A lot of testing are going on currently, with Rally Estonia, Rally Finland and Rally Acores close to each others. Here is a video of Norweigan Mads Östberg testing for this weekend’s Rally Estonia.
Video: Mads Östberg testing for Rally Estonia
July 15th, 2011 by Rasmus
Video: Mini WRT testing for Finland
July 14th, 2011 by RasmusMini has been testing in Korpilahti the last few days for the upcoming Rally Finland. The tests were held on fast gravel roads with a lot of jumps – typical settings for the Finnish terrain. Both Kris Meeke and Dani Sordo have been driving – but Meeke’s testing have been a bit affected by an accident wounding the car and making the team return it to the team base in England for a checkup. This also means that Meeke wont start as planned in Rally Estonia this weekend, which was a part of the teams’ preparations for Finland.
Here are a few videos of the Mini tests:
Dani Sordo test day two
Dani Sordo on Finnish television
Watch Kris Meeke testing on YouTube
Video: Patrik Sandell test before Rally Acores
July 13th, 2011 by RasmusPatrik Sandell and his co-driver Staffan Parmander tested before the Rally Acores this monday. At least the test roads seem really nice and fast. Question is how Patrik will perform after a doubtful start of the season where he has been followed by various problems, not least punctures. The team have now switched tyre brand to Pirelli, which they hope will solve the problem and enable Patrik to go for the win. Personally, I’m not convinced it will be enough to reach all the way to a victory, but maybe he can at least get a step closer…
Video: Sebastien Ogier pre-Finland test roll
July 12th, 2011 by RasmusSebastien Ogier rolled his Citroën DS3 WRC today while testing for Rally Finland in the end of this month. Perfect footage below!
Volkswagen: Citroëns nightmare?
July 12th, 2011 by Rasmus
Volkswagen Polo WRC - a Citroën DS3 killer?
It’s been rumoured for a long time and confirmed for a few months that Volkswagen will enter the WRC with a new Polo WRC in 2013. However, the team plan to make their competitive debut already in Rally Finland in the end of this month – and then compete all remaining rallies this year except for Australia. Already from day one, Volkswagen have sent the signals that this is a serious challenge (nothing else could be expected) and in my opinion this can only be seen as another sign of that, maybe the strongest so far. Considering the price of competing one and a half year in the WRC (I guess that Volkswagen will continue to run even the next season), it shows with clarity that Volkswagen is willing to invest money not only to compete but even to win the WRC.
Of course, winning is not only about the car – but also a lot about the team in terms of personnel, drivers and co-drivers. Petter Solberg is rumoured to be close to signing for the team, but so far Volkswagen seems to be using the excellent strategy of signing young, talented and local drivers – at least if judging from the Rally Finland entry. Andreas Mikkelsen of Norway will be driving one car, and I guess he will be their first driver for the rest of the season and local ace Joonas Lindroos will drive the other car. By signing Mikkelsen they get someone that can act as a young and promising second driver in the works team later on while still being experienced enough to work as a good test driver. In Lindroos they get a local driver in Finland that can contribute with unique knowledge about the local conditions.
It’s quite obvious that Volkswagen will be competing at the highest level of WRC and I expect them to enter the series on a much higher level than any other debutant teams have done in recent years. For Citroën this means a team that can really challenge them for both the drivers and the manufacturers title. It will be interesting to see their next step. Will they fight back and how? (Especially with the possibility/speculations of Loeb ending his career or moving on quite soon…)
Follow Rally Sweden 2011 on Twitter
February 10th, 2011 by RasmusAs most of you have probably noticed, I haven’t been active on the blog for a long while. I apologize about that, and unfortunately I can’t say that I expect it to be more in any close future. At the moment my life is full of too many other things that I need to spend my time on – and I don’t wanna do anything half good. Maximum Attack _will_ come back – but not before I have the time necessary to update it on a daily basis and provide the exciting stories/news/insights and opinions that I would like to read myself.
With that said, I’m of course following Rally Sweden this weekend. I won’t blog about it – but I’ll try to post interesting stuff on Twitter when things happen…
Follow @maxattackblog on Twitter here:
http://www.twitter.com/maxattackblog
Stay tuned – one day I’ll be back for real!
UPDATED: SAAB discussing comeback to the WRC
August 6th, 2010 by Rasmus
Russian finance man and Spyker investor Vladimir Antonov with co-driver Denis Giraudet driving a SAAB 99 in Midnattssolsrallyt earlier this summer. Foto: Mikael Hjerpe
According to Autosport.com, the loose rumours about SAAB thinking about a comeback into the WRC has now went on to real talks with the WRC organisers and the TV promotor North One.
The car models tipped to be used by the Swedish brand is 9-1 or 9-2 and the engine would probably come from BMW, that has already developed the 1.6L engine for the new MINI team entering the championship from 2011.
The rumours about a comeback into the WRC first started when Spyker was introduced as a potential buyer of SAAB from General Motors – probably much based on Spykers sporty profile and the fact that the brand had a big and expensive, but not very successful, team in Formula 1 just a few years ago. Also, SAAB MD Jan Åke Jonsson and Spyker MD Viktor Mueller recently took park in the classical Mille Miglia rally in one Saab 93 each. The Russian finance man and Spyker investor Vladimir Antonov wasn’t late to follow them and entered the classical Swedish competition Midnattssolsrallyt in a SAAB 99 in July (see photo above). Considering SAAB’s heritage in the rallying circus, one could at least hope for a better success in the World Rally Championship than in Formula 1, despite the economical troubles that is still very much a reality to the company.
