I think we would have missed Sardegna or Turkey, had Ypres run in early October
Remember that the rally organizers cannot choose any weekend they want and logistics are slow
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I think we would have missed Sardegna or Turkey, had Ypres run in early October
Remember that the rally organizers cannot choose any weekend they want and logistics are slow
23th October (last week's friday) or 30th October (yesterday) aren't early October though. They're respectively 2 and 3 weeks away from Sardegna.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
And that's true, I can only wonder if it was possible to make it sooner or if anyone cared to make it sooner. But honestly, if the only option available for Ypres was 19th November, then I would have searched for an earlier alternative. Of course, not many alternatives in these times, but I don't think it would have been impossible.
I know that this was also on table during the speaks regarding calendar in the summer (I mean sending only WRC and WRC2 cars to some events), but in the final it didnt happened....Quote:
Originally Posted by focus206
It's easy to criticize afterwards, but the situations changed multiple times.
Ypres finally got into the calendar once Japan was cancelled
https://dirtfish.com/rally/belgium-t...-wrc-schedule/
At that point we still had Rally Deutschland on the calendar, and Sardegna on a later slot. Then Deutschland got cancelled and that resulted in the huge gap we see now...this weekend would have been the original date of Sardegna, perhaps it would have been cancelled as well?
https://dirtfish.com/rally/italy-mov...lly-cancelled/
Turkey also had to be moved ahead by one week
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc-turke...nge-confirmed/
and originally Ypres could have been added in early October but it would have been challenging for logistics
https://dirtfish.com/rally/toyota-yp...case-scenario/
In my eyes it's not a valid season either.Quote:
Originally Posted by focus206
We have had only one real full rally, monte carlo. Sweden should have been awarded half points, and besides mexico none of the other rally's was long enough to actually classify as a wrc rally.
So far we have seen slightly over 1400km of stages, thats only 4,6 wrc rally's.
We should crown evans as winner, but i wouldn't call him the winner of a valid world championship.
Remember that Mexico was also cut short, Sunday was cancelled altogether (along with one stage because of Lappi's burning car), resulting in 250 km of stages, roughly the same as Turkey, Estonia and Sardegna.Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
I still claim that it's equally tricky to win a short season. How would have the tactics changed had they known it will be a short season?
Evans has finished all rallies in top 4, no retirements, no mistakes and is the only one this season to win twice.
I remember about mexico, but to me that seems an actual force majeure. Al the rest were purposely so short.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
Of course evans deserves to win it, but to me i just doesn't fit the requirements for a world championship. A championship, but not a world championship.
But then again, nobody wins by not crowning someone.
The mess was made by Germans. If I remember correctly, they announced cancellation just few days after the calendar was fixed with Ypres and new slots for both Sardinia and Turkey. And talks about axe of Deutschland started a way earlier, so I they could not have been surprised that cancellation of their rally is inevitable.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
I don't agree it's equally difficult. With very few rounds it comes down too much to who was unlucky to suffer mechanical problems and who wasn't. And one single mistake becomes too costly, for my taste at least. Same reason why I never liked "Cups" or "Trophies" in rallying and touring car racing, that are assigned after only one race week-end. But those are just trophies, not world championships. That's why I wished things went differently with more rounds ran, to legitimize this championship.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
But you cannot take the championship away afterwards. You can't tell the teams "sorry for your efforts, but we couldn't arrange a world championship this year". It's a different thing if we knew this in advance and they could have agreed that there's a risk of not earning a proper world title. They might do it for next year...
Come on, it's cheap to blame any organizers while you know very well that they are dragged by measures issued by state authorities often without any warning.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom K
Yes, I agree to give this title to someone, it's too late to just cancel the championship. That's why I'd like to see at least the RC1 cars sent somewhere to run an already existing rally and treat it as a championship round, to legitimaze this season more. If we count Monza as a valid round, then a national championship event should count too. Hopefully it's not too late for his, but I wish it had been done earlier, to get as many rounds as possible ran before the second wave... Big question now is, where.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
But nevertheless, even with the title assigned, I don't expect Evans or Neuville to be seen as "real" world champions by many. Just on paper.
thats a very valid point.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
This is in every industry, from airlines, to the corporate world to event organizations.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mirek
Are you ware that two rallies were cancelled in Belgium last weekend? And that Belgium is going into a national lockdown on Monday?Quote:
Originally Posted by focus206
The decision of cancelling Ypres was taken a couple of days ago. Cancelling national and regional rallies is not quite the same thing as cancelling a FIA world championship round. Sure, they could have taken that decision earlier in case Ypres was scheduled earlier, we will never know. The point is there was close to 0 chances to run Ypres that late.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lancia Stratos
The Dirtfish podcast told that Rally Liepaja didn't become a WRC round because Hyundai wasn't ready to go there!
That was a while ago wasnt it ?Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
It said they thought Toyota would have an advantage with all their Finland-based testing on similar roads.
They (with Neuville) had no problem with Ypres though...
Or the crash of duval on the very first corner.
https://youtu.be/Lp-a6DOEW_M
Or neuville
https://youtu.be/d7l8UjlfUZw
The most exiting with this rally for me is how quick the new i20 Rally2 is on asfalt.
I am not sure that Solberg or Huttunen are the best measures for that as neither of them have any great ("normal") tarmac results from before.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sulland
But sure if they are very fast with it, it likely is fast.
Another thing is that for example Fiesta Rally2 seems to be quite good on tarmac, but not so much on other surfaces, or the current i20 has good results on smooth Italian and Spanish tarmac, but not on more bumpy rallies. Finally the Polo has a reputation of being tricky on tarmac in mixed/changing conditions but very fast in constant conditions.
So apparently a lot of forfaits already amongst national competitors.
They were told their cars would be have to comply to national scrutineering rules, but a few days ago they were given the message they have to comply with FIA rules.
So i assume many will not start at all.
Ofcourse they have to fit FIA rules, when racing on WRC event..
That's why Kaur had to drive R5 last year and not his Fiesta proto + Gross had to upgrade his Fiesta WRC last year on Rally Estonia.
This year he would have had to upgrade it again, because new homologations this year.. but didn't see point to put tens and tens of thousands under ,,rather old car'' again..
It's not about the cars that must have a valid FIA homologation. There are national classes as well.
But the car must have the fuel tank and fire extinguisher as demanded by FIA. Latest specs are not yet required for national rallies in Belgium. It's all about safety features.