, at maximum speed, on every rally.
I just hope he quits when the time is right, which may be the end of this year. I'll miss Marcus in the championship but seeing him not being at the top any more would be far worse...

Duff while some reflexes for most people slow down, reflex in general is a trained reaction, and as long as you keep training the body/eyes, you can maintain a far higher level of reaction times than most people imagine is possible.
Second, with the years comes experience, and with experience comes the ability to AVOID making bigger mistakes in the first place so that lighting quick reactions aren't needed---you see ahead of time and position yourself and the car right before a problem develops.

15-18 years after I stop with International moto-cross, I still had much MUCH faster reactions for simple tests and games that younger guys, and in doing gravel rallies here is USA and Canada people commented that I tended not to make blunders very often which they thought was surprising because of my age and the infrequency of entering rallies.
I explained that nearly 20 years of racing motocross sets the reactions into the bones, and that I've looked at loose surface for a lot longer than guys who merely play 4-6 rallies a year.

I see no reason that Gronholm could not continue for many more years except being more aware of the other costs: Family/friends/social life.

And to those saying he should quit while on top:
If he quits without making those below actually beat him, then I say we'll always say that those newbies aren't legitimate, they're 2nd and third because there's noboby who's proven good ahead.

So he should stay on till the young 'uns and he fight regularly, then we can say they earned the top spots, and he can retire knowing he's passed his position to worthy opponents.

[Finni]

Beatiful arguments from Janvanurpa but empirical evidence still suggest that driver start to loose his ability around 33-35 year age. Grönholm is only driver in modern era who is in top form at age of 39 year. Mcrae, Sainz and Mäkinen were beated by their young rivals at that phase - at least in terms of pure speed.