Autosport’s sources claims that Spyker representatives has already been speaking to the WRC organisers and North One Sport, and will continue the talks in connection to Rallye de France in October. However, North One MD Simon Long refuses to comment on any specific brands but admits that MINI’s decision “has given people a lot of confidence in the sport”.
Video: Kimi Räikkönen roll in Mexico
March 6th, 2010 by RasmusKimi Räikkönen did a massive multiple roll in Rally Mexico on the 7th stage. Unfortunately, he will not restart the rally due to the bad damages on his car. However, this is quite an expected step on his learning curve…
On the bright side of the rally, Petter Solberg holds the lead after the first day with around 15 seconds over Citroen Junior driver Sebastien Ogier. Will we see Petter winning a rally for the first time in many years? That would be amazing!
Here is Kimi’s off:
Thanks to motorstvfrance for the video.
Video: Peter Zachrisson the crazy guy!
February 25th, 2010 by RasmusPeter Zachrisson, from Säffle (the same small town where Daniel Carlsson, Tina Thörner, L-E Torph, Mats Karlsson and a lot of other Swedish rally people come from), is doing his first start in this years Swedish Championship this weekend. I don’t often to write about the Swedish Championship – but it happens and Peter really is a fresh wind so…
In today’s NWT Peter tells that he has installed active differentials and paddle gearshift in his car – a Volvo 940(!!!). That’s quite amazing!
So, now you think: “Who cares about Zachrisson?”. Peter had a few OK chances a some years ago doing the Swedish Rally and planning an international career, but sadly it never really happened for him because of financial trouble. However, Peter is a hell of a driver and I tell you – watch this video, and then you’ll care. Especially – listen to the sound when he passes in front of the camera:
Thanks to Adielssonmotorsport for the video.
WRC 2011 calendar silly season – an interesting game between the organisers
February 24th, 2010 by RasmusA special kind of silly season regarding the 2011 WRC calendar is going on right now. After Autosport revelaved the 2011 calendar proposed (according to Autosports sources) by rights-owner North One Sport to FIA, the speculations from the media and the moves from various organizers are virtually flooding us. Rally Ireland came first saying that they didn’t get an event but would continue to work closely to the FIA for any other, future, opportunities. Probably they had really strong underhand indications that they wasn’t even close – since they gave up without fight before the formal decision has even been made…
Now, even Rally NZ seems to have understood the truth. Chris Carr, chairman of the rally, says that “it’s always fire behind the smoke you see”. Interesting enough, Neil Allport, former NZ Rally Champion, says that lack of money is behind the decision and that the government should put the adequate money in. Strange, since NZ from what I know always have been backed by nothing else than a loooot of government money… However, I can understand they’re disappointed – and I am too. NZ is a traditional rally with wonderful views and an exotic kind of environment… The thing is probably that their market is too small.
The big fail in this discussion may be Rally Norway. They’ve made two good rallies – but they’ve also done mistakes. They have overestimated themselves big time (and that’s their biggest mistake if you ask me). I remember their plans for 2007 that I once got presented – and it was utopia. They had got quite a lot of government money, but they also calculated huge incomes from spectators, sponsoring, etc.The figures was almost 10 times the corresponding numbers of Rally Sweden. Norway did all kinds of extravagancies that year, and of course they blew it totally from a financial point of view – no matter any government money. From what I know, they lowered their calculations drastically for their next event, but obviously not enough. There was less delight of the news from the public in Norway in 2009, and the reports I got from competitors in the rally was that there was really few spectators.
No matter the economics, you can’t take from the Norweigans that they have arranged two really good events – with the media coverage in the 2007 event being my favourite point. Their problem now is unstable economy, the fact that they’re not a traditional event and the fact that they’re running on snow. But maybe even management!? They have always been so overconfident. Now it seems like their managers expected Norway to be first reserve for 2011 – but according to the latest news Poland (that has been completely silent so far!) is the first reserve. Erik Veiby, chairman of the Rally Norway board, says this is just speculations and of course it is, but honestly… I agree that nothing is decided and that things can for sure change – but it’s obvious to everyone that Rally Norway is now in deep shit. I bet that (no matter what Erik Veiby says!) they are now working hard with lobbying on all kind of levels and trying to get to know why they’re out of the calendar and how they can change it.
The approach from organisers struggling to find the grip needed to stay in the calendar is starting to look like an interesting game. The silly thing is that all this started a few years ago with the FIA letting people “buy” candidate events to the left and right by just paying a big fee to them (read more in my post on the rotation system from last year). After the organisers have paid those fees, they of course expected to get an event for it! So, FIA made this stupid rotating calendar and everyone got their events. Now, they have realized the obvious – that it doesn’t work. And many of the payers (and some others) stand there without their events again like they never had one… It’s stupid multiplied by a thousand.
No matter what, I’m looking forward to see how this game continues – and I hope (but doubt – Abu Dhabi on special built roads, come on!?!) it ends up with the best events!
