Rally Italia Sardegna 2015

[dimviii]

It really was - the speed was amazing. Great to have a chat with Seb Marshall up there too! Having a live 'pundit' was pretty cool.

have we got any news from Seb?

[AL14]

I'm wondering how Paddon could have been so consistently fast during the rally.
If I remember well he only won one stage last year and this year he never went better than 5th or 6th, staying low in the rankings apart from Sweden where he stayed in the road and get a top 5 finish.

Ok he had the new car, but is it enough to be that fast for 2 days in so many kms? I don't think so. And his road position was a good position in other rallys as well. I just can't explain it.

[AL14]

Yes, I've read it too. He talks about it from time to time. Kennard said he is less hesitant with the new paddleshift and feels more comfortable with the new car. I really like his approach and his learning process and really hope this is not a one off.

[pettersolberg29]

have we got any news from Seb?

Lots of great insight but not too much news - just that he's been ridiculously busy testing and cannot wait to start alongside Abbring for the second half of the season!

Interesting to hear how normally when he's a WRC spectator he's a bit underwhelmed by the pace compared to how fast in feels in the car, yet at the point in the video at 0:05 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3zGG7fEC8Y) he kept saying how the speed from outside the car seemed insane!

[tommeke_B]

So some more extended review from Rally Italia Sardinia. If you are lazy or not interested, don't read it and save some time.

Started with the shakedown on thursday. In my opinion the shakedown was way too brutal and way too soft to be representative for the event itself. I like it as a spectator, it's really spectacular. But for drivers it's completely useless, you can't use it to "feel" the set-up you made, not even talking about making some modifications... It would be better to take something a bit flatter and with harder surface. The jump on shakedown was nice to see. VW's were clearly carrying more speed. The ones struggling on landing were Citroëns. Meeke's car was even bouncing back in the air after a hard landing! It was also nice to see very different ways of taking the jump, as it was shortly behind a very fast turn. I didn't see the Skoda's take that jump, as I moved on already.

On friday we started with the first Grighini stage. A nice section where you could see the cars take a few fast turns on a narrow road in the far distance. Then they took some hairpin onto tarmac, to get on gravel again for a medium left turn, and after that 2 very fast right turns quickly following each other. Paddon, Ogier and Sordo were the ones carrying most speed in that turn, very impressive. There was a difference that some drivers were throwing the car extremely and started countersteering already 15-20m before the corner (https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...61726326_o.jpg), while others had a cleaner (even understeered) entry and were going sideways only after reaching the apex). Most spectacular to see was Mads Ostberg (https://scontent-bru2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...66465243_o.jpg). I've rarely seen a car going THAT sideways in such a fast turn. Anyway with it he lost momentum and a lot of time with that action. Ostberg wasn't really looking well all event by the way. The car looked way too soft and reacting heavily to any bumps, the car was moving much more than it should. But he's not the first "soft" driver struggling with the DS3 (although it has new suspension geometry now).

After WRC cars we moved on to Grighini Nord. Some technical place (https://scontent-bru2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...77180513_o.jpg ; https://scontent-bru2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...49428905_o.jpg). It was quite narrow, rocks on one side and steep downhill on the other side of the road. Also the road was a bit rutted (but very hard) already before the first car. I don't think Ogier had any disadvantage from being sweeper, as he looked quickest of all. After the first 10 WRC2-cars we moved on to the first Sagama-stage. The public access was a big mess. Very bad road through some fields, it looked more like a Safari than anything else... I hope the car-rental company doesn't have a bad present left for us.

Then we moved to the stage along the sea. We went to some place towards the finish (last turn where they went away from the seacoast). Very nice braking into that medium-left, drivers were really "flicking" the car from one side to the other, the grip level was very low. Once into the corner they gained much more grip and the exit was very clean from all drivers. After that you had some straight and then some fast left corner that really surprised me. It went from really wide into narrow between the bushes. I thought drivers would brake for that, but except for Prokop and Neuville, all drivers were taking it flat out! Thanks to some huge cut it was possible to take it as a long corner. Very impressive to see. In the exit of the corner there were plenty of spectators who were behind the tape, but it still looked a bit suicidal to me... If any driver would have made an error there, the car would be launched into the air and who knows where it would land...

Then off to Grighini Sud 2. On a very fast downhill section between the windmills (https://scontent-bru2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...89748203_o.jpg). It was a very long straight downhill before fast right into very fast left with very short straight into another left. There was plenty of space for the drivers so everyone could really go on the limit there, some went off the road a bit. On the photo of Latvala you can see how far he was on the outside before the corner. After the WRC cars you could clearly see the spot where all outer rear-wheels were before that corner. It was nice to see how some WRC-drivers took the first right corner a bit more calm/clean to have a better/quicker second and third corner. Especially Ogier was really calm in that first one, to gain more speed in those other corners and the following flat out downhill part. It's the part where Ogier and Loeb are simply brilliant compared to others. As if they decide how to tackle a corner on stage only hundreds meters after taking it on recce. While others almost stop on the spot to write down the angle/radius and just move on.

To finish the day we went to Montiferru after the start (https://scontent-bru2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...38231451_o.jpg ; https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...55147404_o.jpg). Almost 1000m high in altitude, there was a great view, and a lot of spectators. On the top of the mountain you could see the start, a first right corner, a hairpin left, another right corner and then they disappeared... Then all spectators quickly walked some 5 meters to see the other part. A left-right situation where the cars lifted wheels, followed by a straight, some long left turn and right turn before they disappeared behind the mountain. Rally-technical nothing really special to mention here. All drivers cutted over the rocks, as if they were made for it. After the first WRC2-cars the stage was neutralized, unfortunately.

