WRC2 news & rumors 2023

[doubled1978]

It makes sponsors feel good about the money they have given you!
He won all that he could win, therefore he won.

GT class winners at Le Mans all say they won Le Mans, same principal. SEAT used to promote themselves as World Rally Champions in their dealerships, when those of us who followed rally knew that it was F2 World Champions, general public wouldn’t have had a clue I doubt.

I’m not sure why it bothers anyone so much. These guys and their sponsors need something to promote or why bother.

[focus206]

It makes sponsors feel good about the money they have given you!
He won all that he could win, therefore he won.

GT class winners at Le Mans all say they won Le Mans, same principal. SEAT used to promote themselves as World Rally Champions in their dealerships, when those of us who followed rally knew that it was F2 World Champions, general public wouldn’t have had a clue I doubt.

I’m not sure why it bothers anyone so much. These guys and their sponsors need something to promote or why bother.

Yes, you're basically saying "they declare themselves world champions to appease the sponsors and to trick the average joe who doesn't have much of a clue" and that's exactly what we're talking about.
I don't see anyone particularly bothered here, apart from considering it silly, since rally fans aren't average joes with no clue of motorsports.

Talking about Le Mans, you reminded how quite some people who don't follow endurance racing got tricked by the Ford vs Ferrari myths into believing that after 1969 Ferrari never won Le Mans, while Ford won it again with the GT (which is a statement that uses double standards because it doesn't count Ferrari GTE wins but it counts Ford GTE wins).

[ouvreur]

He won all that he could win, therefore he won.

And if anyone who thinks that way (I'm not even sure he does) sleeps a bit better at night, or gets a longer-lasting erection by thinking that way, good for them. I'm happy for them.

It is no small achievement to win the RC2 class on a WRC rally and bring a second-division car to 6th overall. But unless you finish 1st overall, you don't win a rally. That's final. Anyone asserting otherwise is either terrible at mathematics, delusional about the scale of their achievement, or both.

I won my class in a tarmac championship once. Do I go around telling people I won that championship? No. Because I didn't. The sort of person who would be impressed if I were to exaggerate my achievement aren't worth impressing. Sponsors, believe it or not, don't fall for it.

[seb_sh]

It makes sponsors feel good about the money they have given you!
He won all that he could win, therefore he won.

GT class winners at Le Mans all say they won Le Mans, same principal. SEAT used to promote themselves as World Rally Champions in their dealerships, when those of us who followed rally knew that it was F2 World Champions, general public wouldn’t have had a clue I doubt.

I’m not sure why it bothers anyone so much. These guys and their sponsors need something to promote or why bother.

As far as Le Mans is concerned class winners usually mention the class, I've yet to see someone claim they won Le Mans without mentioning the class. Usually they say class winners or something like that. Even Lamborghini in their museum have plaques of their GTD class wins at Daytona 24h next to the car that clearly say GTD class. Same with Ferrari in their museum with their Le Mans GTE wins.

As for Dakar the Bikes, Cars, Trucks, Quads etc are more like different competitions that are run in parallel to eachother. Some stages are not even the same and there is no combined classification.

If I remember correctly, at the time SEAT was competing in the F2 championship which was running in paralel to the Group A8 championship. So it was really two different competitions and the FIA was trying to push the F2 Kitcars class to the top. The calendar was split and the cars didn't race the same rallies.

I think it's disingenuous to proclaim yourself the rally winner if you only won the class. Saying something like WRC2 rally winner would be correct.

[Kenneth]

Imo it's important to say that per FIA the champion of WRC2 is (obviously) WRC2 Champion, not a WORLD champion. And it's same in LeMans, Moto2, Formula 2, etc.

Technically speaking WRC is open championship for all classes and you can win it with Rally2 car. And outside of that there are support championships like WRC2.

So yeah, it's kinda stupid to call Greensmith Rally Mexico winner, if they would put some smaller WRC2 into graphics, it would be much better.

[Norm75]

What a silly comment. Of course you're allowed to brag about your victories, but it's just misleading to say you're the national champion WITHOUT specifying the category, because by "national champion" it's assumed "national overall champion".
Sebastien Loeb doesn't call himself 10 times world rally champion. Yet he won 9 world rally championships + 1 JWRC title in 2001.
Sebastien Ogier doesn't call himself 9 times world rally champion. Yet he won 8 world rally championships + 1 JWRC title in 2008.
Saying "I won the 2022 Rally4 national rally championship" is NOT the same as "I won the 2022 national rally championship".

In the world of motorcycle racing, it seems quite commonplace. For example it is often said that Rossi is 9 times world champion, along with Marquez being at a similar level, be it the media circus or the riders themselves. In actuality, Rossi won the main class 7 times and the lower classes twice, but is common for him to be called 9 times world champion and a big thing was always made about whether he would win his 10th world championship title.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

https://www.wrc.com/en/news/2023/wrc...-testing-plan/

[Fast Eddie WRC]

I also think it's a bit stupid...

On his various social media I haven't seen ONE comment to this effect. EVERY comment has been congratulations and not moans.

Considering how much stick he usually gets I think this tells a lot. People understand he won WRC2 and aren't being pedantic about the picture.

[Franky]

This is starting to sound like pub talk already.

[pettersolberg29]

Personal opinion: if you win all you can win, then you can call yourself the winner. Everyone knows what he means, he's not fooling anyone so no harm done.

What did annoy me slightly was his comments throughout the rally saying how nice it was to be in control/be able to be so fast and afterwards, like when he got out the car and said 'easy' - plus the media saying how he 'dominated' the rally. If it wasn't for a phantom puncture for a rival on Friday it could have been quite a humbling rally for Gus, so to have such an arrogant air of superiority wasn't a good look in my eyes.

And I know my username suggests some bias, but compare Gus to Ogier, who kept saying how sorry he was for Lappi and that he knows it wasn't an easy win and he could have been pushed all the way by EP. And even to Lindholm who said he understands he only got P2 in WRC2 because of others' misfortune. It's just the done thing, and not to mention another driver (and teammate's) rapid pace all weekend seems a bit odd to me.