To know all discussions behind FIA’s decision is almost impossible for anyone not being right in the center of them. But first, let’s think about what global promotion and broadcasting means for the championship. We probably all know that rallying is an expensive sport. To be a runner, skier or swimmer on world level you need good shoes, clothes, some staff around you and a lot of travelling. I’m not an expert but you all get the point that in rallying you need to bring a car worth at least €500.000 with you, a whole school-class of mechanics, coordinators etc. with you and just the entry fee for a rally may cost you more than the swimmer needs to spend on gear in a year.

So, I spent a few years working with Daniel Carlsson’s bid in the WRC  and another year working with promotion at Rally Sweden, and I can tell you that in both organisations we hadn’t been worth many pennies in our discussions with sponsors without the global coverage. With Carlsson, we used statistics from a global market research company that provided various measures as well as an exact value in euros of the TV exposure from Rally Sweden 2006, where Daniel ended up on the podium. And at Rally Sweden, we could point at exactly how popular the sport were in Sweden (which is far more popular than most Swedes would guess!), the hundreds of millions of people the WRC reaches worldwide during a year, etc. And I can tell you, despite having very strong figures on our side, we still had a hell selling our stuff because the sport is just extremely expensive. To sell exposure (that’s exactly what we do when talking to sponsors), a thing you can never taste or even feel in your hand, with bids that must start at over €10.000 to even be interesting, is extremely difficult. At least in Sweden, but I have a strong feeling the situation is very much the same in most countries and for most drivers, rallies, etc.

That was how the situation was. Now, we don’t have the global promotion or broadcasting. I can’t say FIA screwed it up because I don’t know what happened. But in my opinion, FIA has two major responsibilities above all others regarding the World Rally Championship. Those are: 1) To keep sporting on a good level with regulations, etc. 2) To make sure there is a connection and co-branding between the organisers in the championship, mostly by arranging global promotion and broadcasting. So, now I can say it: FIA screwed it up.

No matter whose fault it was this means that the strong arguments, that was all our strong selling points, are gone. Of course organisers and drivers can refer to TV-coverage arranged by the local organiser. But if I’m a driver and want to do Rally Finland. What shall I tell my sponsors? “Uhm, I hope the event will be covered world-wide”? Or “Uhm, I hope the event will be covered in [put your home country here]“? Or “Uhm, I hope the event will be covered in Finland”? Or the truth: “Uhm, I have no clue if the event will be covered at all”?

That’s the team/drivers perspective. And what about the organisers. They need to start looking for production partners. That’s probably not a big deal, there are plenty of them. But what quality can they deliver? And are they all capable of handling the enormous logistical problem covering a WRC event is? And still the real problem for the organisers are another one. That they need to find buyers of the production, to distribute it to the world and cover the expenses. I’m no expert in this, but I guess that wont be one buyer. They need to call all possible TV networks and channels and negotiate with them. Oh my, I’m so happy I’m not reponsible for that.

Now, let’s assume the organisers are those superheros they probably are, and able to solve all this. Then we still have the problem of problems left. The problem that FIA created yesterday, when doing their announcement. It’s the fact that they show everyone that they are willing to really do the thing that most people probably feared but thought were totally impossible. To let all the championship sponsors, manufacturers, team sponsors, drivers’ sponsors and everyone else that are spending their money on the World Rally Championship down. The one single value that makes the WRC exist is the promotional value, where speed meets skills that meets rough circumstances and mixes up into action and adrenaline enough to glue people in front of their TVs, computers, magazines and phones just to follow it. No investor cares about speed, skills, circumstances, action or adrenaline after all. They care about the money. And no exposure, no money. At least not any money in, just a hell lot of money out.

All other problems can be solved. By organisers arranging their own stuff. Maybe by FIA making a last minute deal. Etc. But the big problem is a mistake that can’t be undone. Who wants (or dares?) to invest in a championship where the main organiser has proved to be ready to devaluate all value in the product for a year or so? I wouldn’t be.

No, in my opinion the announcement is a total mental breakdown by the FIA indicating that they are totally unable to handle the World Rally Championship.

Background information:

Pressrelease by the FIA, 3rd of February 2012

Autosport: WRC event organisers told to finalise their own TV deals after Eurosport talks break down

FIA says no promoter deal in place for WRC

Pressrelease by the FIA, 8th of January 2012

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…)

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!

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”.

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!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to amjayes for the video.

I guess this means that we will soon see both more photos and videos of the car during the next few days. Lovely!

Solberg expects to have his budget complete in the end of next week, and announce his team and sponsors after that. Until then, read todays announcement here.

- If things work out then I will have a girl in the car with me this year. It will be good for me, and for the sport too – at the moment there are no females competing at this level.

Thinking logically there are not much girls to choose from, as Henning is completely right in that no females are competing at the very highest level in the world. I can only think of two girls that are close enough to Henning to be potential, and they are Veronica Engan and Maria Andersson.

However, Veronica Engan is very less likely than Maria Andersson. Maria just quit her cooperation with Anders Gröndal – and the replacement is noone else than Veronica Engan. It seems unlikely that Veronica would quit after just one rally. But more important, I consider Swede Maria Andersson by far more expecienced. She has been doing a lot of drives in the Production World Rally Championship with Patrik Flodin, one or another WRC drive with Flodin, a season with Gröndal in a WRC car and also one or another WRC drive with George Tracey a few years ago. Besides that, she has partnered Mikkelsen in WRC and Brynhildsen in group N occasionally.

Engan has mostly been doing a group N drives with Brynhildsen, and even though I don’t have her complete record I think that the experience of Andersson makes the choice quite easy. In the end of the day, I can’t imagine that Henning talks of anyone else than Maria Andersson for his WRC challenge 2010 – given that it’s a girl.

