2021 Crystall Ball Predictions

[EstWRC]

1. Ogier will win the first and last rally of the season
2. Tänak and Rovanperä will have huge battles for the win on the fastest rallies of the calendar (Arctic, Estonia, Finland)
3. Lappi will drive a rally or some rallies with Toyota and at the end of the season is announced back there full time.
4. M-sport will win 1 rally.
5. Formaux will get stage win with main class machine.

unfortunately my hopes didnt live up....

[Eli]

1. Neuville to leave Hyundai by the end of 2021.
2. Ogier will lose his title, while Toyota will reclaim theirs.
3. Sub 300km rallies will become (unfortunately) a standard with the FIA giving it's official stamp for 2022.
4. Mikkelsen will have a factory WRC seat back by the end of the season.
5. COVID-19 will continue to wrack havoc among the service park (Crews, drivers, teams, and events), will effectively impact next season as well as this season.

I think it's fair to say at this point I got (almost) everything wrong. I am glad though, that prediction No. 5 didn't do as much damage as I thought at the start of the year. I truly hope all crews will be vaccinated until next year so it will be a bit safer for all of the WRC to travel. Also, I hope we get back more night time stages and longer rallies.

[AnttiL]

1. Rovanperä will get maiden win this season
2. Huttunen will get a start in a WRC car in a WRC event
3. There are only two stages (not counting repeats) with 30 km or more in length
4. FIA and WRC Promoter will manage to run 10 events this season.
5. Ogier will win the title and lead the series for most of the year.

1. Correct
2. Incorrect
3. Incorrect (five)
4. Incorrect (full 12 rounds)
5. Correct

[EstWRC]

1. Ogier will win the first and last rally of the season
2. Tänak and Rovanperä will have huge battles for the win on the fastest rallies of the calendar (Arctic, Estonia, Finland)
3. Lappi will drive a rally or some rallies with Toyota and at the end of the season is announced back there full time.
4. M-sport will win 1 rally.
5. Formaux will get stage win with main class machine.

1. Correct
2. Didnt happen unfortunately
3. Well partly correct.
4. Uncorrect, but i really hoped for this
5. Correct

[TheFlyingTuga]

1 - The Champ will be only 7/8 rounds like this year.
2 - After problems with ERC Fafe, WRC Portugal will not take place (this one I hope doesn't happen).
3 - Ogier will be Champ again and retires at the end of the year. Hyundai will snatch the Manu's title again
4 - Latvala will not handle the pressure and leave Toyota Gazoo Racing around summer
5 - Oliver will drive at least one round with a Hyundai WRC car after winning the WRC2 title.

1 - Nope, almost a full year with only Japan not happening
2 - Good I was wrong
3 - Half of it corrected. Shame Hyundai was disappointing through out the year
4 - Latvala is ruling. Shame on me for saying this
5 - Well, no WRC2 title, but a lot of rounds in a WRC Car

[rp]

1. Kalle Rovanperä will take his 1st WRC win
2. Toyota will win Manufacturer´s title
3. Ott Tänak takes the drivers title
4. Jari Huttunen will drive at least 1 event behind the wheel of the World Rally Car
5. Thierry Neuville will leave Hyundai at the end of the season

Not so good this year. Only 1st two correct...

[Rallyper]

1. At least one round will be out despite Corona (except for Rally Sweden).
2. Oliver gets at least one drive in WRC car (in wrc rounds).
3. Kalle wins his first WRC-round.
4. Tanak takes WDC title.
5. Toyota wins manufacturers championship.

4/5

[mknight]

1. Hyundai wins manu title
2. Evans won't be top 2 in drivers champ
3. Rovanpera will get at least 2 podiums, but still wont be better than 5th in drivers champ.
4. Loubet will be better than Greensmith but worse than Katsuta over the year
5. There will be max. 2 rallies outside of Europe (Turkey counts as Europe in case it magically re-appears)

1/5 = epic fail, specially since I got 4/5 the last two years.

In my defense, first 3 are all related to Hyundai failures this year.

[AnttiL]

1 - Nope, almost a full year with only Japan not happening

Or actually it was a full 12 round calendar with replacements of Sweden to Arctic, GB to Ypres, Chile to Acropolis and Japan to Monza.

[Eli]

1. Neuville to leave Hyundai by the end of 2021.
2. Ogier will lose his title, while Toyota will reclaim theirs.
3. Sub 300km rallies will become (unfortunately) a standard with the FIA giving it's official stamp for 2022.
4. Mikkelsen will have a factory WRC seat back by the end of the season.
5. COVID-19 will continue to wrack havoc among the service park (Crews, drivers, teams, and events), will effectively impact next season as well as this season.

Well I got pretty much everything wrong although they did need to replace Chile, UK & Japan due to COVID (mostly), but funny statistic or actually quite sad when you think about it, opening round in MC was 254kms and here in Monza it was 253 with most of it being circuit based, hopefully this won't become a regular thing in the championship next year & beyond.