Young talented drivers

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For me Gilbert, Folb and Veiby don't really belong to the list. All 3 did the Citroën DS3 Trophy in WRC this year (officially named JWRC). Those are 3 from maybe 5 drivers who competed in the whole JWRC... It's a pitty that there are so much options for young drivers. There's JERC (last year the most interesting championship to follow, when it comes to young drivers), JWRC, D-Mack Trophy and many national junior championships and trophies in many countries. It's harder to judge the drivers when there aren't enough (quick) drivers doing these championships.

This may be a little off-topic, but it's a topic that's important for the development of young drivers all over Europe. I hope the FIA takes a look at the "ladder" of classes in cars (R1, R2, R3, R5, before jumping to WRC). R1 isn't really expensive, but it's too slow to be called a rallycar. Many people who drive an R1 have a faster car when they are doing recce than during the rally... For fun/budget in almost all countries drivers prefer old Saxo's/Clio's/Civics etc. Also for sponsors some R1 isn't interesting as you can't score any decent result with it in a rally with a normal entry field. Then R2 is a huge step. The cars are quick and exciting to watch, and in many countries there's a good coverage in cups/trophies or junior championships. The problem for almost all drivers is that they are too expensive to drive. To buy a new R2 you need some 55K to 60K euros (for 208 or Adam or Fiesta 1.0). Rental costs for these cars are easily 10 000 euros and more for a national rally. I think apart from JERC or a very strong national junior championship or trophy (are there any left?) it's hard to justify these costs towards people who invest their money in it... Then there's R3, which is even much more expensive and gets less interest than R2. We're seeing that this is starting to be a step that is left over by most drivers, who try to go directly from R2 to R5. R5 seems to be a great formula, as the number of entrants and the number of sold cars prove.

In my opinion it would be nice if FIA rethinks the R1-R2-R3 classes, with having R3 ditched (as there's a lack of interest anyway), and renewing R1 and R2 classes. With new cars/engines on the market, couldn't it be possible to get R1 and R2 from the same basic car? A car with 1.0 (such as Ford's Ecoboost or Opel's EcoFLEX, or the 1.2 PureTech from PSA) could make a perfect basic car. I'd like to see a new R1 car, with the power of almost current R2 but much more restricted in the area of suspension and gearbox. Something that's still relatively affordable but already exciting to drive and watch. Then there could be an R2 car, like the current R2 car but with rules to allow some more power (like bigger restrictor on turbo cars). With some more power and a good competition among some drivers, the R2 cars would be at least as exciting to see as the old S1600 cars. Maybe it could be possible to do a big upgrade on an R1 car to make an R2 car from it, so the step from R1 to R2 could be smaller as well? Nowadays R1/R2/R3 have a completely different base car. People who buy an R1 now, do a season with it, then want to move on, and have to sell a car nobody wants... In reality it surely isn't as easy as explained here, but the way it is now isn't really the way to go for young drivers who don't have some millionaire behind them. I think Opel showed a good formula with the Adam Cup.

Pitty that FIA isn't interested in the "health" of this sport called rallying...

I totally agree.
The R3 class in the WRC is a dead end.
The are are way to expensive.

In England they run a MINI Cooper challenge. The cars are based on the new MINI Cooper S Works. They have a Quaife sequential gear box, about 260 hp, brakes, dampers etc. They cost about 35.000 pounds.
An R3T cost about 90.000 pounds. And its ment to be a car for young drivers.

What happens is that many young talents are discriminated by default, because the budgets run wild.

I don't know how much EVEN Rally spends on Veibys JWRC season, but they rent all services from top team Print Sport, wich is not cheap. And they have off course bought a car etc.
That's very cool for EVEN Rally that they have the resources to do such things, but for the factory teams it presents a problem. Because young drivers talents can be exaggerated because its difficult to understand how much experience they have.
A young driver like Veiby has done more kms in a rally car than drivers that are 10 years older, so how to compare them?

When Mikkelsen was 20 he had done more kms in an WRC car than most of the regulars in the championship. His best show of talent came in the Norwegian Subaru Cup, and in a S2000 facing other VW prospects.

With a young driver with huge experience the curve of improvement can have a flatter trajectory than that of a less experienced driver with more true talent.

In the WRC it will be very interesting to follow Camilli and Meeke, because they still have a steep trajectory of improvement, where drivers like Evans and Tannak fail to deliver.