First off, the safe names are Federico Villagra in Munchis WRT, Ken Block in Monster WRT, Petter Solberg in Solberg PSWRT – and the almost safe (?) Matthew Wilson in Stobart WRT. So far no problem. But then comes Henning Solberg as expected in Stobart – and that’s a little bit more uncertain. I know that Henning targets a seat in the WRC again, but I also know that this very much depends on a renewed contract with Expert for 2010. The second questionmark is Gigi Galli and PG Andersson – where one of them or even both are said to be joining the PSWRT. I know nothing about Galli, but when it comes to PG I know he was in discussions regarding the PSWRT early this autumn – but then he has announced that he probably can’t collect the money needed. I’ll get back with a small post on PG’s future later today.

So, it would be really intersting to know what facts are behind the article. If Evans get three right out of three on the uncertain things, it would be like heaven to any rally addict. I guess the future will show…

Click here to view the embedded video.

The world is upside-down for Henning? Cato Menkerud splits with the Norweigan driver and no deal is still signed for the WRC 2010. Photo: Rasmus Bjerén

Henning Solberg and Cato Menkerud splits their co-operation after many years together. According to Norweigan media, the decision was taken this week – and the older brother Solberg now has to find a new codriver for his WRC challenge. If there will be one, this is – nothing is still known about Henning’s plans and rumours have placed him in rallycross instead of WRC this season.

According to Norweigan newspaper VG, Henning and Cato has been dissentient for a long time regarding what the next step should be in their World Championship plan. Cato Menkerud claims that the two are still good friends, but says:

- We’ve worked together for many years, but the cooperations hasn’t been as inspiring lately.

Henning, who has been driving with Menkerud since 2002, says:

- We’ve been keeping on for many years, and there’s nothing wrong.

According to VG, Solbergs plans for the season are still to be decided – and there is no deal signed. Menkerud is looking for a new driver to co-drive, and two different drivers should be more interesting than others.

Compare the driving styles yourself!

Ken Block, Subaru Impreza, New England Forest Rally 2008, Concord Pond stage, onboard:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kimi Räikkönen, Abarth Grande Punto, WRC Rally Finland 2009, Leustu stage, onboard:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The charge by Block, who is the first American ever to do a larger assault for the championship, seems to be on a long term, since he says that he’ll not promise any podiums the first year:

- Racing in the WRC has always been a dream of mine, but, I’m not going to promise podiums in my first year. I’ll be going up against the best drivers in the world. My main objective for 2010 is to develop into a competitive driver for 2011, and beyond, says Block.

Sad enough, Block – who is co-founder of DC Shoes and a former snowboarding, skateboarding and motocross star – is set to skip Rally Sweden and start of his WRC challenge with Rally Mexico in March. No matter what, the WRC will really be boosted this year with two superstars in Raikkonen and Block joining the championship.

I’ll get back later on with more info and some reflections on Ken Block and his chances in the championship.

Monster World Rally Team launch video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

More info at: http://monsterworldrallyteam.com/

Flodin admits that times are tough, but still shows a glimpse of optimism:

- Currently I’ve got nothing to announce. For a full WRC or IRC campaign it looks dark, but I’m trying to get together a start in Rally Sweden and then we’ll see. Nothing is decided about the car, but I’m looking at renting a Subaru or Mitsubishi grp N. I’ve got some local sponsors onboard but nothing is finalised with the big ones.

Even though a larger programme looks dark to the Swede, he underlines that things may happen later in the season. Many drivers are switching for IRC, but Flodin is still looking primarily for the World Championship:

- I’d like to do the World Rally Championship, and the dream would be a Super2000 car… The new class [S-WRC / WRCCup] would be perfect for me.

So, I guess we just have to wish Patrik good luck and hope we’ll see him in Rally Sweden and more rallies during the year.

Check the maps out here: http://planetemarcus.free.fr/googleearthmap.htm (link to iPhone app to the left on the page)

According to Bertil Klarin, m.d. of Rally Sweden, it means that both the Swedish Championship and the WRC event will get a lot of coverage.

Exact details regarding the coverage of Rally Sweden is not know, but the plan is TV broadcasts for four days during the rally, including live coverage of the Karlstad Super Special Stage in the start of the rally and also the finish at the new, spectacular Värmullsåsen stage in Hagfors.

(Source, in Swedish: SR)

Another interesting note from Norway is that Petter Solberg loses one of his main sponsors, the John Lunde Marine group. The company made a loss of 90.3M NOK last year, so why they had to pull the plug to their sponsorship seems quite obvious. However, I hope and I think that Petter has a good plan.

You can reach the calendar in the following formats:

World Rally 2010 – XML format

World Rally 2010 – iCal format

World Rally 2010 – HTML format

If you don’t know how to use the formats listed above, don’t worry. Your calendar software help can probably help you, or if you use Google Calendar, try this link: Subscribe to public calendars – Google Calendar Help.

I guess that Rally Finland in the end of July/beginning of August will be very, very important for both Ford and Citroen. If Loeb can win on Hirvonen’s (and Latvala’s) home soil, Citroen will have a really good position considering that Rally Catalunya is one of the three remaining rallies after that. Loeb will of course be a huge favourite on the Spanish tarmac surface!

But if Loeb and Citroen doesn’t play their cards right in Finland, Hirvonen will extend his lead in the championship, boosting him and putting quite some pressure on Loeb. Then Loeb will have some pressure to make the odds even again by winning in Catalunya – which would leave the championship totally open again. Besides Finland and Catalunya there are Rally Australia and the season closer Wales Rally GB left on the calendar – two rallies where I don’t feel that either Loeb or Hirvonen have a real advantage. It will for sure be an interesting battle – and for the sake of thrill… Let’s hope that Hirvonen (or Latvala?) is fastest in Finland!

