[WRC] News & Rumours 2020

[Tarmop]

If that would be the case, then i am pretty sure, they would run as Tommi Mäkinen Racing in Gazoo colours. With Ogier also hinting, that he wants to have a nice full season to end his career+ having Evans as a tough challenger this year+ Rovanperä and Katsuta learning, the badge would be in picture and taking a break in developing youngsters is also not very good in long terms.

Like Kronos...and other examples from the past.

[rallyfiend]

I think they'd be allowed to compete with the 2020 car. You can't expect them to allude to anything other than a threat to pull out so that they get what they want....

Toyota will likely have bigger problems than the issue around using a different car for a year in a fringe activity like WRC.

Neither WEC nor Dakar seem to affected by the complete lack of relevance between the road car and race cars. And WRC is higher profile than either of those (Le Mans race excepted).

[Tarmop]

Umh, WEC is a prototype, though new LMP1 is going to be based on a production car??? Hilux is a different story, though also quite similar to latest spec. Yaris on the other hand would be outdated chassis, clearly visible to the eye with no way to FL it similar to the new one also.

[the sniper]

If anything is going to be allowed in this world shortly, surely a small group of blokes running a car back and forth in the middle of an empty forest will be one of the first things possible.

[Tarmop]

At home, maybe yes, but abroad... i think we are several months far away from that.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Running without fans seems the best (only) chance to get a WRC event on at the earliest opportunity.

But could it be guaranteed and policed ? Like football games played behind closed doors, will some fans still try to get as close as they can ?

[Fast Eddie WRC]

If that would be the case, then i am pretty sure, they would run as Tommi Mäkinen Racing in Gazoo colours. With Ogier also hinting, that he wants to have a nice full season to end his career+ having Evans as a tough challenger this year+ Rovanperä and Katsuta learning, the badge would be in picture and taking a break in developing youngsters is also not very good in long terms.

Like Kronos...and other examples from the past.

Or maybe use the 2021 car on the later (gravel) events where it has been well-tested for in Finland, and continue with the 2020 car elsewhere. Thats if a team can run two different cars in a season.

There's also the GR Yaris homologation issue re making and selling thousands of GR4 road cars in a bad economic climate. Tricky !

[Rally Power]

On the contrary, Peugeot is aiming for a WEC return with similar technologies that would be used in the WRC and they would be responsible for the running-gear department, their partner (Rebellion was it?) would do the chassis. In that case i would say, would be 2in1 as being quite similar in terms of development and also being a joint-venture. Citroen is also PSA, so even if they would use a Citroen or even an Opel chassis instead, there is no big difference.

Rebellion quitted Peugeot WEC project in February, making harder for PSA to spread resources into other series (apart being tech partners, like DS is in FE with a Chinese team). Besides, according to WEC Hypercar rules, Peugeot intends to use a more advanced hybrid system than the WRC commom spec one.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

FIA ready to trial new formats to fit 2020 rallies in... and not all rallies will make the cut:

https://www.dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/f...20-rallies-in/

Should we settle for just European events ?

[the sniper]

Unlike F1 or NASCAR, I don't think the WRC should be seeing a short calendar as a big issue. There's historical precedent for the WRC having 8/9 round calendars by choice, so it's hardly the end of the world being forced into it now.