WRC Belgium Ypres rally

[AnttiL]

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

[focus206]

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.
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.

[PLuto]

What a joke of a championship... If WRC wouldn't have restarted so late and if there wasn't this long, useless pause between Sardegna and Ypres, we could have had already 8 rounds ran at this time.
In the past, there were rounds of the championship that counted only towards WRC (when PWRC and JWRC had their own calendars). Wouldn't it be possible to send only the three works WRC teams (and WRC privateers, if they care) to, for example, Canarias or some other rally? 10 cars more shouldn't be a big problem for organizers, but I'm not an expert on this. What do you guys think?

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....

[AnttiL]

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/

[denkimi]

I don't share your opinion. 6 rounds of a rallysprint championship is a joke to me. Sure, the times are what they are, but we could have gotten more if FIA/promoters (can't point the finger at anybody specifically as I don't know who decided what) acted faster.
And I'm sure that in future, if Evans or Neuville win this championship, there will be a huge asterisk next to their names in the eyes of many rally fans.

In my eyes it's not a valid season either.

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.

[AnttiL]

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.

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.

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.

[denkimi]

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.

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.

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.

[Tom K]

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?

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.

[focus206]

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 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.

[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...