Sandell himself says it was the worst day in his career, and I can’t stop thinking that he haven’t been through so much then. I know a lot of drivers that would consider it more of a summer breeze. Anyway, at the same time as I think it sounds a little bit silly, it also underlines Patrik’s dedication. Of course you’re allowed to have some kind of breakdown after such a thing, and it’s now the interesting things start. We’ll get to see his real strength, if he can come back re-motivated and do good results during the rest of the season. Time will show…

Read more (Swedish) in Aftonbladet:
http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/motor/svenkkollen/article5388257.ab

Last weeks rumour comes from the Estonian newspaper Postimees, and is written by a guy called Peep Pahv. Pahv called Urmo asking questions about the matter, and Urmo told he had no comments. Pahv chose to interpret that as if he was right in whatever information/ideas he had about a Suzuki comeback – and wrote the article. So, basically Urmo said nothing but Pahv still rendered a big article on the Suzuki comeback.

Quite opposite to the comeback rumours – Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima has brought Suzuki to court after a conflict starting with Tajima’s retirement from the Suzuki WRT top position last year and the retirement of the team. My contact, who has very good insight into the WRC scene, believes that Suzuki is very tired of rallying after all problems related to the WRC assault, and that a comeback to rallying is really far away.

So, I guess the conclusion is that we shall forget about the Suzuki rumours and go back into the position we were two weeks ago, when a Suzuki comeback was still quite far away. Not very good news to the WRC, I’m afraid.

2,2 million pounds are really a big amount of money, so now it seems like the organisers are in a real hurry. The event is planned to run in October – and to be presented to the press and public already at the end of April. According to BBC, organisers plan to take legal action against the government, but that can of course be quite time consuming and the question is now wether the Wales Rally GB can be run this year?

For sure, time will show what happens, but until then it’s interesting to note the big difference in economy between different events. If the Swedish Rally had 2,2M pounds from the goverment each year – the budget of the event would be doubled according to the figures I’ve got. That would probably be quite a boost to quality, pricings and experience – so think of that difference next time you visit a WRC rally…

Read the BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8000216.stm

- I have a good relationship with the Suzuki team from driving for them in the JWRC. I am hoping to get to test their S2000 car sometime in the next year and maybe I can do some rallies with them at the end of 2010 season.

They (Suzuki WRT) are currently bulding an S2000 car but I can’t say anymore. For the 2011 season they will probably do a full WRC programme.

A FIA representative in Algarve that I’ve been in contact with have confirmed the rumours that has circulated down in Portugal during the day: the WRC season 2009 will end already in May after the Ralli d’Italia-Sardegna – and then leave room for a new winter-based season starting in September this year. The main class during that new season will be the Super2000 class, with the same technical specifications as the Super2000 class used in the IRC.

The decision was made this morning at a meeting in Algarve with the most important FIA delegates, mobilised by Max Mosley – president of the organisation. The formal decision is scheduled to be taken this evening during a meeting starting at 7PM Portugese time, allowing for the FIA to inform media, team, organisers and fans already tomorrow – before the Rally of Portugal get’s started.

Swedish rally driver Daniel Carlsson is chocked but happy about the decision:

- I had no clue this was coming, but we saw already in the last World Council meeting that Max [Mosley] wanted to speed up the conversion to Super2000. Now, he has certainly done that and it will of course cause some problems to those drivers and teams that have commited to the full season – but at the same time I don’t see why we should wait for a change that we know are to come. Super2000 is the best class to attract manufacturers, so I think it makes sense to do it immediately. To me it feels like FIA has finally got their pieces together and made a good decision for the development of WRC.

I’ll get back with more information on this subject as soon as possible.

Here is the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

With that said, the question is… Have Skoda despite that started to test the Fabia Super2000 with turbo? I have no clue, but listening to the sound and the “bangs” of this Skoda test video very much suggests to my brain that there is a turbo involved. If anyone have some good info on this, please inform me by mail (rasmus@maxattack.net) or in the comments.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pros:

• Car manufacturers get more time to develop their Super2000-cars – and also test them in the championship for real before the competition gets sharp. I know that Citroen, among others, appreciate that.
• WRC cars open for a larger start field, where privateers with WRC cars as well as current WRC teams can enter their current cars. If not, very short entrylists in the beginning could be a possibility – which would have been boring to fans and expensive for organisers.
• The two car classes can be compared to each other side by side, and put some extra edge to both competition and development.

Cons:

• 2010 can become yet another transitional season, where Super2000-teams don’t register because they’ve got no real chances of winning – and where WRC teams start to fall off as their car wont be allowed in the coming years.
• Understanding of the sport for newcomers can become harder, where two types of cars with very different specifications compete side by side.
• The two car classes can be compared to each other side by side, and put some extra edge to development – in other words; the same point as in pro’s above. So, why would this also be negative? Because the escalation of development could be speeded up by the teams wanting their Super2000 to get closer to WRCs, which would mean also an escalation of costs.

No matter if good or bad wins above, I think the decision is mainly good to the sport in longer terms. Let’s hope that manufacturers and teams take the chance to use 2010 for testing, so we can have really sharp competition starting immediately in 2011. Super2000 – here we come!

No matter what, Volkswagen will make at least one more try in Dakar – meaning that the former WRC champion Carlos Sainz will get one more chans to win the desert rally – and also that the WRC will have to wait before the German brand gets into the championship.

