[WRC] Rally Saudi Arabia 2025

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Originally Posted by Skunner

None of these roads were any more ‘fake man made’ than any other rally road. These were all existing gravel tracks that were developed for the event.

If you want ‘fake man made’ go to Safari. And there are no complaints about them. Nor should there be!

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I doubt what you say is true.

All roads are man-made and gravel stages need preventative/reparative care, but for man-made drama-show look no further than the jumps in the Baltic Sea area.

From TV and Video perspective - it looked very good. I had my doubts, but this rally has a real perspective; spectacular views. just they need to fix special tires. Saudi should invest in new-gen gravel tire, specially developed for rough environment - Hankook Desert Version.

You will see, next year we will have much more fans, as i doubt they have so tough limitations with spectator zones as in Europe.

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Originally Posted by Typ85

Maybe the Loeb factor... :D In these years also the starting order had changed, maybe the first years when the champoinship leader opens the road.. i remember Ogier wining about the road cleaning, when the rules changed... its all up to the starting order.. maybe something must be changed there.. qualification stage before the rally (like ERC) would be the solution i guess...

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I don’t really understand why the quali stage has nit been introduced to WRC as well

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Originally Posted by Rallyper

I doubt what you say is true.

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Having been involved from the start in both events, this is one occasion where I would be 110% certain in my facts….

The stages I watched online looked good (1 on first day, two on both of the next two days).

"Normal" gravel roads, some pretty spectacular like the descent on the stage where multiple drivers took the wrong junction. Also looked like there weren't any massive cutting issues like in the Qatar rally.

Find it funny that "artificial" roads get mentioned when most gravel rallies in Europe added fully purpose made sections or stages the last few years and Safari is run on made up roads in a closed park.

Yes there were many punctures, but drivers simply should adopt their style, like they did in Turkey a few years ago.

The one major change I would do is not run the event as the final round of the season.

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Originally Posted by COD

I don’t really understand why the quali stage has nit been introduced to WRC as well

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In theory the elites would be forming a runaway group after day 1 already. It'd be the same script most rallies but for weather. Choosing their start position could be marginally more entertaining.

:D Take it that's Iain been biting his tongue here for 9 years. Hope you post more.

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Originally Posted by COD

I don’t really understand why the quali stage has nit been introduced to WRC as well

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And with lovely "synchronisation" mode between WRC and ERC they were trying to kill qualifying also in ERC few years ago. Thanks god they didnt succeeded...