[WRC] 91e Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo (16-22 January 2023)

[Sulland]

If you are a non works driver, and is to put together a program, trying to win a series/championship, very few will chose Monte.

To much of a gamble weatherwise, and great possibility of a non finish, with large sum of € to rebuild a car.

[traxx]

Day maps

[Danny0405]

It is not strange that Delecour can’t get the Puma but goes with super rare new Fabia instead a Ford Fiesta?

I think a strong hypothesis about what happened could be:
- M-Sport has forecasted and ordered the logistics for 5 cars, Rally1+2 combined, for Monte-Carlo and the current logistics costs may make an additional car very expensive to run if lately organized. I wouldn’t be surprised, considering Millener and Wilson interviews, that they understood that they are not able anymore to manage correctly 7 cars in rallies (Rally2 included) or 5 Rally1 car at the same time as they did last year sometimes with the complexity of these Rally1 cars + the shortages in staff they did after Covid;
- with Greensmith and Loeb’s negotiations very hard for some times as we know + Serderidis reducing his program, they could have a car available potentially so they opened the discussions to rent it to a one-shot if no regular client is there
- Delecour was looking for it and obtained enough money to rent it for a one-shot (or close to it)
- finally, Serderidis decided to do Monte-Carlo and he has also backed Munster and the latter decided to take the Fiesta Rally2 (instead of the Hyundai)
- M-Sport preferred Serderidis over Delecour (understandable as the Greek has a larger program, is a long-time client and backs Munster in Rally2) and, except if Delecour pays an extra-cost for the logistics (and maybe Delecour didn’t have it or didn’t want to), it was not interesting anymore for M-Sport to run a 6th car
- So Delecour had a Rally1 drive budget for Monte-Carlo with no car quite lately: with this budget at the last moment, he was able to overbid to rent the new Skoda for Monte-Carlo against «*lower*» clients; and for Skoda, in Monte-Carlo between Delecour and an average foreign client not able to win, Delecour is a better marketing stuff.

Only my opinion but I think it can be one of the scenarios about what happened; in the end, it’s about business. I wouldn’t be surprised we saw less than 3 Puma in average during the season (against an average of 4 last year with Fourmaux-Loeb-Breen-Greensmith-Serderidis and the outings of Huttunen and Bertelli) with M-Sport clearly focusing on only Tanak-Loubet and clients paying all.
Not a question of number of cars (we know from Catalunya last year than they have at least 4 cars available + Serderidis’ one) but more of organization.
Clearly think M-Sport view right now is «*All on Ott*», Loubet in 2nd car because they needed someone to be registered as a manufacturer and he partially pays for it, and else, you pay all the costs + margin or you don’t drive.
Interesting also to see how it will finish with Greensmith; clearly, him being out of Monte increases a lot the probability about the Toyota rumors.

[Andre Oliveira]

Can Delecour’s Puma not from M-Sport? But the Serderidis’ one? Cause the news have not M-Sport name. And i heard something about no M-Sport.

[Danny0405]

Can Delecour’s Puma not from M-Sport? But the Serderidis’ one? Cause the news have not M-Sport name. And i heard something about no M-Sport.

Serderidis’ car is managed directly by M-Sport and is kept in M-Sport location; so if it’s an issue of number of cars in the shipment and logistics, it’s not necessarily the car directly which is the issue.
And normally, Serderidis doesn’t rent his car directly (afaik at least).

[Andre Oliveira]

Do you really think Mr. Wilson would let Delecour exit without a super deal to run Fiesta Rally2 instead?

[Danny0405]

Do you really think Mr. Wilson would let Delecour exit without a super deal to run Fiesta Rally2 instead?

Maybe Delecour or his backers didn’t want the Fiesta Rally2 and it’s quite understandable
Backing and sponsorship depends a lot of the advertisement you can give: being in the Puma Rally1 can give advertisement, being in one of the very first Skoda RS drives also, being in a Fiesta Rally2 ... well, when we know its level, clearly less and if Delecour has really a big budget for this rally, it’s clearly better to spend it on the new Fabia and I would have done the same if I don’t want to drive elsewhere and a company gives me the money only for this.
And as I said, it’s only an opinion and as I said before, we have only one side of the story, Delecour’s one: the only thing that sounds pretty sure is that he had a real budget considering the deal he gets with Toksport.
Was it enough for renting the M-Sport? Was it only a very conditional possibility with no real opening by M-Sport? A lot of question mark we may never have the answer.
It’s business, competition and the time frame was really short; sometimes, it’s a lot about opportunities, timing and a bit of luck.

[Atob WRC]

Day maps

Ouh!!! I'm just coming to see that I was confused, and I thought that repeated the stage St. Jeannet - Malijai, and now I see that it's Malijai - Puimichel.

Another stage, without intermediate access. What a rally......they try to make an itinerary without access for spectators.

Every year it's worst....

[J4MIE]

Shakedown
025A2F10-4425-4786-8BB7-5B95FF7FEFDF.jpg

[dimviii]

SERDERIDIS TO DRIVE PUMA IN MONTE
Jourdan Serderidis will drive an M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 at next month’s Rallye Monte-Carlo (19 - 22 January).
https://www.wrc.com/en/news/2022/wrc...puma-in-monte/