So, when comparing speeds, Grönholm will probably keep that in mind. In fact – that’s probably why Marcus chose the Impreza. He can make his comeback in a safe way where he can’t lose, making a half bad result and then blaming the car. I think he realises that it wouldn’t be very smart to get into the Focus, a car that today is the back pocket of Hirvonen, Latvala and to a large extent even Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson. In the same manner it would be stupid to get into the Citroen of Loeb and Sordo. He would risk getting crushed – without anything to blame.

Probably the most interesting question is wether this is a one time outing, or if Grönholm will try to make a true comeback to a full (or close to) season in the WRC? Grönholm himself says it’s a single event and nothing more. But he fills in that after this he will analyse his feelings and decide on the future – indicating that he may do a larger scale comeback…

Imagine that larger comeback, what would it mean? I’m well aware Grönholm negotiated a full season for Subaru before the marque retired from the WRC in December but I can’t think of a full comeback in the Subaru Impreza. Why would Marcus get back to rallying full-time without the real chance of winning? That’s not really a former WRC champion’s style… No, it would probably be in another car – but who would be interested? Marcus is good for sure, but not an upcoming name. So, given the fact that WRC works teams doesn’t really grow on trees – I don’t know, actually…

Anyway, let’s assume Marcus did get a good car, perhaps a Ford. Would he win? And would it be good? Honestly, maybe he’d get few podiums, but in the big picture I don’t think it would be so good. He is getting older and all careers have their end. Running in the Peugeot 307, Marcus made himself an even larger WRC profile than before by being bitter of the car. It worked out really well and was entertaining, but to do that without being considered a boring person requires quite big – and fresh – star quality. It also requires reasonably recent good results – and Marcus doesn’t have all this anymore. People would no longer consider him a genious in a bad position – just a bitter old man not knowing when to end his career.

Counting all those parts together, I really hope that Marcus enjoys his one time comeback in Portugal – and maybe a few more guest entires. But I hope it ends there. Not that I don’t wanna see Marcus drive, I would love it. But I don’t wanna see a good star and a fantastic WRC profile fall off his heights and become a struggler that just didn’t know where to stop. Marcus has proven what he can do – and I think he knows himself that a full time comeback would just be stupid. So, that gives you my bet; don’t expect a full scale comeback.

What more became clear on the meeting is the likeliness of a new winter-based calendar starting in August, making the season break appear on the summer months. I don’t know if it’s good – but for sure rallying competes with a lot of different things, including a lot of other motorsports, in the summer – so why not try? I mean… We wont lose the summer-like conditions, they can be found on many places even in a calendar spanning from August to April or May!?!

All this things will probably be finally decided on the next World Council meeting on the 19th of March.

Read more (in Swedish) in todays VF.

Will arranging the Swedish Rally in the summer make the WRC better? At least it's easier to spectate a rally in the summer, allowing for better income to the organiser.

Here’s some background:

A few days ago I talked to a friend regarding the Swedish Rally. He had a great idea – to make the event a summer rally. Of course it’s not a new idea at all – I’ve heard it dozens of times, but for the first time it really makes sense. The idea is based on the fact that weather conditions are a problem to the rally – and that a few events next year (for example Indonesia) wants to get out of the championship. So, with summer events wanting to get out of the calendar, when Rally Norway that shines in meters of snow, and when Mikko Hirvonen sees no reason why Norway shouldn’t have a slot every year – why not include the excellent Rally Norway even next year (article in Norweigan here), and make the Swedish Rally with it’s excellent organisation arrange a summer round in the championship?

Here’s why it makes sense:

• First off, it’s impossible to fight the weather. Either the Swedish event would have to be changed to a snow/gravel mix, it would have to be moved, or it would have to be removed from the calendar. I don’t believe in snow/gravel, I think a move would mean losing big parts of the competence, and I don’t think that it’s a good option for the WRC to lose one of their best organisers – so… Remains to switch to a summer competition.
• Making the rally a summer event would preserve a fantastic organisation and allow for an already experienced organisation to take new steps and do a new event from scratch, allowing for much creativity to go into the event that could develop the WRC in a positive way.
• Summer rallies are in many ways easier and more cost-effective to arrange, where spectators and VIPs can easier get into the stages, facilities can be hosted in simple tents and snow ploughs doesn’t need to be used for every single parking spot. This would allow for the Swedish organisation to get back on feet economically.
• A summer rally would also mean having a rally later in the year than a winter round, which would give the organisation a little more time to improve their economy and also to prepare the switch.
• It would solve a part of the problems with the organisers wanting to cancel their WRC rounds, and make the calendar for next year closer to complete than it is currently.

Of course, it may be a problem having already having so much gravel events that Finland has a summer event on gravel, but for short, I just think it’s better to arrange a really, really good summer round than a half-bad and shaky winter round that ruins the economy of the organisation. Isn’t it?

Now, it has taken some time since the decision in December, and I know that FIA have recieved critism – which makes sense – for taking too much time before a final decision is made. Manufacturers have to decide regarding their involvement in the WRC and then develop the car and package needed to compete. You can’t expect it to take just a few monts – since we of course want highly dedicated manufacturers that all keep a high level close to each other.

So now, it seems like FIA may change their previous decision – and there are a few possible ways to go. One is to allow for the old-fashioned WRC cars in the championship even in 2010. But then, they wouldn’t back on Super2000+ – instead they seem to want to make it a combo. This was also indicated when WRC.com made their roundup of rule changes going into the 2009 season, as they wrote the following:

“The World Rally Car era is coming to an end. This season will be the last that this type of vehicle will compete alone at the top level of the sport. 2010 will be a transitional season when a new specification of World Rally Car, based on a Super 2000 vehicle, will compete alongside the existing machinery. From 2011, however, the Super 2000 based model will take over completely.”

