Junior WRC 2023

As asked, the thread for Junior WRC 2023

The list of competitors (Drivers, starts according to ewrc)

William Creighton (IRL) - 25 y.o. - 115 starts - GB Junior 2021, only one to have made J-WRC with Rally3 cars (3 Junior stage wins in 2022)

Laurent Pellier (FRA) - 27 y.o. - 74 starts - France Junior 2015, Volant Peugeot 2017, ERC4 Junior 2022

Roberto Blach Nuñez (ESP) - 26 y.o. - 85 starts - Peugeot Rally Cup Iberica 2018, Beca Junior 2022

Tom Rensonnet (BEL) - 24 y.o. - 23 starts - Belgium Junior 2022

Eamonn Kelly (IRL) - 24 y.o. - 46 starts - GB Junior 2022

Diego Dominguez Jr. (PAR) - 22 y.o. - 51 starts - some races in WRC-3 last year including Greece and Sardinia, else mostly run locally

Raul Hernandez Hernandez (ESP) - 21 y.o. - 40 starts - has run in Latvia, Estonia and Spain

Anwar Hamza (KEN) - 24 y.o. - 29 starts - has run only in Africa so far


Grégoire Munster is probably the best name but should only be in some events as a guest as he should do Croatia and Sardinia in WRC-2 according to his interviews. Probably Sweden and maybe Estonia in Junior.

Well, if Munster is only a guest, difficult to see who will be champion considering it’s a new car for almost everyone with essentially new events.
Creighton did some good times last year and has the advantage of knowing the situation.
Pellier is probably the most used to the support series system.
Rensonnet and Kelly are probably the ones with the biggest upside.
Blach Nuñez is also to take into consideration, not very fast but quite efficient driver.

I would be more surprised to see a win from the 3 others (Dominguez, Hernandez and Anwar) even if I hope they can do something .

If I had to bet, I would say Pellier who has the best experience of support series/talent mix; but not with a big margin (all the more with Greece x2 as we see last year and that he didn’t drive that much in gravel in the last couple of years). And I would pay attention to Rensonnet and Kelly, even if maybe a little early for Rensonnet with very weak gravel experience.
Creighton and Blach Nuñez can also win as they have maybe more versatile experience with gravel.

I think Dominguez Jr. will be a big surprise on gravel events. He lacks experience on snow and tarmac, but I expect him to be close to the top in the gravel ones.

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Originally Posted by Co-driven

I think Dominguez Jr. will be a big surprise on gravel events. He lacks experience on snow and tarmac, but I expect him to be close to the top in the gravel ones.

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Well on snow for Sweden, there is no that much people with experience.
Creighton has done Sweden (and a preparation Rally) last year with a good 1st day so he is one of the favorites.
Hernandez has made 3 or 4 snow-ice rallyes in Baltic 4-5 years ago in R2
Kelly is doing a prep rallye with Arctic in Rally3 but quite far from the Finnish guys.
And Munster has done only Monte-type snow event (not Sweden-type) but is among the favorite considering his experience (however, he will probably only be a guest in this championship).

Else they all have no experience on it. So it gives a pretty open fight in Sweden between them except I assume a Creighton-Munster fight for the win. Probably most of the drivers will be in survival mode in Sweden.
And both Pajari in 2021 and Virves in 2022 won the championship with a «*bad*» result in Sweden.

On tarmac, only one round.
With Sardinia + Greece counting double (and he has done these two rallies last year), it gives Dominguez an opportunity but I think he is a bit fresh for it on what we saw last year, even if it was his first steps in Europe I recognize.

Any possibility to see Andrea Mabellini in the championship?

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Originally Posted by manthey

Any possibility to see Andrea Mabellini in the championship?

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Very unlikely.
The entry list for Sweden is closed so there should be no new entry in Sweden.
And if I remind well the regulations, to obtain the double count in the final round (and it is as good as impossible to win the championship without it), you must have done 3 of the 4 first rounds; so only hope for a new real entry (not a one-off) would be Croatia, after that it is too late. But it’s quite unlikely to have a new entry there IMO.

Last rumors about Mabellini were talking more about ERC with Rally2 as a step-up.

Rensonnet has never driven on anything else than Tarmac. So this should be a learning year for him, more than anything else.
For me, the title should go between Creighton (because of his experience with the car and championship) and Pellier (he was so impressive in the jERC last year).

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Originally Posted by dupanton

Rensonnet has never driven on anything else than Tarmac. So this should be a learning year for him, more than anything else.
For me, the title should go between Creighton (because of his experience with the car and championship) and Pellier (he was so impressive in the jERC last year).

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Well, yeah, Rensonnet is maybe the best raw talent but it sounds a bit early for him with no gravel experience. But I think he will do fast times soon, I wouldn’t be surprised with top-3 and even stage wins in Croatia

However, it’s a difficult championship to predict with the double count in Acropolis (the championship is now a bit the same with this rule, 3/4 drivers still in contention and all at stake in the last round).
3 good results in the first 4 and a bit of luck in Acropolis could be enough. Virves has shown it last year.

