2023 WRC News & Rumours

[becher]

What he said in 2021 about the benefit of driving the Fiesta Rally2 car...

“Next year with Rally1 car, there’s no centre differential and we’re back to a [stick] gearshift and there’s going to be less aerodynamics,” he said.

“For the driving, this is more similar to the current Rally2 cars. OK, there’s no battery and a lot more power coming, like we will have for Rally1, but the actual driving style is maybe like [the] R5 car. To take more experience of driving a car in specification like this is good."

Aj there is a difference between the driving style a car requires and the "driving style" of a driver (=> driver preference, what sort of behavior a driver likes and expects from a car). As driving styles of different drivers are often discussed on the forum I thought it would be clear what I meant.

[HKSjbg]

Neuville’s idea for format changes:

https://www.motorsport.com/wrc/news/...osal/10497210/

Sounds bloody awful to me

[Eli]

Neuville’s idea for format changes:

https://www.motorsport.com/wrc/news/...osal/10497210/

Sounds bloody awful to me

Saw it just now, I'm not sure how making Sunday like he proposes any better, sounds like a mess. Good thing he doesn't want the qualifying stage back.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Aj there is a difference between the driving style a car requires and the "driving style" of a driver (=> driver preference, what sort of behavior a driver likes and expects from a car). As driving styles of different drivers are often discussed on the forum I thought it would be clear what I meant.

I got what you meant but adapting to a very different car like the Rally1 with less aero, no centre diff and regenerative hybrid is difficult whatever your style.

Also with Suninen not being a full-time driver its case of him adapting his style to the car.

[ouvreur]

Saw it just now, I'm not sure how making Sunday like he proposes any better, sounds like a mess. Good thing he doesn't want the qualifying stage back.

Wow. My favourite line: “Then after that nobody knows. I could be the [Fernando] Alonso of the WRC.”

Except Fernando Alonso won 2 world driver's titles...

[focus206]

So a shorter rally and on sunday a 2 stage (2x same stage) rallysprint. Meh... I don't think there's a proper way to make sunday exciting, apart from the few times it's "naturally" exciting. It's just the way motorsport is, you could try to also give leg points, but that diminish more and more the importance of the rally overall classification, which I don't like. Someone who classifies in 5th getting more points than someone who classifies in 3rd...

Wow. My favourite line: “Then after that nobody knows. I could be the [Fernando] Alonso of the WRC.”

Except Fernando Alonso won 2 world driver's titles...

He probably meant to be still fast at an "old" age, like Alonso is in F1? Which is very probable, if the WRC keeps being a 8-9 cars championship. That is a bigger problem than sunday cruising.

[AndyRAC]

Shorter events are not the answer - I don't know why they can't understand this. Events need more freedom. Why not have some finish on a Saturday evening/ night? Or have a proper Sunday with a late afternoon finish.
Just mix it up a bit, instead of the same 'cookie cutter' events year after year......

[becher]

I got what you meant but adapting to a very different car like the Rally1 with less aero, no centre diff and regenerative hybrid is difficult whatever your style.

Also with Suninen not being a full-time driver its case of him adapting his style to the car.

He's been driving Rally2 anyway in recent times so by your logic he should adopt easily anyway as the hybrid is hardly a game changer in terms of driving dynamics.

But it was never about adopting the car to him (which the team will do as well as they can because they aren't a bunch of muppets) but if his driving style is similar to Lappis and if he therefore would feel similarly at home in the i20.

[becher]

Neuville’s idea for format changes:

https://www.motorsport.com/wrc/news/...osal/10497210/

Sounds bloody awful to me

Apart from spicing up the MGU, I think its all bs.

[denkimi]

Shorter events are not the answer - I don't know why they can't understand this. Events need more freedom. Why not have some finish on a Saturday evening/ night? Or have a proper Sunday with a late afternoon finish.
Just mix it up a bit, instead of the same 'cookie cutter' events year after year......

This. The current format is just boring. Why not drive till late at night on saturday sometimes and end there.

There is no way to make any rally exciting when the differences between drivers have become too big, but at least it could spare us another pointless day. The km's they do in 3 or 4 days now could almost always be done in 2. A 100km friday and a 200km saturday.