Rally2 (ex-R5) News

[Sulland]

I was asking (before the rally) Marczyk about this RS, and he told that RS is really different car and needs package of setups. For sure it is and will be fast car but driver has to adapt. He was in Fafe for test RS and wake up after winter before WRC, but if he was there to score points in ERC, he would choose old car.

Llarena was very consistent, being on the podium or close to it. And to reverse deficit and win Azores with Moura on his land needs some proper skills.

Seems like Skoda took a Polo and improved it, and got the RS.
The Polo does not fit all, especially drivers that do not spend a lot of hours getting the setup 100% right.
The Fabia R5 and the evo is much easier to get to 98% quickly, and with much less fuss.
But if you get the Polo right, and is a good driver, it is still one of the best cars in the class.

We need more rallies with many drivers at the levers before we know how good the RS is as a package.

[AnttiL]

His Fafe result was better than last year

Based on final result yeah, but last year he won three stages.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Llarena explains...

"We are losing time in the slow corners, we have no traction, for me it’s a disaster. In some parts I am pushing like hell but I was losing a lot of time in the slow corners.

“Honestly I tried my best, I was absolutely flat out, unfortunately we were not fast. We were not comfortable with the car, we were always out of the line. You can push 200 per cent but you are losing time in every corner, [so it’s] very disappointing.”

[RS]

Llarena explains...

"We are losing time in the slow corners, we have no traction, for me it’s a disaster. In some parts I am pushing like hell but I was losing a lot of time in the slow corners.

“Honestly I tried my best, I was absolutely flat out, unfortunately we were not fast. We were not comfortable with the car, we were always out of the line. You can push 200 per cent but you are losing time in every corner, [so it’s] very disappointing.”

If you look at times of all MRF crews, their tyres seemed to work much better on Saturday than Sunday. On Saturday Llarena was running in a different road position to other guys and his times didn’t compare well to Sesks with same car and same tyres.

[PLuto]

New Fabia RS Rally2 car is different from the old one. You need to find correct setups, you need to adapt to the different driving style. I think now you can understand why Oliver Solberg is so much testing, same like other WRC2 drivers of Skoda...

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Ireland, the former heartland of the Fiesta R5, is now dominated by the Polo, i20 and lately the Citroen C3.

On the current West Cork Intl Rally the highest placed Ford is a Mk2 Escort !

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Sounds like M-Sport are determined to fight back and improve the Fiesta..

Asked how much of the British championship Adrien Fourmaux will do, Wilson said: “It’s still up for discussion but there’s no question we want to improve and make the car even more competitive, so for sure we will definitely do the next round.

“We’ve got some tests planned in Ireland coming up quite soon so we want to just try and basically make sure we can keep the Rally2 Fiesta competitive.

“We want to try and give Adrien as much seat time as possible and keep on developing and improving the car.”

[PLuto]

Sounds like M-Sport are determined to fight back and improve the Fiesta..

Asked how much of the British championship Adrien Fourmaux will do, Wilson said: “It’s still up for discussion but there’s no question we want to improve and make the car even more competitive, so for sure we will definitely do the next round.

“We’ve got some tests planned in Ireland coming up quite soon so we want to just try and basically make sure we can keep the Rally2 Fiesta competitive.

“We want to try and give Adrien as much seat time as possible and keep on developing and improving the car.”

Developing and improving the car? 4 years later than it should be...

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Developing and improving the car? 4 years later than it should be...

A financially-devasating pandemic, runnng a WRC Team and creating a new Rally1 car all had an impact on this.

Plus most other Rally2 manufacturers only had that car to concentrate on (Skoda, VW Polo, Citroen C3).

Edit: Fourmaux is confident of the Fiesta's potential...

https://www.wrc.com/en/news/2023/wrc...ly2s-potental/

[Fast Eddie WRC]

New Yaris Rally2 tarmac test...

https://youtu.be/AJR8fhnscHU