Rally Discussion and Bar Talk Thread

[AnttiL]

I heard an interesting discussion on a recent podcast about Toyota vs Hyundai and their different driver strategies.

Hyundai are going with their 'driver rotation' system again, bringing in a different 3rd driver according to the rally; whereas Toyota are keeping the same 3 drivers on every round.

So who will have advantage this year, especially now that Toyota has an arguably stronger full-time line-up than in 2019 ? Is it better to rotate drivers for their best events, or is using the same driver's on all rounds and their extra seat-time going to pay off ?

Absolute Rally podcast, for the record.

I think the situation is different for this season. Last year both teams had a clear number one and then support drivers. Now it seems both teams have two title contenders and a third driver. Remember, last year Hyundai rotated even the second driver seat in some rallies. This year the third driver won't have as much pressure, and thus the rotating won't have as much of an effect, although it helps with some Friday road positions (but is negative for the tarmac rallies).

It's interesting that now Sordo is basically doing all rallies from Mexico to Sardegna. They get best of both worlds with him having most likely a good starting position having skipped two rallies, but also keeping him "fit" with continuous rallying.