The only problem is he crashes too much..(watching Alsace 2011, Denis wasn't amused)
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What the news says it's that Novikov will take part in the DS3 R5 extra-official trophy against Citroen protegé Gilbert and Chardonnet (isn't Chardonnet going to drive a 208 T18 from Loeb Racing??)
i understand that Yoann Bonato and Kruuda also take part.
Yes, it seems that Citroen revelead some names for the trophy. Bonato, Kruuda, Gilbert and Chardonnet along with Novikov (!!!). Don't know what it's their source.
I agree.
I'm not against what drivers say, I repeat they should be listened but they can't decide themself. It's true what nafpaktos says, drivers know more than anyone else how can be dangerous out there but this doesn't mean they can take decisions ALONE boycotting stages. They should be listened carefully but they should be only a part of the discussion. Otherwise they could take decisions too much comfortable to them.
At the end, as someone wrote some months ago, if any of us can drive with fog, or without studs in snowy roads, those guys who are the best drivers in the world with the most performing cars (in terms of grip) in the world, can as well.
EDIT: Want just to add that in Australia I think with the drivers had a sort of point, especially regarding the spectators safety.
we drive on snow but with snow tyres, while they have only studded tyres option for Sweden. It is not impossible they drive slower with them when there's no snow, but may be this is not what is expected of them - driving faster is what is the competition is about, promotion and do forth, running at 150 to 200 kph on Rally Sweden is what everybody expect. On one hand I agree this is rally with all the challenges ahead, including improper equipment, on the other hand I tend to agree that this is not good for the sport, including safety. Sweden is suppose to be snow rally, but sometimes the weather doesn't agree.
Anyway this is not precedent in history of this rally, 15-20 years ago there was similar case, I remember McRae one year complained about such road conditions when all studs are gone early, fortunately nothing bad happened then, but I wonder what is supposed to be the solution for this? Are the tyre supply rules not comforting to these challenges? Or it is more about the competition issue?
In the 80´s Blomqvist had no studs what so ever on front wheel at end of stages. He complained about the car but drove furious anyway... And it was icy roads...
Come on, the conditions in Sweden were better than usually in Liepaja, ERC. Also the stud retention function of tyres is way better today than in the past.
Out of curiosity. Here in CZ no studs are allowed but we had a winter rally till 2006, even with WRC cars. It was never too dangerous, just stupidly slow. In fact it was very interesting to see which tyres work in such conditions and what is interesting, sometimes stock winter tyres were better option than racing ones. Also old pattern from 1980' when Barum was making competition non-studded snow tyres was brought back with a stock protector tyre - and it worked better than Monte Carlo style racing Michelin tyres without studs! Last time such conditions appeared was Prague rallysprint 2011. I was on one stage where PG Andersson with Michelin Monte Carlo tyres was 3 s/km slower than Tlusťák with stock Nokians with additional cuts!
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