In an article in todays VG, Olivier Quesnel, team manager of Citroen WRT, complains about Mikko Hirvonens end-of-day strategy leaving the lead for Sebastien Loeb to avoid going first on the road in loose snow the next day (explanation below). Quesnel says that the spectators want to see the drivers in full speed, and that he would never allow his drivers to slow down just to get a better road position the next day.
I don’t know Olivier Quesnel, but I’m quite sure that’s not completely true. All teams in the WRC are there to win, and why wouldn’t they use the rules in the way that benefitted them the most? I agree totally with Quesnel and Loeb that the rules are unfair and that they should be changed – even Hirvonen agrees with that. But until the rules have been changed, I think they should just live with it and play the game.
Explanation:
Todays rules say that the starting order of day 2-3 is based on the standings of the day before, which means the leader go out first. Before 2008, the top 15 was reversed, so that the 15th driver in the standings went first on the road on Saturday and Sunday. The change were done to make the rallies closer, but seems instead to have resulted in strategy like the one mentioned above.
Suggestion: Switching off the inter-com at the last stage of the day, so it will be a fair battle between the drivers (and not the team management).
Switching off inter-com.
Remove the split-times for the cars.. then you realy have pedal to the metal all the time =)