Another option is to go for the common Super2000 from next year, without the additional expenses of the Super2000+ package. In a recent interview in Autosport Max Mosley admits that the Subaru and Suzuki redrawals from the WRC may have caused people to change their opinions on wether the plus package should be introduced or not – despite the fact that the WMSC explicitly decided not to go on with the plain Super2000 spec in December. He opens for the possibility to go for a pure Super2000 specification without an additional package.

My opinion is that keeping the WRC cars in 2010 would be tough. They have a better performance than Super2000+ cars – and who would like to run a car doomed to lose? Also, it could cause even the Super2000+ cars to be overdeveloped and expensive, in the crazy chase for milliseconds that costs so much money in today’s WRC. I don’t know how it could be done smoothly – but I’ve also heard indications that Citroen, one of the championship’s most loyal manufacturers – expect to run the 2010 WRC with their C4WRC, so FIA may be in a difficult situation.

To me it makes most sense to skip the plus package on the Super2000 cars and make it a pure and really cheap formula that would probably attract quite a few manufacturers already from the beginning. Citroen would hopefully accept that – even since they don’t expect to take their Super2000(+) car into competition until 2011. Regarding the fans, I’m convinced that people’s interest and heart in the sport doesn’t come from – or depend on – a few horsepowers or km’s more or less – or the turbo. It depends on sideways action, nice sound and the fights between the best drivers on demanding surfaces – and that’s not a problem with Super2000. What we really need that we will also get (at least closer to) with Super2000 is a lot of manufacturers all on a good level that keeps the competition on top – and the end of the era where Citroen and Loeb can win everything almost without resistance.

Note: The next World Motorsport Council meeting, deciding about the 2010 technical regulations, will be held in March.

Everyone knows that he can – he doesn’t lack skills – he just need the right luck. But probably – and hopefully for the sport – he will be unlucky somewhere. But I’m afraid it’s far from sure…

In my opinion the WRC needs high quality events, not a big number of events. We all know that the quality of the current events differ much. I wont name good or bad – since I don’t always agree with the measures used. Driver bash some events, FIA bash others. The drivers most often want perfect conditions, while FIA want strange things such as media stands fitted exactly – on the centimeter – right according to their rules. Sponsors and spectators want events with spectacular conditions and big drama. This doesn’t always match the will of FIA, ISC or drivers. The ranking system needs to be improved – and then maybe the two worst events in years calendar can placed on a special list for a few years, with the potential of replacing it (after a few years) if it doesn’t get better. Potential new events could still be ran as candidate events, but never with a guarantee of getting into the championship. That would give organisers continuity but still keep a good opening of getting in new events.

I don’t have the perfect answer to this, but I know that selling out events in the championship to anyone willing to pay is stupid. Really stupid.

Uddeholm Swedish Rally reduces their permanent organization from four people to one. Just two years ago the organization on a full-year basis consisted of at least nine people. I know because I was one of them. Why does this happen and what will it mean?

First, why does this happen?

From the start of 2008, the WRC calendar was divided by FIA and the events now appear every 2nd year in the calendar. This may be good to bring new events into the championship – but for old events it’s a hard time of adaptation. Sponsor agreements are based on an annual event, employees are hired, investments are made – and all economic calculations are based on the (shaky) fact that you need to get a huge amount of money in based on four intensive days of rallying. Events hugely sponsored by the governments may survive quite easily by just saying, “this is the best we can get”, but for the Swedish Rally it’s harder. From what I know they get around 10 percent of the turnover from local authorities/municipalities/etc, and the rest of the incomes need to be paid by sponsors, teams and spectators. FIA is controlling entry fees etc, so not much can be done there. Sponsors and spectators are left to pay – and here starts the problems.

Sponsors pay for marketing, and with no marketing – no money. For short this means “half the events – half the money” (unless your selling talent or market value increase badly). Spectators on the other side are much the same; they pay for tickets, drinks, merchandise, etc during the event – not just to be kind. It’s not very realistic to think that you can just double all the prizes or attract a lot more spectators easily. To adapt and optimize the organization to this kind of settings take a long, long time.

The Swedish Rally tried to be offensive; they created a new rally village with a service area more concentrated around the super special stage and brought their event into the Swedish Championship calendar. But they were unlucky. The weather was bad in 2008, a lot of spectators stayed at home and the Swedish Championship event needed to be cancelled because of the road conditions. Ticket incomes wasn’t good enough, they had to pay back 1M of Swedish Championship entry fees and they still had the two year old (and very important) agreement to sell the billboards for TV coverage of the WRC in Swedish Television. For short: a hard 2008 for the Swedish Rally.

With a new event in 2009, maybe they could challenge for better luck (and weather) and try to get going again by still being offensive (just a little less), limiting costs and hopefully getting back on feet. During this weekend Rally Norway is running over the border with perfect conditions. If Sweden had their event this year everything would be fine – because even Karlstad have a few decimeters of snow currently and the conditions on the stages are even better. But they have no event, so that doesn’t help and the economy wont get better this year.

Instead, I’ll try to answer the second question; what does this mean?

