Vodafone Rally de Portugal 2014

[mousti]

Neuville..

[Juha_Koo]

Neuville..

What happened?

[MartinJBC]

pictures from rally de portugal / leg 1 - 2 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...4325024&type=1

[SubaruNorway]

What happened?

Knocked his head on something while repairing the car i guess

[Lundefaret]

I think this rally says a lot about why it will be so easy for Ogier to clinch yet another title.

Sordo complained about understeering, on the very same stages he did maybe his best performances ever in the WRC. Maybe he should conclude that his mental image of what is needed to go fast and safe in the WRC is wrong, and that this "understeering" car forced him to drive more corectly?

Neuville has a clearer picture of what is needed, and showed this with some big steps in the right direction at Ford, but will have to keep a very clear head to keep on the right track during not only the development of him self as a driver, but also during the development of the car. Neuville would be the perfect Citroën driver, but the question is if his picture is clear enough to take the Hyundai development in the right direction - time will show.

Hirvonen says between the lines that it is impossible to go faster with the Ford. That would be the same as to say that he would have won if he was in a Volkswagen and Ogier in a Ford. Complete nonsense. Ogier would have won in a Ford or a Citroën. By the way, maybe some of these drivers should start to think about why the fastest drivers (Loeb and Ogier) have better tires (less wear) at the end of the stages than the slower drivers? Is it only the car? Only the set up? Or can it actually be that the driver has something to do with it?
Reading up on the laws of physics can be a good start.

- Tanak shows again that his speed is not sustainable, though a great speed it is.
- Meeke (a very likable guy I have had the pleassure to spend some time with) shows the same, tough at a slower pace at this particular event.
- Latvala is back in bad habits. Not very surprising if you have seen inboard from Mexico. At "stage end" Latvala says that he could push more, but at the same stage he has had several near misses. He can not be aware of what a near miss is, and how often he is close to puncturing, knocking of wheels or even rolling out.
You cant have a shrink telling you what you should improve in your driving style.

Mads Østberg is trying to drive "more like Loeb", the question is how clear a picture he and the team has of exactly how Loeb drove? Citroën was unable to replicate it with Hirvonen. I dont know if this was up to the stubborness of Hirvonen, or lack of driving knowledge of driving technique whitin the team?

Andreas Mikkelsen is maybe the fastest driver in raw speed in the WRC, but currently lacks the ability to drive close enough to his maximim speed on a complete event to be able to challenge for victories.
When he tries to go fast he goes off, and when he backs of to go steady he is sudenly behind Prokop (the 10 minute guy). This is a variable of speed of several seconds pr kilometer, and is a tell tale of his lack of awarness of what he does right, and what he does wrong, both regarding driving technique and pace notes.
When asked by Jost Capito if he went too fast in Mexico, and if that was the reasons for the offs, he answered "no". Hmmm...? What could it be then?
Seeing the inboard one can only conclude that driving that fast with those simple pace notes is a very high risk indeed.

It seams that it is difficult to understand that the goal in rallying is to have the highest sustainable speed, not the highest maximum speed. You should go trough a stage with no more risk of going off the road then when you go to work. The sport with the maximum speed is called hill climbing, rallying is "chess at 200 km/h".

I like Ogier, and I like the fact that a guy like him exists after Loeb, so the drivers dont forget that there is another way of doing things. He stretches the bar, but sadly out of reach of everybody else...

I actually wonder what Ogier thinks about this. If he goes to bed each night reading another chapter in the Black Book he recieved from Loeb, and goes to sleep with a smile on his face safely aware of the fact that the only other person in the world aware of this "secret" driving technique called "Nose End First" have switched to circuit racing, and will never again be back to challenge him.
Then falling to sleep dreaming happy dreams of easy tasks like stealing candy from little children, or winning rounds in the WRC championship?

Maybe it is time for the other drivers to wake up?

[bluuford]

What weather will be tomorrow? Prefer for Soft or Hard tyres?

Should be beach weather tomorrow:-) Mostly sunny, chilly in the morning +13..+16 and warmer during the PS- +17..+19 I would say it is definitely hard tires.

[bluuford]

- Tanak shows again that his speed is not sustainable, though a great speed it is.

