Rallye WRC Monte Carlo 2019

[dimviii]

https://twitter.com/rally_analyst/st...97968712417280

[Morte66]

Man, I never knew Saab had a rally team. 1963, that's a little before I was born. And they won with a two stroke. It's a different world.

[Rally Power]

Asked about the throttle problems of Sébastien Ogier, Thierry Neuville gave a brief but clear answer: "We know it, I did not believe it for a single second. "

Ouch!

[Indreq]

Another speculation - what might have happened to Ott if one stage wasnt canceled? He was betting on winning time on this stage, and missing that stage ment that he actually lost time. Did this cause perhaps him losing rhytm (and pace) and perhaps contributed to puncture too?

BTW According to Mäkinen comments, he does not blame drivers for broken rims, he admits that they had lightweight (and fragile) rims which will be replaced by next tarmac event. Drivers had to follow same cutting lines as others or they would have lost time, but sharp tarmac edges were too much for the rims.

[Yugo_para_siempre]

What an impressive start of the season was that?

Unbelievable fight for the 1st place and between Loeb and Latvala.

I remember fights that ended up so close in the past, but i do not remember a fight that for 2 days the 1st and 2nd never had a time difference bigger than 6 seconds.
If we take into account that this took place in rally Monte Carlo, that is so easy to encounter big gaps, is even more impressive.

Well deserved win for Ogier, what a talent, what a performance?
First rally, a very tricky one, with the new (not so much appreciated) car and once more he managed to win in a so intense fight.
After the second Turini i really believed that Neuville will bit him, but he managed to answer in the last one.
Very very good performance from Neuville and Tanak too.
As already mentioned from other mates, i expect an even better season this year.

Regarding Loeb, very good performance taking into consideration that he had very limited experience with the car and, moreover, the car seems not to suit him right now.



Regarding the below comment from Neuville.

"It's not really asphalt here, it's a rally where the driver can make a difference. Sébastien Loeb finished I think fourth and quite simply this weekend, we made the difference in the car. We know that we still have to work."

Mr. Neuville that was a totally unfair comment for Loeb.
Before 2017 the Belgian was the no1 of the Korean team, but he never was so dominant within the team and were many times that his teammates bit him.
With this car (from 2017) he is flying compared to his teammates who seem to strugle, at least initially, to get a constant required filling from this car.
Moreover, as said, it was the first kilometers of Loeb with a car that does not seem to suit him right now.
Neuville should give time to Loeb and if the French will not manage to show similar pace with that he showed last year with the C3, a car with many ups and downs, the conclusion for me will be that the Korean car only suits Neuville, and not that Neuville is the god that bits Loeb easily...

[dimviii]

all the wrc history for almost 2 decades

[dimviii]

maxicorde video from Turini

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv9o19FmnM

[mknight]

Comparing with Loeb is also tricky. New team, not only a new car but a car built with different philosophy, very little testing (consider that Loeb always worked only with Citroën and French before). The fact he went to the event nearly directly from two weeks of very physically demanding Dakar sure also played a role, especially because Loeb isn't young anymore (it was also on the other side of the Globe).

Loeb did quite good considering all this. He did have 2 days of testing, that's what most drivers get ahead of each event, only Ogier and all Toyotas had more. Sure some testing to "get to know the car" would help. That said he had quite good speed on mixed conditions with varying tyrechoices (that comes down to his experience), on the dry, simple, wide parts of stages (and SD) he was competing with Suninen. That's Loeb the tarmac king that just won Spain and was top 3 fast on Corsica.

Personally I was expecting him something like half way between Neuville and Mikkelsen on pace, instead he was even with Mikkelsen, but I definitely didn't think that he will be loosing so much time on the "simple" parts.

This is why Neuville is so extremely happy even after loosing the win:
1. Loeb was much slower than him (people even on this forum saying how Loeb will easily beat Neuville and will win both Monte and Sweden....)
2. Loeb complained about the car on dry tarmac

In December Neuville said how he hopes Loeb will confirm what 3 other drivers are saying about the car, from the pics it looked like Loeb did that already on SD and he certainly made it clear in post-stage interviews on Sunday

Similarly Mikkelsen ought to be very happy from this event and people saying it's an event to forget for him miss the point. Sure crash out is bad. But the rest is much more important for his future. Loeb was at same pace as him, both could compete in front in tricky conditions and above all, Loeb was not happy with the car in the dry. Mikkelsen spend whole last year without changes getting done with some small stuff first before Spain and then basically gave up and tries to change his style to Neuville's "throw the car" one.

So with at least 3 drivers (prbly Sordo as well, depending on how you interpret Neuville) complaining, maybe Hyundai will actually make an effort to change something. Last year they didn't care until after Germany. It is also possible that they can't change the car much and Loeb will be forced to adapt. He surely is cable of it, after all he isn't 9 times WDC for nothing.However in that case I don't think Hyundai can charge for wins on the tarmac rallies with more grip (Corsica, Germany, Spain), unless it rains on them. Neuville's and Sordo's 2018 speed on these show that.

-----------
Btw. on a related note the engine update Hyundai introduced (only for Neuville in AUS, now all) seems to have helped. In the uphill-only part of Turini they seemed to match Citroen and Toyota just fine. It's on the flat and downhill they struggled. (Funny how Neuville was sure he did extremely good on the downhill from Col det Turini and splits showed that part was actually his slowest)

[dimviii]

i dont think that is somebody who still thinks, that hyundai is fast at dry asphalt.
we had saw that from previous year,but even at Monte it was visible.

[janvanvurpa]

- Tanak: well, I would not care for the result this weekend (by the way-3rd position is not bad start into new season…), the guy is ''mind blowing'' fast, at the moment without real competition. If his driving is not going to be to aggressive, nothing (nobody) can stop him.
- Loeb: maybe not happy, but again: one week ago he made a first test, he was pushing and the speed was not there, but 9x times WC will definitely improve. He is big positive gain for the team.
- JM Latvala: disaster, if he will not show some solid performance during first half of the season, ''the village team'' can fire him…

.0012%

That's how much faster overall that Tanak was over Loeb

And Loeb was 1/10 of that quicker than Latvala...

I wonder if anybody ever thinks of the tiny fractions of 1% and how ultimately silly is our collective exaggerations and fan-talk really is?

3.	8	Tänak Ott - Järveoja M. Toyota Yaris WRC	RC1 M	3:23:31.1	+2:15.2 +2:13.0	89.6 0.45
4.	19	Loeb Sébastien - Elena D. Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	RC1 M	3:23:44.1	+2:28.2 +13.0	89.5 0.49
5.	10	Latvala J. - Anttila M. Toyota Yaris WRC	RC1 M	3:23:45.8	+2:29.9 +1.7	89.5 0.49

If Tanak is blinding amazingly fast!!!! and Loeb is just 13 seconds after in 3H23m31.1s of SS....then Loeb is 99.999% as fast and Latvala about 99.998% as fast
How in the real world is that "speed not there' and "not show some solid performance"?

We talk in too too much extremes...too often..

My cheers goes to Loeb...according to the "wisdom' of forums, he's 10 years too old...Not reasonable rest, ultra short tests before, ancient, new car which collective wisdom have all decided is no good.....at his age he's just having fun.. His results say 'we" are are full of hoooey.