To run a World Championship event is a huge piece of work. The only man left now is Bertil Klarin, “Mr Swedish Rally”. He’s been in the game for a long, long time and I must admit (even though I’ve often been very critical to his decisions) that he is probably better fitted to do the work than anyone else. Why? Because he knows everything about the WRC, he has the contacts – and most of all; now it’s all about surviving! Bertil, along with the board members of the Swedish Rally, will have to do everything they can to get funds to hire people. If they can’t do that, the Swedish Rally story will end. But it’s hard. The current employees will of course disappear to other jobs, and to organize a WRC event isn’t a piece of cake – even though chairman Sven-Åke Enochsson says that “the rally interest is big – there are many people with expertise”. I’ve been working with Sven-Åke and I really respect him, but that sounds like bullshit. A big interest doesn’t at all mean you’re an expert, and arranging a WRC round requires professional competence in many areas; sporting, marketing, logistics, etc. And that doesn’t come by interest. That comes by long experience and education. Sven-Åke -if anyone – should know that.

I don’t say the 12 rounds calendar is bad – but for sure it’s tough to the organizers. Norway has been close to ruin after their event in 2007 which was a huge economic failure (and having no event in 2008), and I wouldn’t at all be surprised if more events went into trouble. I hope the effects of the new calendar will be better events and maybe events that are economically more solid.  However, I wouldn’t be surprised if it instead makes organizers leave the championship. It’s hard to build a competent organization without the possibility to hire them permanently, and to hire them permanently cost’s money. Big money.

So, I guess no one knows where it will end. I just keep hoping that Bertil can make it and get at least his three colleagues back into the office making the 2010 Swedish Rally a good one. Otherwise, the Swedish Rally will be a piece of rally history.

I’m not sure why they are delaying their coverage, but of course it’s hard to produce live TV. I was responsible for live coverage on the Swedish Rally website in 2007, and there was a lot of problems. However, it is possible. It can be done the old-fashioned way with satellites or an aircraft relaying images from the stages – or it may be done in more modern ways, as I proved with Nordisk Mobiltelefon and Daniel Carlsson in last years Swedish rally (see previous post). That solution was based on mobile technology and data transfer using a mobile network with really good coverage. It worked perfectly well!

However, a big part of ISCs problems is their old-school solution taking images from in-car cameras. At least when I worked at the Swedish Rally in 2007, ISC used camcorders in the cars and retrieved DV-tapes from the recorders during service brakes. Of course that’s hard to broadcast live. I guess they’re looking at better options after seeing Eurosport’s coverage from Monte. It’s quite obvious with the technology of today that it’s perfectly possible to do live coverage – you just have to want to work hard and invest. And that’s where the problems seems to have been with ISC… Let’s hope they shape up now.

So, what does this mean to the WRC? Mitsubishi retired from the WRC a few years ago – and already before the financial crisis started they announced that they’re probably not coming back in a while. Now, a comeback seems to be even more distant – but Mitsubishi’s retirement can still be good to the WRC. Why? Because Volkswagen is thinking of entering! Volkswagen’s motorsport manager Kris Nissen has said that the brand will overlook all their motorsport activities and that WRC is one of the options they’re looking at.

Of course Volkswagen’s cross country involvement has costed a lot of money, and now that they’re winning they may want one or two more victories. However, without Mitsubishi those victories wont be worth very much since there in practice are no real concurrents in the races (RalliArt France will continue to run the Mitsu team privately, but that’s really not the same thing). And when Volkswagen has already considered retiring from the sport, it seems a little more likely when their main concurrent retires leaving them alone at the top. So, it still remains to see what happens – but my guess is that Volkswagen will either retire instantly, or retire after a year or two. But I don’t think Volkswagen will leave all rallying activity. They’re in a quite OK economical situation, and when the others struggle they will probably challenge instead. A WRC bid shouldn’t be very distant – and there are already rumours about  a Prodrive led WRC challenge from Volkswagen. At least, Skoda (which is in practice a part of Volkswagen) has left the door open by saying that they will not enter the WRC.

My guess is that we’ll see Volkswagen in the WRC and that it’s not very far away…Time will show.

The list isn’t very long, but I think that’s what we can expect from this years WRC – and it’s at last quite high quality so it wont be a big problem. However, you can’t avoid wondering about overseas rounds such as Argentina and Australia – what will they look like? I think we can be down in as low as around 30 competitors there, and that wont be really good.

I e-mailed Johan Ejeborg on SVT and got the following answer (freely translated):

- We want to broadcast, but can’t afford it. The current situation in the world and the lack of Swedes premanently driving the WRC isn’t very good. We’ll have to return in 2010 or later. It’s a shame, but that’s how it is.

Many credits to Johan for answering this, the current situation is obviously not his fault. I think Swedish rally fans should hope for three things:

• A better financial situation in the world
• Swedes getting into the WRC
• A better and more thrilling WRC – and coverage of it

I guess the situation is quite the same in many countries. As a backup you may use Eurosport (if you don’t have it – check out the online player), WRC.com or WRC’s YouTube channel.

• I was one of the first to tell about Henning Solberg’s new deal with Ford – and I’m the only one who has told about his negotiation with Bozian Racing and the last-minute decision to go for Ford.
• I was the first one presenting Patrik Sandell’s deal with Skoda Red Bull deal for PWRC 2009 – and before I confirmed it, I revealed the discussions about it.
• Today I was first to reveal about Nasser Al-Attiyah’s and Tina Thörner’s negotiations with Skoda for a full PWRC drive in the Fabia Super 2000.
• Most important, I’ve discussed and expressed my opinions on the IRC, WRC, TV-coverage, live TV, Petter Solberg, Urmo Aava, and much, much more… You’ll need to read the posts to find out everything.

If you like what I’m doing – I’ve got good news for you. Otherwise, they’re bad… This is funny – so I’ll keep on for a while! However, I know that quite many people read this blog every day – so please tell me… What do you want? And what do you think about this blog? I’d be really happy if you left a comment below or e-mail me at info (at) maxattack.net and tell me.

