Rally Discussion and Bar Talk Thread

**Negaiss** · 26th February 2026, 03:56

Originally Posted by saco0o

petter solberg went on a great new rallycross podcast where he told some really awesome stories from his early carrear.
he mentioned something about WRC 2012 to 2013, where he left the sport very angry because of something that he cannot share (around 29 min maybe?) - I wonder what that may be... ? i would say maybe something related to new promoter and/or vw coming in demanding stuff like "no, petter cannot build his cars from scratch anymore, nope" but idk, he had a good relationship later in RX with VW, so i have no idea. he also mentions these next wrc rules 'were not FIA, were the teams trying to find a solution", which is curious in a way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzC7R_rSQ2s

Sounds like he is talking about the situation, that Manufacturesr are playing dirty. That it is not possible to win with a private team. Sounds like he was told, that he will not win if in a private car. I think he is telling, that manufacturers ar messing up with cars maybe even remotely. I have also had thoughts about this, for example Sesks was faster than evey manufacturer in Saudi and sudenli engine issue. Maybe even slow puncures could be remotely induced.

**deephouse** · 26th February 2026, 06:17

M-Sport is desperate for good results and I don't think that they would mess up the only car who could actually bring them those, as all others were slow, hit the troubles and were conpletely nowhere. It could be, if full season drivers would fight for the win, but they weren't.

**PLuto** · 27th February 2026, 11:24

Originally Posted by deephouse

M-Sport is desperate for good results and I don't think that they would mess up the only car who could actually bring them those, as all others were slow, hit the troubles and were conpletely nowhere. It could be, if full season drivers would fight for the win, but they weren't.

Maybe he was thinking that it was other manufacturers meesed up his car/tyres

**focus206** · 28th February 2026, 10:25

Today Sandro Munari has passed away.
He was 1973 European champion and won the 1977 FIA Rally Drivers Cup, which was basically the first drivers world championship in everything but the name. He was also the highest scoring driver in the 1974 and 1976 seasons, if I recall correctly, but there was no driver title those years.
RIP

**becher** · 28th February 2026, 14:53

I always found it strange how he was the man in a Stratos but disappeared basically together with the original Lancia Squadra Corse.

**focus206** · Today, 11:56

Originally Posted by becher

I always found it strange how he was the man in a Stratos but disappeared basically together with the original Lancia Squadra Corse.

I guess he decided to retire few years before the average (great) driver of the time. He was 38 in 1978, his last "full" season. He helped FIAT develop the 131 Abarth, after they decided to close down the Lancia team.
After that, he tried to win Safari few times but never managed to.