Power Stage system

[A FONDO]

But thats one of the reasons why they started with power stage - allow score points (give motivation) also for drivers who retired before...

No. They started it because at that time there were only Citroen and Ford, and in Sundays the blue ovals were usually 3-4 minutes behind already, so at least one of the stages in this day was useful to drive/watch.

[N.O.T]

Its a nice concept...

would be a pity to scrap it and return to cruising sundays with no interest just because someone took advantage of it and went around the rules once in all those years.... you can argue of course that this exploitation could be a championship decider at the end, but still i prefer it than a boring sunday.

[GravelBen]

I think proportionally the powerstage championship points are probably too high relative to placings in the rally - no problem with giving points for the the top 5 rather than top 3 in powerstage but it needs to be kept in balance to reflect that the powerstage is the icing on the cake, not another whole cake.

[AnttiL]

But thats one of the reasons why they started with power stage - allow score points (give motivation) also for drivers who retired before...

Yeh, the original Rally2 was just for power stage. I remember the first experiments from 1999. I think the first one was in Tour de Corse and then the next one in Finland. Ruuhimäki was the power stage.

Tommi Mäkinen had retired on Ouninpohja with technical failures and started the power stage first, gave it absolutely everything, going on the limit. Didier Auriol had retired earlier in the day because technical problems had dropped him far behind. He did the same as Tommi, going actually a big quicker. Thomas Rådström attempted, but wasn't fast enough. Toni Gardemaister was the only one still in the rally who could score a point.

In the end it started raining so the Rally2 starters were in a superior position to those starting behind, kind of same as Monte 2017. It's actually crazy considering the events that led to this discussion altogether...

We also saw Colin McRae's Ford Focus's engine expire just before the end of the stage in front of live TV cameras. There was also live onboard footage from Tommi Mäkinen and I thought that was unbeliveable, totally futuristic.

Back then there was no official WRC TV, but the productions were local and were to be syndicated globally. Thus the Finnish reporter at the stage end congratulated Kankkunen, who had won the rally, in English. Kankkunen recognized the reporter and replied initially in Finnish. This is also where he gave his infamous "Black round Pirelli" reply and continued by criticizing the whole power stage format.

[Duvel]

No rally 2 for cars on sunday, than no points go to those ho havn't done most of the rally?

[AnttiL]

No rally 2 for cars on sunday, than no points go to those ho havn't done most of the rally?

???

There's three main points for Rally 2

1. The drivers are still able to collect power stage points
2. If at least one of the other cars of the same team have retired, finishing through Rally2 ensures the manufacturer gets at least some manufacturer points. It doesn't matter how low you are in the overall order, it's enough if you're the second best in your team at the finish.
3. The manufacturer gets TV presence

It's not like the manufacturers will pay for the drivers to just drive for fun at Rally2.

[dupanton]

And what if we completly change the point scoring format in WRC?

1) points for overall classification stay like they are, but Rally2 drivers can't score any points here anymore (not for manufacturers neither)
2) points are awarded for day classifications (fe 5-4-3-2-1 for fastest 5 drivers). These points also count for manufacturers.
3) championship leader opens the road on Friday
4) rally leader opens on the other days. If they want to play games for road position, they will loose points.

That way, fights will be there all weekend long. They can't play games for roadposition neither. I think this would be a fair system.

[AnttiL]

And what if we completly change the point scoring format in WRC?

1) points for overall classification stay like they are, but Rally2 drivers can't score any points here anymore (not for manufacturers neither)
2) points are awarded for day classifications (fe 5-4-3-2-1 for fastest 5 drivers). These points also count for manufacturers.
3) championship leader opens the road on Friday
4) rally leader opens on the other days. If they want to play games for road position, they will loose points.

That way, fights will be there all weekend long. They can't play games for roadposition neither. I think this would be a fair system.

Sounds good, but it sure will make it confusing for spectators, especially if the overall points are also kept in the game. Also, wouldn't this give more space for team tactics? Second or third drivers would retire into rally2 or take penalties to give more points to the team's main driver at the day end?

[Allez Andruet]

Toni Gardemaister was the only one still in the rally who could score a point.

And what a performance that was, Gardemeister setting the third fastest time after it had rained for a while already. All in all, that production of Ruuhimäki PS was absolutely brilliant although I had to tape it and watch it "live" afterwards as I was on my way back from Jyväskylä when the stage was run.

But anyway, regarding the actual topic... although I hated it first (and for a long time), I have to admit I've learned to like the PS as a concept, kind of. Regarding the need of changing the rules due to case Ogier, why not? If there is a way to do that, then it should be done as these kind of games will be played as long as they're not forbidden and it never looks good. No-one wants the sport to get that kind of publicity.

[steve.mandzij]

I posted this in the Ogier thread but it was more apt for this one:

Regarding the advantage Ogier gained, it's nothing anybody anywhere over 10th place could do to gain points effectively, because you'd lose the points from any other position with smaller gaps ahead and behind. However, it does raise another issue: the tenth placed driver now has a nearly sure way to score more points than 9th or 8th every single time on the PS. Maybe there can't be a rule preventing this that wouldn't exclude the bottom half of point scorers from PS points but it does raise an issue.

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