On saturday we started with Monte Di Ala. Some very steep downhill section not too far behind the start (https://scontent-bru2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...64837797_o.jpg). It was a very fast left one into another fast left one (photo) with a bump just before it. After that there was some downhill straight with some bumps, into hairpin right. After that they disappeared over a crest into a fast left one (not visible anymore from my viewpoint). Both Paddon and Latvala (photo) were really crazy to see. From Latvala almost everyone thought he was going to crash, fortunately he didn't this time... This time again Citroëns were clearly handling the bumps not so well. After WRC cars we left to the Coiluna stage, maybe my favourite stage of the event. I like the very fast corners between the cork trees.

From there to Ozieri (some 1km before finish), very fast left corner over blind crest (https://scontent-ams3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...28688576_o.jpg). The crest was just not sharp enough for the cars to jump, most cars lifted their front wheels. Paddon was clearly the fastest on this place, he took all the space there was (not much). I dare to say his speed was probably 10kph (if not more) quicker than most other WRC drivers. Paddon is a driver who looks to perform very well on completely new events by the way. He's very good on what's the weak spot of his main teammate (Neuville)...

After that another run on Monte Di Ala and Coiluna, not really much to say about it. It started to show that there were too many retirements and big time losses, some impressive things, but it was clear many drivers were not really pushing hard anymore.

On sunday we did the first stage twice, before going to the powerstage. First time we were on a nice spot. Quick left corner before a long right tightening into a slow/medium corner. In the distance you could see a "double" junction right. It was some relatively fast junction right (probably some 110°) with very wide exit into another slower junction right (really 90°) around some bushes which didn't allow cutting. We visited this stage during recce on wednesday as well. It was cool to see Thierry Neuville going almost completely off the road in the exit of that second slow junction, just to see if it was possible to go so wide during the event as well. On sunday we saw that many drivers used more than the road on that place, going really far in the exit of the second (slow) one trying to carry the maximum speed.

On the powerstage we did a very fast (+- flatout) right corner with a little jump in it (https://scontent-bru2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...56193456_o.jpg ; https://scontent-bru2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...97379421_o.jpg). It's nice to end a rally with some "big-balls-action" like that. On this place most drivers had very similar lines. I remember Mikkelsen going much more sideways (too sideways) and losing a little bit of time. Both Skoda R5's were very fast but not sideways at all, they were flying with understeer. What was interesting too on this place was how big the difference in aerodynamics/downforce between WRC and R5 really is. WRC cars were jumping nose up, while other cars had their back lifted more than front.

--End of part1.

[tommeke_B]

--part2, as it's too much to put in one post apparently.


From WRC cars perfomances it's clear that VW is still far ahead. The way Ogier is doing it is brilliant. He is never as spectacular as the others, but you have to admire the insight he has, and how he always finds a way to do it different, with less risk and a faster time throughout the section. It looks like just like Loeb he is doing much more analysis than others, not necessarily of the set-up, but mostly of the stages themselves I think. Mikkelsen still a bit more brutal than other events. For Latvala I had a lot of hope last year, he was starting to drive more clean (even cleaner than Ogier) in Finland and Germany, and was also quicker in both events. But now it looks like he's back in the typical agressive "Nordic" style, which comes with consequences.
Hyundai is becoming closest rival as it seems, for VW. Neuville was very disappointing for me this weekend, I've never been more disappointed in him than this time. I don't know what took his confidence away... Paddon on the other hand was the surprise of the rally, maybe the surprise of the year! Really flamboyant driving style, you can't compare it with any other current WRC driver, hard to describe it. I had countless moments where I thought it was over for him (especially on the Ozieri stage where he took that turn over the crest muuch faster than anyone else, knowing another right corner was following it). He was on a huge attack and entering the corners very agressive, but somehow he got everything right. He must be able to drive extremely precise, since the exits of those crazy corners were almost always very good. Hard to understand how somebody can drive so perfect on completely new stages with only 2 recce-runs, it's beyond comprehension for me...
Ford doesn't have the drivers who are capable for being both very quick and consistent (yet). The car looks and sounds good. Tanak was very impressive on some places, on other places he was very spectacular as well, but in the way it was a bit too brutal.
And Citroën... Well, Meeke should be a great driver. But this weekend he was really disappointing. After his crash he was driving very clean lines, it didn't look fast and the times don't lie...

Now too tired to write anything more... Maybe something about WRC2 tomorrow, although I don't have so much to say about it.

[AL14]

So some more extended review from Rally Italia Sardinia. If you are lazy or not interested, don't read it and save some time.

I've read it all and enjoyed it. Thanks for having shared your rally and your thoughts.

[Lundefaret]

So some more extended review from Rally Italia Sardinia. If you are lazy or not interested, don't read it and save some time.

It's the part where Ogier and Loeb are simply brilliant compared to others. As if they decide how to tackle a corner on stage only hundreds meters after taking it on recce.

A VERY good observation.
You see things many others do not

Thanks for the detailed post!

[pettersolberg29]

I've read it all and enjoyed it. Thanks for having shared your rally and your thoughts.

Indeed, cheers Tom, great read even though I was there too

[b3637853]

Great review tommeke_B, you definitely made the most out of what you saw on the stages. I envy you being on whole event, including recce. I'm going to spectate Rally Poland and I can't wait.
And really nice pictures BTW.