Quote Originally Posted by Lenno View Post
Long time reader, first time poster of this forum.

I agree with the rationale of changing the points system but not wholly convinced by what has come up with. My two cents worth is as follows:

1) Overall classification (end of Sunday). Points to the top 10 finishers on the following scale - 20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1

2) Power Stage points as current 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

3) Best Stage performance points bonus - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Essentially the top 5 stage performers get the bonus points. To apply this to Sweden it would be 5 (Rovanpera for 5 stage wins), 4 (Lappi for 4 stage wins), 3 (Neuville for 3 stage wins), 2 (Evans for 2 stage wins) and 1 (Katsuta for 1 stage win - same as Tanak/Linnamae/Fourmaux so then it would be most 2nd places as a tiebreak, or most 3rd places etc to break the tie).

I think this would make it much more difficult for the overall rally winner to not get the most overall points at the end as they are likely to have several stage wins in order to win the rally so would typically end up with at least 22/23 points before any power stage points are added. Also, it would incentivise pushing throughout as every stage counts towards points.

For Sweden the points under this system would be: Lappi 24 (20+0+4), Evans 21 (15+4+2), Fourmaux 12 (12+0+0), Neuville 16 (10+3+3), Rovanpera 10 (0+5+5), Tanak 2 (0+2+0), Katsuta 2 (0+1+1). This feels generally fairer and Lappi ends up scoring the most points!
Remember when Colin McRae won the Safari Rally without even taking a stage win? That was a calculated strategy to take the win on a tough event. Granted WRC rallies are nothing like as tough as an old-style Safari, but it is still possible and creates an interesting talking point every once in a while. Even Richard Burns had an ambition to win a WRC title without taking a win all season, having taken just the one win in his title winning year.

Now there’s this modern day obsession with every single moment must be ACTION! ACTION! ACTION! We can’t possibly have a moment where anybody lets up the pace otherwise millions of eyeballs will immediately switch off and the sport will die!

To me it’s all just more steps towards homogenising the WRC in the hope that every event will be as exciting as the last.

A point on specifically Rally Sweden, someone on the Youtube comments put it quite well: Lappi had earned the right to take less risks on Sunday to guarantee the win for him and the team - why should that strategy result in fewer points than 2nd place?