Wrc 2/3 2021

[AnttiL]

https://www.rallit.fi/jari-huttusen-...oonsa-kesalla/

Huttunen's program this year is Sardegna with old car, then Estonia, Ypres, Acropolis, Finland and Catalunya with new Rally2 car.

[mknight]

Well on paper WRC2 looks great this year with Mikkelsen, Østberg and Huttunen definitely trying for title and Solberg, Formaux, Lappi and maybe Suninen also likely doing enough rounds.

What I fear though is that with the scoring system it becomes more of a case of who "picks" events to avoid competition better and also who picks events that suit the car/driver. As we can see Hyundai basically dropped the start of the season waiting for new car, while Skoda seems to be doing the opposite.

We can also end up in more situations where the "scoring" driver is beaten by the "non-scoring" ones, which is essentially what was the standard in 2020.
So that a champion can be "the guy that was highest scoring (not fastest) in 6 of his handpicked events, beating another driver who got less points in different 6 handpicked events and the two barely met on same rally and both got beaten by a different driver"

Right now it's even theoretically possible to win the championship without ever meeting a main competitor on a rally (12 rounds, 6 best count). Is it still the same championship when people are competing on different rallies?
Still it is and hopefully stays much better than last year.

[Tom K]

A bit strange - he gives a link to article which says Sardinia and writes Portugal OK, they've changed post

jari.jpg

[Fast Eddie WRC]

After Croatia Rally, Chris Ingram looks back on his performance:

"I really struggled to get a feeling in the car after a long lay off. Many of the WRC guys in regroup said it was the most difficult rally to choose to come back to, and was the hardest tarmac event they'd ever done.

Even still I'm not satisfied at all with results like that and we need to make progress with the car to get the confidence back and be at one again.

We will be at the start of the first round of the Portuguese Rally Championship this weekend to prepare for Rally de Portugal and to generally get some confidence back."

Bit hard on himself, but spoken like a true champion !

[Jarek Z]

WRC3 highlights from Croatia Rally 2021:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3bn7m9NZmA

[pantealex]

Suninen WRC2 for Portugal

[AnttiL]

Suninen WRC2 for Portugal

Going against Lappi, good times

[rp]

https://www.rallit.fi/jari-huttusen-...oonsa-kesalla/

Huttunen's program this year is Sardegna with old car, then Estonia, Ypres, Acropolis, Finland and Catalunya with new Rally2 car.

So no World Rally Car debut for Huttunen in Finland. Hopefully some other rounds, but Grönholm said before the season that probably not this year. What on earth he has to do? Loubet, Veiby and Solberg have alreary driven Hyundai´s WRC and Jari had better results than others. Of course there is money behind these decisions...

[mknight]

I'd basically say Huttunen is getting his career destroyed by Hyundai. First by the season with i20 that wasn't competetive and broke all the time. Then they almost drop him but he stays and they "almost" let him drive WRC (he drove the one local Finish rally). Year later he does everything and wins WRC3 and Adamo talks how great he is... and then drops him from 3/4 first rallies (with engine failure after one stage on the one start) and only book him for Rally2 for rest of season. ( He could have driven some outside of points like Solberg did in Monte).

[AnttiL]

I can only think the answer to your questions is money. Huttunen cannot afford a WRC start or additional WRC2 starts like the others