WRC - ERC - National Rallying 2015 News and chat thread

Robbo wrote: »

Ostberg for the full season in the second Citroen.

Robbo wrote: »

Full ERC and WRC2 campaign for Breen in the Peugeot. If the reliability can be found in the car, he has the pace and experience to win both. The new Fabia R5s won't be homologated till mid-2015 so the opportunity is there to build up a gap early doors.

FIA ERC wrote:

http://www.fiaerc.com/news/detail/id/6583

Craig Breen is determined to hit back from his early exit from round one of the 2015 FIA European Rally Championship in Austria this morning.

The ace Irishman was two kilometres from the finish of SS1, Pierbach, when his Peugeot Rally Academy 208 T16 slid off the road on a slow downhill left-hand corner and became stranded.

With the car stuck, Breen and co-driver Scott Martin were forced to retire from the Internationale Jännerrallye powered by GaGa Energy although they will restart under Rally 2 rules on Tuesday’s second leg when they will be in contention for bonus points.

“It was a 10kph accident,” said Breen. “I got it slowed down and was halfway round the corner but as I got back on the power I lost grip and the front of the car spun round. There was no damage but it was stuck on the sumpguard and we couldn’t move.”

Breen, who placed third in last year’s ERC standings, continued: “The stage was going really well and we were doing the best job we could with the grip we had. I was really enjoying the conditions, they were consistent and I felt under control.

“I’m gutted to go out on the first stage of the year but I’ve got to put it to the back of my mind and get on with it. The world won’t stop, the car’s not damaged and we’ll come back tomorrow.”

Breen and Martin are undertaking a nine-round ERC campaign in 2015.

http://www.fiaerc.com/news/detail/id/6583

• Competitors who fail to contest a special stage without being able to show cause will receive a seven-minute time penalty.
  
• The running order will be in championship order for the first two legs of the rally. On the last leg, P1 and P2 crews will run in reverse classification order.
  
• The transmission of performance data or information to or from a competing car, not in relation with safety, is forbidden during special stages to help promote greater competition.
  
• A car which has not started from the start line within 20 seconds will be considered as retired and will be able to restart under Rally 2 on the subsequent day
  
• In the cockpit, the most obvious change will be the reintroduction of steering wheel-mounted gearshift paddles, a system that replaces the 2014-spec sequential stickshift.
  
• Under the skin, manufacturers can take advantage of a new supply of homologation ‘jokers’, enabling them to make a limited number of mechanical changes to their homologated designs. There are changes too to the minimum weights of some components, allowing greater freedom to play with weight distribution and balance.

Robbo wrote: »

Be interesting to see if Kubica being on Pirellis can produce any unusual results.