Thanks in advance! // Rasmus

Click here to view the embedded video.

Of course this may have worried Chris – we will never know that, but I doubt so. Norweigan youngster Andreas Mikkelsen and his co-driver Ola Floene drove as gravel crew for Henning and recommended him to go for the tarmac tyre, since only the first three km’s of the stage were muddy and wet. From what I know Atko went off almost immediately, so probably he hadn’t had very much time to worry about his wrong tyre choice – and Henning’s talk seems to be more of a funny thing and a PR trick than the actual reason he won the fight. Probably Atkinson would have gone off anyway, since he seems to have problems keeping off the throttle in tight battles. If he wouldn’t – there’s a good chance Henning would have won anyway because of the better tyre choice.

No matter what, such small stories where tyre choices and strategy seems to be crucial is good to the sport – and I’ve went from being a supporter of the control tyre to missing the unpredictability of different tyre brands. Those strategy stories are just lovely and I hope to see more them – they’re just one of those things that makes rallying fun!

Already when I wrote the first post, I pushed for the Swedish Rally to test this thing in the WRC too – and now that seems to become true. In today’s VF (Swedish newspaper) Bertil Klarin, managing director of the Swedish Rally, says that they hope to repeat the same next year. Awesome!

Jimmy Joge, Värmland Runt/Swedish Rally 2009, Photo: Micke Fransson, teambild.se

I’ll get back later with my thoughts regarding this decision and what it means to the WRC.

The system will remain in beta phase during 2009 and get public in 2010 – but only for regional series etc, not the WRC. Based on the problems that seems to be good. We all know how much the starting order can mean in rallies with fresh snow, a lot of loose gravel etc. – and it wouldn’t be fair to decide rallies on a crazy ranking system. Despite that – I think the idea is good. The starting order today is in many parts decided by the organiser, and even in the WRC organisers have different quality and most important – they love their local drivers.

However, all this is based on a good system – which will not be easy to create. Championships are different around the world, and everyone knows that winning one regional championship doesn’t mean you even have a chance in one other. The system must of course take that into account, and it must also not over-credit drivers just because they are driving in the WRC. For example Khalid Al-Quassimi, that hasn’t made any real results, must of course be quite low in the list – lower than some drivers running on local basis.

So basically I like this. But question remains… How the h-ck can you make the system work?

Maybe Petter and Henning has managed to get a deal together with Ford/Stobart creating their own team, run by Ramsport? Ramsport is close to MSport and have previously worked with Andreas Mikkelsen, so they’ve already got a Norweigan connection. It would be nice to see it happen!

Expect more turns before it’s over…

The story will go on…

- The main difference is very important: the IRC is definitely something that is more easy to manage than a WRC event. We have all the other stages, which can be completely different. We can manage more easily the last ones together. You can see the last night of Turini, which could not be in the WRC… 

Dotta get’s straight onto the problem – that the FIA has made the WRC an expensive championship covered by strange rules for both manufacturers and organizers. Instead they should focus on making the championship cheaper, easier to understand and more consistent regarding regulations and costs.

I promise to get back to this subject soon with more opinions…

A few weeks ago I registered for the Eurosport Player – a Eurosport player where I can always watch Eurosport, Eurosport 2 and Eurosport News in my computer. I’ve connected my computer to the TV (this is of course optional) and oops… Now I can watch Eurosport at home on my TV, at work on my screen and anywhere – and it works great.

So, if you’re concerned about missing out on the drama from Monte Carlo or the action from this years WRC stages – go to Eurosport.com and register for the player – is cost’s a little, but you should get away with around 40€ a year which to me is quite affordable (it’s less than a ticket to Rally Norway).

And, no – I’m not paid by Eurosport to say this, I just like their commitment to the IRC and their Player service.

As a teaser – here are the TV times for Rally Monte Carlo (all times in CET):

Wednesday 21th of January

• 1600 – 1700 LIVE SS3 St-Jean en Royans-Col de Gaudissart (Eurosport & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)
• 0000 – 0015 Highlights of Day 1 (Eurosport)

Thursday 22th of January

• 1030 – 1115 LIVE SS5 St- Bonnet le Froid-St-Bonnet le Froid (Eurosport 2 & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)
• 1545 – 1630 LIVE SS8 St- Bonnet le Froid-St-Bonnet le Froid (Eurosport & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)
• 0000 – 00h15 Highlights of Day 2 (Eurosport)

Friday 23th of January

• 1930 – 2115 LIVE SS11 Sospel-La Bollène Vésubie (Eurosport2 & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)
  and LIVE SS12 Lantosque – Lucèram (Eurosport 2 & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)
• 2300 – 0100 LIVE SS13 Sospel-La Bollène Vésubie (Eurosport & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)
  and LIVE SS14 Lantosque-Lucèram (Eurosport & Eurosport Asia-Pacific)

Read the list here: 
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/wrc/2009/Pages/wrc_entry_09.aspx

Economics
Economics is the big thing that makes IRC successful. Super 2000, which is a specification and regulation made by the FIA that covers both racing and rally cars, has been coming up for a while. Technical restrictions on the cars make the a lot cheaper than the extremely advanced WRC-cars that are used today. Cars based on the S2000 spec – however with some modifications – will be main class in WRC from 2010, but that wasn’t decided by the FIA until 12/12/2008. That has, until now, made IRC a cheaper championship to compete in for drivers and manufacturers not willing or able to spend the amounts needed for a season in the WRC.

Geography
IRC has – and have had – an interesting geographical spread regarding the rally locations combining classical venues with new ones. For example the China Rally has been part of the championship, which is important to car manufacturers as China is a huge and growing market – and for 2009 Brazil is new to the calendar. A good sign, since the South American rally interest is really high, proved during the years in the WRC round of Argentina.

