WRC 2011 in general

freestyla

Three rallies driven already, whats your thoughts? what comes next? what good whats bad?

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Some thoughts..

Cars - Another year and its Citroen again leaving dust and few championship points to others.. unbelivable really that there is no competition to them on our planet with all those numerous automotive manufacturers. If Ford doesn't win in next two rallies, I will not even bother watching but spend my summer weekends doing something better. Doesn't really make much sense with those time differences as they are now. Even I could drive 15mins behind leader and score some points there!

1.6 litre engine is just ridiculous and embarrassment to motorsport. Since when it was something smaller than 2 litre which is considered sporty?? WRC and F1 are not local public transportation where is need for saving costs and grow flowers beside road.
Eco-races could be as separate competition with diesels, hybrids and electrics but THE FASTEST cars on earth should have at least 2 litre and 6 cylinders for sake of petrol smell, proper sound, proper horsepowers and torque and proper smoke.

Driving - shouldn't they race against the clock in forward direction, not backwards for **** sake! Start to piss me off those tactics, who is going to start first on the roads.. why not superstage or any stage as Qualifying session before rally??

Extra points in super stage at the end of rally is very good rule since it rewards drivers if they try hard enough.

ratedR

I still can't believe they havent cracked down on the whole slowing up at the end of the stage thing so they wont be first on the road the next day. If something similiar was going on in F1, it would be swiftly banned.
It must be a hard thing to clamp down on though, how can you actually prove it ?
Pisses me right off though. They should pick names from a hat for running order to put a halt to it.

I don't really see any difference with the 1.6 turbo engines ? Power still remains around the same, does it not ? What we do now have is a bit more driver input. Centre diffs are gone, and gear change paddals are also gone, so a bit more skill is required.

WRC is gone stale, like the days of Ferrari and Schumacher in F1. It's not attractive for other manufacturers to come in either. I fear until Loeb retires or Citroen pull out, we'll be seeing the same for years to come.
Ogier is about the best thing to happen in the past few years, but shur he's just a younger, less likable version of Loeb in the same car. Great.

I'm not sure the Ford lads are good enough, and the likes of Matthew (always in around 7th place and im only here anyway cause of daddy) Wilson need to be moved on for some fresh talent to come in. And don't even get me started about Ken Block.

The Fiesta looks good this year. I just have this feeling in better hands in might be a match for the Citroens. Ford should have taken a punt and put Petter Solberg in a works car with full backing this year to see if they could beat the Citroens. I have a feeling he'll get himself a win this year, he's had some terrible luck already, but is he really driving an identical car to Loeb and Ogier ?

Finally, the Minis. When are they going to make an appearance ? Looking forward to seeing what they can do, and seeing Chris Meeke in the WRC. Might take them a while to get up to speed, but they do have a bit of experience to be fair with Prodrive running them.

DeniseandGeoff

They should bring back the Group B Supercars, now that would sort the men from the boys, seeing them fly through the Clocaenog Stages North Waes in approx 1985 will live with me forever, and for you young uns just search group b on youtube and see some proper rally cars

ratedR

DeniseandGeoff wrote: »

They should bring back the Group B Supercars, now that would sort the men from the boys, seeing them fly through the Clocaenog Stages North Waes in approx 1985 will live with me forever, and for you young uns just search group b on youtube and see some proper rally cars

That arguement is just a cliche at this stage. It always pops up. Never gonna happen, move on.

We're talking about this season here, and the future.

borderlinemeath

Glad to see Loeb not having it all his own way. He's having to work harder and his anger at Hirvonen last weekend was the first emotional outburst I've seen from Mr Boring.

Some see him as the best driver out there in the modern era. I think his and citroens dominance has done huge damage to the sport.

Would also love to see Latvala keep the bloody car on the road!! He has a fantastic driving style but so prone to error it's his downfall.

freestyla

ratedR wrote: »

Pisses me right off though. They should pick names from a hat for running order to put a halt to it.

I've seen some comments that the driver, who wins test stage on thursday, could choose starting position for friday, then second driver choose etc.. then winner of friday choose starting position for saturday etc..

I don't really see any difference with the 1.6 turbo engines ? Power still remains around the same, does it not ?

