[driver#8]

It's been rather fun watching the new generation come to terms with the most famous rally of them all.

New this year - any shred of road car DNA has now gone, what you are looking at is effectively 4WD NASCAR. A standard safety cell, spaceframes on either end to exact specification, standard hybrid units, standard five-speed sequential transmissions, no centre differential, and the standard Global Race Engine.

Take all those ingredients, dress them in whatever shape of carbon fibre panels you want (minus all the old aero kit) and off you go.

Doesn't matter what the formula is, it's Ogier vs. Loeb at the front in the battle of the GOATs. Ogier may well have done enough this afternoon on a snowy Sisteron to take victory tomorrow, but there's nothing quite like crystal blue skies and Monte to start the year...

Ogier nearly didn't get away with that one...

 

[Wankel Ickx]

Seriously? They're that controlled? What's the point?? Rhetorical.

Do they bother with a Manufacturers' Championship?

Also rhetorical.

BigC made me watch an video of yesterday's action and I bemoaned the lack of exhaust note music but now I shan't give the buggers another moment's consideration. 😒

 

[tangerinedream]

Been following the Monte since Thursday nights stages, Ogier was not sanctioned for driving off the start using the ice, his interview overan and it would have taken a minute to boot up the hybrid system as he'd shut it down apparently.

Adrian Formaux had the mother and father of an off Friday morning s first stage, both lucky to walk away from that one.

Been a bit bish bash bosh today, young Olly Solberg had fumes in the car, lost concentration and had a big off, Tanak crumpled the front on a rock face and trashed the oil cooler, Evans had an off that took a while to get out of.

Generally been a dry Monte,but further up the hills in sisteron, particularly north slopes has made tyre choice a bit hit and miss.

Anything could happen tomorrow, but the smart monies on Ogier, Loeb has done brilliantly, but is now realistically too far behind unless Ogier has an issue.that puma looks awesome.

Breens had a decent run, so has Greensmith.

Of all the marques , Hyundai seem to need the most development.

Hopefully 2022 will be a close contest , not just an inter Toyota fight, just wish teams weren't just in corporate colours.

 

[scuderia_turini]

Yo Nick, Yeah, I had to laugh when it was discussed that the space-frame of Formaux's car was OK but they would run out of time to replace all the panelwork. With previous cars, they hammered the body panels back in to reasonable shape quite quickly.
I'm rooting for Seb and Isabelle - I like happy endings.
Julian Porter surprised me regarding a couple of incidents. One was when he seemed to think it would be OK for the spectators to risk their lives to get Elfyn back on the road. Cannot remember the other.

 

[tangerinedream]

Think M sport had a scratched test car a couple of weeks ago,they managed to patch it up.
Adrian's off looked spectacular.
There's probably a mostly complete spare car back in Cumbria.
Loeb only has this one off deal at the moment.
Be a great fairytale for him and Issy to win, but I think Ogier will prevail.

 

[Jeepster]

Love the Monte Carlo Rally.

Hate the modern hatch clones.

 

[A_S]

Been a good event, but i do miss the radio on WRC all live. Its a shame they culled it as the only stage with any real drama today was the stage where i wasn't infront of the TV...!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[driver#8]

Yo Nick, Yeah, I had to laugh when it was discussed that the space-frame of Formaux's car was OK but they would run out of time to replace all the panelwork. With previous cars, they hammered the body panels back in to reasonable shape quite quickly.
I'm rooting for Seb and Isabelle - I like happy endings.
Julian Porter surprised me regarding a couple of incidents. One was when he seemed to think it would be OK for the spectators to risk their lives to get Elfyn back on the road. Cannot remember the other.

Hi Leo,

Totally agree - a Loeb win would be magic, but it's getting a bit remote now.

I can't decide how I feel about the new cars. Not a fan of the understeer that's for sure. But they sound good and look okay. And they're rallying... which feels like a win in itself.

The commentary team as a whole can pretty well do one as far as I'm concerned, it makes most hospital radio stations sound like cutting-edge broadcasting. I'm not a fan of Ott Tanak but he does at least very flatly point out when the theories they come up with are nonsense. Kris Meeke and Mads Ostberg have both done a far better job as commentators than any of the regulars, but sadly both of them want to carry on competing.

 

[driver#8]

Well, Ogier's just dropped more than half a minute with a puncture and with one stage to go, Loeb is 10s in front.

The hopes of middle-aged men around the world rest on the shoulders of our grey-haired, bespectacled and brilliant maestro... who is apparently more concerned with the complimentary onion pastries and espresso than anyone else in the service park.