Seems that it was again a bit late note by co-driver. He said that they need more time to practice (His codriver had nearly 0% experience in WRC) but they do not have much time for practice. Looking at his speed then I belive that Tänak+Ford+some more rallyes is the only realistic opposition for the Ogier. Remember that it was his frist rally with WRC on gravel since neary 1.5 years, recce was done in the condititions where they barely see any road and he was going almost the same speed as Ogier. Not only with better roadconditions but also today, until antirollbar broke. To me he has made a huge step forward compared to 2012 (then he was sometimes quite fast and crashing a lot, now he is constantly fast and crashes are not caused by overdriving.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

I think this rally says a lot about why it will be so easy for Ogier to clinch yet another title.

Sordo complained about understeering, on the very same stages he did maybe his best performances ever in the WRC. Maybe he should conclude that his mental image of what is needed to go fast and safe in the WRC is wrong, and that this "understeering" car forced him to drive more corectly?

Neuville has a clearer picture of what is needed, and showed this with some big steps in the right direction at Ford, but will have to keep a very clear head to keep on the right track during not only the development of him self as a driver, but also during the development of the car. Neuville would be the perfect Citroën driver, but the question is if his picture is clear enough to take the Hyundai development in the right direction - time will show.

Hirvonen says between the lines that it is impossible to go faster with the Ford. That would be the same as to say that he would have won if he was in a Volkswagen and Ogier in a Ford. Complete nonsense. Ogier would have won in a Ford or a Citroën. By the way, maybe some of these drivers should start to think about why the fastest drivers (Loeb and Ogier) have better tires (less wear) at the end of the stages than the slower drivers? Is it only the car? Only the set up? Or can it actually be that the driver has something to do with it?
Reading up on the laws of physics can be a good start.

- Tanak shows again that his speed is not sustainable, though a great speed it is.
- Meeke (a very likable guy I have had the pleassure to spend some time with) shows the same, tough at a slower pace at this particular event.
- Latvala is back in bad habits. Not very surprising if you have seen inboard from Mexico. At "stage end" Latvala says that he could push more, but at the same stage he has had several near misses. He can not be aware of what a near miss is, and how often he is close to puncturing, knocking of wheels or even rolling out.
You cant have a shrink telling you what you should improve in your driving style.

Mads Østberg is trying to drive "more like Loeb", the question is how clear a picture he and the team has of exactly how Loeb drove? Citroën was unable to replicate it with Hirvonen. I dont know if this was up to the stubborness of Hirvonen, or lack of driving knowledge of driving technique whitin the team?

Andreas Mikkelsen is maybe the fastest driver in raw speed in the WRC, but currently lacks the ability to drive close enough to his maximim speed on a complete event to be able to challenge for victories.
When he tries to go fast he goes off, and when he backs of to go steady he is sudenly behind Prokop (the 10 minute guy). This is a variable of speed of several seconds pr kilometer, and is a tell tale of his lack of awarness of what he does right, and what he does wrong, both regarding driving technique and pace notes.
When asked by Jost Capito if he went too fast in Mexico, and if that was the reasons for the offs, he answered "no". Hmmm...? What could it be then?
Seeing the inboard one can only conclude that driving that fast with those simple pace notes is a very high risk indeed.

It seams that it is difficult to munderstand that the goal in rallying is to have the highest sustainable speed, not the highest maximum speed. You should go trough a stage with no more risk of going off the road then when you go to work. The sport with the maximum speed is called hill climbing, rallying is "chess at 200 km/h".

I like Ogier, and I like the fact that a guy like him exists after Loeb, so the drivers dont forget that there is another way of doing things. He stretches the bar, but sadly out of reach of everybody else...

I actually wonder what Ogier thinks about this. If he goes to bed each night reading another chapter in the Black Book he recieved from Loeb, and goes to sleep with a smile on his face safely aware of the fact that the only other person in the world aware of this "secret" driving technique called "Nose End First" have switched to circuit racing, and will never again be back to challenge him.
Then falling to sleep dreaming happy dreams of easy tasks like stealing candy from little children, or winning rounds in the WRC championship?

Maybe it is time for the other drivers to wake up?

Great post.

[Sardalense]

My photos from today part 1

[Sardalense]

part 2/2