Media
With Eurosport as partner and official network IRC have a good – not to say excellent – media coverage. Eurosport is actively working on televising the championship, and for the upcoming Monte Carlo Rally they have announced 6 hours of live coverage – while North One Television have been saving money on the WRC coverage. Helicopter images was removed on the WRC rounds a few years ago, even though it seems to be slowly coming back. In the IRC, Eurosport is continually improving the coverage and uses spectacular helicopter images, live feeds (from Monte) as well as providing their channels live on the Internet etc. We all know that TV time is almost everything to a sport like rally, so here we go: all championships needs a good promotor channel.

The challenge for the championship now should be to get better coverage in regions not covered by Eurosport. Attracting channels (and getting Eurosport to accept them) in North and South America as well as Asia should be high on the promoters list.

Well, this was just a few points, but for sure I will return to the subject… Until then, I’d be happy if you wanted to add your own points and perspectives in the comments!

WRC entries

Mikko Hirvonen / Jarmo Lehtinen, Ford Focus WRC, 12 rallies
Jari-Matti Latvala / Miika Anttila, Ford Focus WRC, 12 rallies
Khalid Al-Quassimi / Michael Orr (?), Ford Focus WRC, 6 rallies

Matthew Wilson / Scott Martin, Ford Focus WRC, 12 rallies
Henning Solberg / Cato Menkerud, Ford Focus WRC, 12 rallies 
Urmo Aava / Kuldar Sikk, Ford Focus WRC, 8 rallies

Federico Villagra / Jorge Perez Companc (?), Ford Focus WRC, 8 rallies
2nd Munchis – various drivers / ?, Ford Focus WRC, 8 rallies

Peter van Merksteijn / Erwin Berkhof, Ford Focus WRC, 8 rallies
Peter van Merksteijn Jr / Eddy Chevalier, Ford Focus WRC, 8 rallies

Sebastien Loeb / Daniel Elena, Citroen C4 WRC, 12 rallies
Daniel Sordo / Marc Marti, Citroen C4 WRC, 12 rallies

Conrad Rautenbach / Daniel Barritt, Citroen C4 WRC, 12 rallies
Sebastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia, Citroen C4 WRC, 6 rallies
Evgeny Novikov / Dale Moscatt, Citroen C4 WRC, 8 rallies
Chris Atkinson / Stephane Prevot, Citroen C4 WRC, at least 1 rally

Mads Östberg / Ole Kristian Unnerud, Subaru Impreza WRC, 8 rallies

So, I think that was it… Don’t beat me if I’m wrong or if I’m missing something. Just tell me in the comments, and if you can; add a source link. I’ll try to keep this list updated as good as possible.

However, after Subaru’s and Suzuki’s retirements – both probably caused by a combination of the new regulations and the financial crisis, WRC is really running at a low. It has been melted down during many years with rising costs and strange regulation changes from the FIA that hasn’t always been good to the sport. Citroen has entered a second team, manufacturer 2, that will compete the WRC 2009. This is probably a combination of getting good money from the drivers and getting “cheap” top 5 placements in the championship where competition will be really weak. Maybe it’s also an attempt to “save” some of the reputation of the championship by having a few more cars entered in each round!?!

Added to this, Sebastien Loeb may be doing his last year as a top level rally driver – or at least in such an outstanding level. He has the chance to take a last title quite “easily” in 2009, and maybe he’ll choose to retire after that. To continue with a new car and perhaps even brand in 2010 is much of a risk. For Loeb, that has already achieved everything, I would consider it more of a risk to lose than a chance to win. But he may continue anyway, since he is a true rally lover and since Citroen is rumoured to be developing a Super 2000 car. Without a S2000 Citroen, Loeb will end his WRC career – that’s for sure.

Ironically, these factors are the big reason why I look bright on the future of WRC – seen in a larger perspective. The championship really needs a new base that attracts more manufacturers and private teams that can take the competition to a new level. Also, it would really benefit from a Sebastien Loeb in a car he’s not used to, and maybe a little bit weaker car – which is really ironic. He is the best driver ever, no doubt about it, and his success is really fun to see. But the truth (and shame) is that the championship doesn’t need such an outstanding driver right now. The championship needs a solid and close top level where drivers battle man to man and with close fights all round the top 10 in every race. That, combined with good television coverage, better new media coverage (this is a really big and currently really bad point) and smart media strategies could make up for a reborn WRC.

I don’t know if it will happen, but I know one thing: Now is the time to start shaping the new WRC, so anyone that want’s to be on the train should jump on, now. I think that 2009 is the big turning point, and hopefully for something really good. That’s why I started this blog. I want to see it happen!

So, what can we expect from Henning? The Ford is a good car, but he’s got a lot of competitors in the same car, counting with the BP Ford Abu Dhabi team, the Stobart team and the Munchis team. I’m afraid (and sure) he wont be the most high prio driver there, but since he will get more priority than before according to NRK he will hopefully not be the lowest prio either. Anyway, it would have been interesting to see him in a 307WRC. Noone has expected the car to be good, but in fact it’s a strong car with an experienced team and most of all; he would have got no competition regarding the teams resources. There was talk about homologating new parts before the 2009 season, and with new parts and all the prio from the team it could have been really interesting – especially in the “weak” 2009 championship.

However, it will be nice to see him on the roads in a Ford too. I think he should manage to get at least two podiums in the year, maybe more. What do you think? Comment below.

Read the NRK article: http://www.nrksport.no/motorsport/rally-vm/1.6382604