Get it done, lad!

 

[StuBeeDoo]

As of 2022 I'm done with the WRC.

As mentioned above, Rally1 cars are so far removed from road cars that I feel they are irrelevant. Modified road cars, a-la Group A make far more sense. If, for example, Hyundai don't make a 4wd i20 don't let them rally such a car. Same goes for Rally2/R5.
The likes of Ogier and Loeb may well be great drivers, but if they are allowed to keep coming back for one-off drives on the events that they enjoy, they are stealing points from the drivers who are committed to the full championship. If they want to compete for fun, let them. Just don't give them points.

It's all nonsense. Classics/historics/legends FTW. Back to basics.

 

[tangerinedream]

Congrats to seb L on the Monte win, commiserations to Seb O on his puncture.
Hyundai have some development work to do I think.
While it's great to see part timers, it messes up the points for the championship, this year the wec has banned dibbing in and out for teams, perhaps WRC should do the same.

 

[scuderia_turini]

Yay! Sebastien Loeb and Isabelle Galmiche took the victory. A great result on many levels. Congratulations to M-Sport on a good performance overall, 1st 3rd and 5th. Seb retains the title of "The Special One".

Abit of a surprise to find that the "Power Stage" was just a section of the final stage rather than a separate entity. Stil not clear if that was a one-off or is the arrangement for all events this year.

 

[StuBeeDoo]

If Breen or Rovanpera miss-out on the championship for the want of the points they've been robbed of today, the whole of WRC will be an even bigger joke than it already is.

 

[tangerinedream]

Back in the day ,1968, Alan Mann, who was a great team manager / owner and very effective at spending some of Fords Motorsport budget, was running the legendary Frank Gardner escort, these cars were run at that time I'm pretty sure to group 5 regulations.

While Frank could win his class with ease and maximise points, Alan was concerned about anyone having a good/excellent points tally in the big banger class, Special Falcons etc.

To try and nick points where possible from the big class, Alan sometime ran what qualified as a supercharged Escort, this was a regular car,but a small fan blew air into the intakes, qualifying it as a larger capacity engine.

Putting a spoiler car in is much better than the farce at the final of last year's DTM by Mercedes, to manipulate the championship.

Wonder if we'll see Loeb later in the year as a spoiler car, great Loeb drive,but bad luck for Ogier.

 

[driver#8]

For those wondering what lies beneath the skin of a new Rally1 car, Adrien Fourmaux helpfully threw his down a 75-foot cliff...

Personally, I think the WRC gains more from having Loeb and Ogier turn up and give us a demonstration like they have done than worrying about who might lose out at the end of the year. The two of them were separated by half a second on the road - and a country mile in front of the best of the rest. Sometimes drivers really are bigger than the series.

Rovanpera showed real class in coming from all-at-sea with the new car on Thurs/Fri to winning stages yesterday. Elfyn let himself down, Breen got lucky in what was a fairly average performance but you have to wonder how Hyundai will cope without strong leadership when both of its lead drivers - the class of the field in my view - have been left so completely high and dry by their new car.

No wonder Adamo fell on his sword last month, he knew what was coming!

An intriguing year ahead, and if road car DNA is really a factor it's worth thinking back to Group B and reassessing.

 

[StuBeeDoo]

if road car DNA is really a factor it's worth thinking back to Group B and reassessing.

Quattro A1/A2 aside I was never really interested in Gr.B, either.

 

[tangerinedream]

Difficult to see how anyone wasn't impressed by the Lancia S4, it was a rocketship.
Along with the metro, RS 200, Quattro sport and 205 it was pure madness, no wonder it was canned

 

[driver#8]

Difficult to see how anyone wasn't impressed by the Lancia S4, it was a rocketship.
Along with the metro, RS 200, Quattro sport and 205 it was pure madness, no wonder it was canned

Group B was only ever intended to last for a five-year cycle, starting in 1982. So FISA actually only chose not to extend it at the end of 1986 or to introduce the planned low-cost evolution, Group S. That was quite elegantly done on their part, blaming the cars rather than the godawful event organisation that permitted the accidents to happen. Unfortunately, it's given rise to the myth that Group B was so fast it had to be killed, which wasn't the case.

But yes, it was mega.

 

[tangerinedream]

Lancia and Audi had group S cars ready to go, looked good the Lancia,the Audi was an acquired taste I thought.

 

[Trisha]

Long live the Monte, but for how much longer, I wonder?