rallyforum 2023 prediction challenge

[seb_sh]

Hello rallyforumers and happy holidays!

Having been inspired by ChainBear's F1 prediction challenge(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmQuJWqcoz8) I decided to create a WRC predictions challenge for us to have some fun with next year. Think of it like something between Pickems and Crystal Ball. This is not intended to replace either of those!

In order to enter you fill in the following questionnaire: EDIT: [entries closed, link removed]
How it works: there are 40 questions starting from fairly straightforward going to a bit more out of the box. At the end of the season we count up the points and see how we did.

Closing date is 15th January 2023 end of day CET. (basically before Monte Recce starts, i think :P)

I'm doing this as an experiment for fun, no prizes except for bragging rights! I had a few more goofy ideas for questions but toned it down for this first try.

Some administrative details:
- after the closing date I will publish everyone's picks, that way you can still find out the results if i get hit by a bus or something
- I have already made my response and attached it to this post, just to ensure i'm playing fair and not peeking at your results, would be nice if a couple people download and verify this file after entries close
- I will calculate and publish the results between 1st and 15th december 2023. But there may be some intermediate teaser updates during next year depending on how much time i have.
- if any questions is unclear you can ask for clarifications here

Thanks for playing and have fun!

[WRCStan]

Awesome. Thanks for arranging.

Make a coffee and get your thinking cap on for this chaps.

[Rallyper]

Made my pick. Big fun.

[bomber21]

Good one, I had fun

[skarderud]

My phone won't unpack the file, has to use a pc?

Sent fra min SM-S901B via Tapatalk

[seb_sh]

My phone won't unpack the file, has to use a pc?

Sent fra min SM-S901B via Tapatalk

It's an .xlsx file exported from google drive inside a zip made with 7zip so that i can upload it here. Maybe you need a pc.

[AnttiL]

"When Ogier is not driving, how many points will "his car" score in total? (no matter how many different drivers drive it)"

Does this refer to Katsuta or the possible rental customers?

[seb_sh]

"When Ogier is not driving, how many points will "his car" score in total? (no matter how many different drivers drive it)"

Does this refer to Katsuta or the possible rental customers?

Katsuta not included, just people renting the "extra" car.

Edit: autocorrect typo

[seb_sh]

Short reminder, one more day to get in on this, entries close tomorrow at 24:00 CET.

[seb_sh]

entries closed! thanks for participating, we have 53 entrants including a few non forum members Good luck!

I have attached a zip of the final results, inside there is a .xlsx file export from google drive if you want to check out what other people have picked. For full transparency I would ask someone to verify that my responses from my first post are unchanged in the finaly entry. Even if there's no prize i want to be fair, as there can be an advantage from seeing what everyone is choosing.

Finally, I had a look at the statistics of the responses and tried to write the season review according to our picks. In the following days I will post a few more specific statistic about what was chosen. Let's see if the forum "Popular Wisdom" is correct:

Kalle Rovanperä is the 2023 driver champion with 215 points beating Ott Tänak and Thierry Neuville with Toyota taking home the manufacturer's title. The season was quite exciting with most rallies being won by the finn, closely followed by the estonian and each of these two winning their home rally. In the end it was the better reliability of the Toyota that allowed Rovanperä to win. The title was decided at the new Central Europe Rally. The first part of the year was quite tight between the two contenders. Kenya was the hardest rally with multiple stage winners and many retirements. Tänak took the lead after winning in Estonia but Rovanperä took it back after winning in Finland and never gave up the lead again. While Neuville managed to finish 3rd it was due mostly to a come-back in the 2nd half of the year after having a disappointing start to the season. Unfortunately for Hyundai they couldn't rely on their 2nd and 3rd drivers when Neuville had issues as Lappi and Breen had a lot of crashes so Hyundai were never really a threat to Toyota in the manufacturer's championship, Ogier, Evans and Katsuta were a far more reliable team than what Hyundai entered. Katsuta did especially well on the treacherous African roads of Kenya and on his home rally in Japan. MSport Ford didn't really try as they only entered two official cars for most rounds and had 4 other drivers during the season either as customers or as an occasional 3rd official car. Lappi and Loubet have dissapointed this year, failing to finish quite often and Breen has also not been able to recapture his previous form with Hyundai. In WRC2 Emil Lindholm succesfully defended his title beating Oliver Solberg. WRC2 had 4 different winners and 3 different manufacturers getting to the top spot of the podium. Even an old generation Fabia Rally2 evo managed to win a round! The WRC2 champion managed to gather 21 points in the overall WRC classification. Hopefully we will see what he can do in a Rally1 car next year!