As you said, if we take into account the international experience, the 4WD experience and the global experience, Creighton vs. Pellier would be the most logical (considering Munster is just a guest in a couple of events).
I would not totally discard Kelly (think he is a better raw talent than Creighton) and Blach Nuñez however; with some consistency, I think they will still be in contention for Acropolis because of the rules (and there, everything can happen on one event, especially in Acropolis).

Mabellini is very unlikely to race the J-WRC this year. as written by Danny he should race in the FIA ​​ERC with a rally2 and maybe a few races in the Italian Rally Terra Championship with MRF. But at the moment they are only rumors. unfortunate to say the least not to have Italian drivers at the start, I see it as an own goal by the Italian Federation.

Still no new spec? Rear spoiler?

It is a used car.

https://scontent.fopo5-2.fna.fbcdn.n...xw&oe=63DC0D1F

Is there need for new spec or never driven car? After all, all cars come from M-Sport Poland and are serviced by M-Sport Poland.

To sell more cars? And show new specs.

Really impressed with Pellier. He has never driven on snow and didn't even have a test. Still 2 scratches on the first day and easily second.

I think they need onboard cameras on the Rally3 cars to show us from the inside of the car. Not online cams, since we dont see them during the rally, but for both the daily sumup videos on wrc.com.

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Originally Posted by Sulland

I think they need onboard cameras on the Rally3 cars to show us from the inside of the car. Not online cams, since we dont see them during the rally, but for both the daily sumup videos on wrc.com.

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I'm quite sure they have...

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

I'm quite sure they have...

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perfect ;), where is the inboards shown? On the weekend sumup?

I've seen on the social media of Tom Rensonnet thay have their name and sponsor logos on the dashboard, so there should be a camera in the car :)

What happened to Creighton today? Pellier leading!

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Originally Posted by dupanton

What happened to Creighton today? Pellier leading!

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Creighton had an issue with the bonnet of the car flying in SS13 and had to stop whereas he was quite controlling the race in Junior before this (40s up).
Looking at the splits, he probably lost around 45-50s with this. And then, probably due to Pellier a bit more used to snow today + destabilized by the incident, Creighton lost an additional 8s in the next one.

And Munster took a snowbank while closing to Pellier.

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Originally Posted by Sulland

perfect ;), where is the inboards shown? On the weekend sumup?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Nb...lyChampionship

at least here we have some footage

New JWRC documentary on youtube:


https://youtu.be/BislIgHayXI

Now, with Ford Fiesta Rally3 Evo

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxaOg3HX...pg&name=medium
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxaOg3RW...pg&name=medium

Close call between Creighton and Dominguez for the title, they’re tied after SS10 if I’m right (even if any retirement of a driver between 2nd and 6th would offer title to Creighton if he finishes)

However, I still think Pellier was the best driver of this championship but very unlucky with mechanical

Dominguez ties Creighton after SS12
However, Anwar has rolled in SS11 so if he does not start tomorrow, Creighton will just need to cruise to clinch the title.

The way the Juniors are being covered today on the final day of their championship says a lot about how the WRC Promoter promotes the sport.

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Originally Posted by satnav

The way the Juniors are being covered today on the final day of their championship says a lot about how the WRC Promoter promotes the sport.

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To be fair it's not their championship to promote.

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Originally Posted by WRCStan

To be fair it's not their championship to promote.

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That is not true. They are responsible for all championships in WRC...

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Originally Posted by PLuto

That is not true. They are responsible for all championships in WRC...

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It is true, you can read it in the regs as published by the FIA: "The FIA Junior WRC will be promoted by M-Sport Ltd."

Maybe WRCP retains the broadcast rights under the WRC umbrella, but is there any agreement and incentive for them to act on JWRC specifically? Consensus above indicates no.

Well who ever is responsible for promoting it failed miserably today, the only way to follow it was via the live maps and as soon as the last broadcast ended in the service park so did the live maps and at that time the stage was still live as the juniors hadn't even started.

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Originally Posted by satnav

Well who ever is responsible for promoting it failed miserably today, the only way to follow it was via the live maps and as soon as the last broadcast ended in the service park so did the live maps and at that time the stage was still live as the juniors hadn't even started.

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Was following also via the map, but suddenly it stopped and tried to login again, but there was no more link to the live map anymore or at least not able to find it. Unbelievable if they stopped it completely, but must have been the situation!

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Originally Posted by rp

Was following also via the map, but suddenly it stopped and tried to login again, but there was no more link to the live map anymore or at least not able to find it. Unbelievable if they stopped it completely, but must have been the situation!

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Indeed, thats the way it looks as i had 2 screens going with the live feed and the maps as well, as soon as they said good by from the service park and the show ended the page with the maps running refreshed by itself and then the maps were gone.
It was just like the early 90's after that trying to find out what was happening......