WRC Belgium Ypres rally

[Mirek]

The mess was made by Germans. If I remember correctly, they announced cancellation just few days after the calendar was fixed with Ypres and new slots for both Sardinia and Turkey. And talks about axe of Deutschland started a way earlier, so I they could not have been surprised that cancellation of their rally is inevitable.

Come on, it's cheap to blame any organizers while you know very well that they are dragged by measures issued by state authorities often without any warning.

[focus206]

But you cannot take the championship away afterwards. You can't tell the teams "sorry for your efforts, but we couldn't arrange a world championship this year". It's a different thing if we knew this in advance and they could have agreed that there's a risk of not earning a proper world title. They might do it for next year...

Yes, I agree to give this title to someone, it's too late to just cancel the championship. That's why I'd like to see at least the RC1 cars sent somewhere to run an already existing rally and treat it as a championship round, to legitimaze this season more. If we count Monza as a valid round, then a national championship event should count too. Hopefully it's not too late for his, but I wish it had been done earlier, to get as many rounds as possible ran before the second wave... Big question now is, where.
But nevertheless, even with the title assigned, I don't expect Evans or Neuville to be seen as "real" world champions by many. Just on paper.

[dimviii]

I still claim that it's equally tricky to win a short season. How would have the tactics changed had they known it will be a short season?.

thats a very valid point.

[GigiGalliNo1]

...they are dragged by measures issued by state authorities often without any warning.

This is in every industry, from airlines, to the corporate world to event organizations.

[Lancia Stratos]

But they do. They cannot stop a virus, but if Ypres Rally was scheduled last week, it would have happened. Even if it was scheduled right now, it would have probably happened.

Are you ware that two rallies were cancelled in Belgium last weekend? And that Belgium is going into a national lockdown on Monday?

[focus206]

Are you ware that two rallies were cancelled in Belgium last weekend? And that Belgium is going into a national lockdown on Monday?

The decision of cancelling Ypres was taken a couple of days ago. Cancelling national and regional rallies is not quite the same thing as cancelling a FIA world championship round. Sure, they could have taken that decision earlier in case Ypres was scheduled earlier, we will never know. The point is there was close to 0 chances to run Ypres that late.

[AnttiL]

The Dirtfish podcast told that Rally Liepaja didn't become a WRC round because Hyundai wasn't ready to go there!

[Fast Eddie WRC]

The Dirtfish podcast told that Rally Liepaja didn't become a WRC round because Hyundai wasn't ready to go there!

That was a while ago wasnt it ?

It said they thought Toyota would have an advantage with all their Finland-based testing on similar roads.

They (with Neuville) had no problem with Ypres though...

[denkimi]

Or the crash of duval on the very first corner.
https://youtu.be/Lp-a6DOEW_M

Or neuville
https://youtu.be/d7l8UjlfUZw

[Sulland]

The most exiting with this rally for me is how quick the new i20 Rally2 is on asfalt.