Yeah power should be the same.. it's greener with less weight and lower emissions :P People say sound is too shivering than previous bigger non-turbo engine thus not so passionate growl as before

The Fiesta looks good this year. I just have this feeling in better hands in might be a match for the Citroens.

Mikko is top fast no doubt but he is one of those driver who require perfect car to win. He is not.. like Hamilton in F1 who can score podium even with car parts loose.

JM has awsome driving style.. wait until he shifts over those accident spots :P

Finally, the Minis. When are they going to make an appearance ?

Didn't they in Portugal? I hope they will start soon.. I guess they should be right behind Ford since they are not so noob with Prodrive experience.

freestyla

borderlinemeath wrote: »

last weekend was the first emotional outburst I've seen from Mr Boring.

I m totally for emotions! it's not only Loeb.. all drivers are giving reeaaally booooring comments- like you can easily predict what's drivers comment depending if he had good or bad race. They have like only two types of comments, positive and negative tone.."car feels good, improvement from last year, team is working hard and well, we try to score next race" or "It was not so good stage, little failure on car but will try to get it sorted out tomorrow, I came with too much cautions, will do my best tomorrow and see where we are "..daaa?? booooring!

All drivers, in F1 also, should be more natural more often infront of cameras. I guess it's just too much PR involved thus mostly poker faces :mad:

Also.. why they don't tell us actually some more technical facts? they have like 20 buttons inside a car and a million more in pit and servicing cars during weekend but no body is telling anything about details.. what exactly is wrong with your car if it's slowing you down? is suspension rebound too soft? was it brake cylinder failure- why, how? was it wrong diff setup?

Some see him as the best driver out there in the modern era. I think his and citroens dominance has done huge damage to the sport.

My interpretation is that all other manufacturers sucks. How many millions per year you need to run WRC team? can't be that expensive really if they just would cut off a bit of their fat ass bosses profits for a couple of years! Astronomic salaries bosses are more important than be involved in the best competition in business. Those like VW, Toyota, Volvo, Nissan, Audi, Mitsubishi, Opel, Honda etc. can all afford WRC for sure.
E.g. I never liked Citroens as street car, actually don't like them at all, but I was really hardly thinking about buying Xsara and C4 purely because of their rally performance. I very much appreciate cars with neat and sharp control. Focus I had for a while because of it's top chassis.

Thumbs up for Mini and Saab! I see 9-3 on my buying list already but not before they involve in WRC
(tried friends 9-3 turbo last year and is actually superb driving on backroads!)

borderlinemeath

Problem with running a WRC team is lack of sponsorship - whatever about the glamour of F1, Rallying seems to fly under the radar, particularly now that eurosport have dropped the coverage. Hardly an incentive for a major sponsorship deal with a manufacturer - Citroen have red bull sewn up - and they seem to have a limitless supply of sponsorship.

It would be fantastic to see manufacturers like Toyota and Mitsubishi back rallying - not going to happen in the near future though.

I've never equated the rallycar to roadcar - they are just too far removed.
Although I did take the DS3 for a testdrive last year when it was released - great car!

reiger

borderlinemeath wrote: »

Problem with running a WRC team is lack of sponsorship - whatever about the glamour of F1, Rallying seems to fly under the radar, particularly now that eurosport have dropped the coverage. Hardly an incentive for a major sponsorship deal with a manufacturer - Citroen have red bull sewn up - and they seem to have a limitless supply of sponsorship.

It would be fantastic to see manufacturers like Toyota and Mitsubishi back rallying - not going to happen in the near future though.

I've never equated the rallycar to roadcar - they are just too far removed.
Although I did take the DS3 for a testdrive last year when it was released - great car!

well isnt Mini comming back in for sardinia and well VW are about to throw 90 odd million at rallying and are looking to take loeb as lead driver.

the reason Citroen has all the funding is that they are a full works factory team with direct funding while ford are not full works in a way they contract M-Sport to run their cars and use the Abu dahbi money to fund the team.so they are limits there.

you must not be to tuned into the regs on the car comparision matter sure with the GPN and the old GpA regs the rally car had to be homologated from a road car version,and todays GpN cars still have the same shells,engines and some running gear.