Posts Tagged ‘WRC’
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
The excellent Norweigan site Motorsport.no quotes Eyvind Brynhildsen in an interview where the young Norweigan states that it’s more difficult to become World Champion in the P-WRC than in the WRC. For sure I get his point about the P-WRC having more competitors able to challenge for wins, but I certainly doubt that Mikko Hirvonen or any other top WRC drivers would agree with him on the rest. Until the WRC loses the world’s by far best rally driver, Sebastien Loeb, quotes like that should be handled with care in my opinion.
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.
Tags: eyvind brynhildsen, john lunde marine, norway, p-wrc, petter solberg, pwrc, rally, sebastien loeb, sponsor, world champion, WRC
Posted in Silly season, WRC | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Last year I made a calendar on Google of all WRC events, allowing you to include it in your own Google Calendar, import it to your phone, Outlook, iCal on Mac etc. This year I’ve made the same – but it’s even more complete, since I’ve included IRC events too. The calendar includes the following information per rally: Championship (WRC/IRC), dates, location, surface and for WRC rallies support classes (JWRC, PWRC, SWRC).
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.
Tags: 2010, calendar, fia, google calendar, html, ical, intercontinental rally challenge, IRC, world rally championship, WRC, xml
Posted in General, IRC, WRC | 9 Comments »
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
What happens? After Loeb/Citroen’s fail in Poland last weekend the WRC seems to become a little bit more interesting this year. After a spring where Loeb seemed to be more unbeatable than ever, winning five events in a row, Hirvonen has suddenly turned the championship to his favor and now leads by one point before Loeb. In the manufacturers championship, Ford is still quite behind Citroen (17pts), but even there it’s everything but over. Sordo isn’t as stable as Loeb, there are plenty of races to go and the season so far has really shown how fast things change.
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!
Tags: autumn, citroen, jari-matti latvala, mikko hirvonen, rally australia, rally catalunya, rally finland, rally poland, season, sebastien loeb, wales rally gb, WRC
Posted in WRC | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
Patrik Sandell lost his chances of winning the Production WRC this weekend in Acropolis. His engine broke down in the very same turn as Loebs crash, and with Nasser finishing second, Sandell’s chances of gold are now totally lost. Depressing to lose the big goal of the season already before the summer break…
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
Tags: acropolis, engine, failure, greece, lost, patrik sandell, pwrc, rally, skoda fabia super2000, title, WRC
Posted in WRC | 1 Comment »
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
One week ago I wrote about the potential Suzuki comeback rumoured in an Estonian newspaper and quoting former Suzuki driver Urmo Aava. The information sounded trustworthy and it was well in line with what I had previously heard, but now I know better. The rumours are mostly bullshit, the quotes are quite far from correct and a Suzuki comeback seems to be quite far away. My source is close to Urmo Aava and has a very big hand in his WRC bid, so this time information should be right, I’m afraid…
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.
Tags: 2009, comeback, conflict, court, estonia, monster, nobuhiro tajima, peep pahv, suzuki, urmo aava, WRC
Posted in Silly season, WRC | No Comments »
Sunday, April 19th, 2009
I’ve previously discussed what happens to old, solid events that suddenly stand without money when financers back of because of the recent calendar changes by the FIA. After Norway and Sweden it now seems that yet another organiser has ran into problems, the Wales Rally GB. Despite a contract running to 2011, the local government (WAG) will draw back their 2,2M pound sponsorship, because of the events’ lack of WRC status in 2010.
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
Tags: bbc, calendar, fia, legal, sponsorship, swedish rally, wag, wales rally gb, world council, WRC
Posted in WRC | 1 Comment »
Sunday, April 19th, 2009
Despite total silence from the Japanese Suzuki World Rally Team since their retirement in December 2008, Estonian driver Urmo Aava states in an interview that Suzuki may be back in the WRC already in 2011. These rumours conforms well with the statements made by Suzuki in the time before their retirement, where they said that they could take a sabbatical to develop a Super2000 from their WRC spec car. Aava himself has quite good connections into the Suzuki team after being one of their junior drivers for a long time, and according to RallyBuzz he also did a test with the team recently in Sardinia. Aava states:
- 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.
Of course I have to bring my own “money” to this project but if we compare this cost to the current amount of money required (for a Stobart or Citroen deal) then it’s much cheaper.
So, what do I think? Well, it very much makes sense. Suzuki have been talking for a long time about a Super2000 car, but most important it makes sense considering costs. The financial crisis over the world is expected to go up in a few years time, which would make both car makes and sponsors more interested in sport again – and a S2000 is way cheaper to build and run than a WRC car. That makes it cheaper for Suzuki, but most important it makes it more likely to be a real consumer market for the car – such as Urmo Aava.
Given all this, my guess is that the rumour is true. The car is probably under development, and I guess an announcement will be made this autumn or perhaps during the first half of next year. Maybe Suzuki will run a true works team, but more sure is that they will sell the cars to privateers.
Tags: 2011, privateer, super2000, suzuki, sx4 s2000, sx4 super2000, sx4wrc, urmo aava, works, world rally team, WRC
Posted in Silly season, WRC | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
EDIT: As most of you have probabaly understood by now, this was only a 1st of April Joke. Happy fools day, all!
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.
Tags: daniel carlsson, fia, IRC, main class, max mosley, super2000, winter season, world council, WRC
Posted in Rally testing, WRC | 4 Comments »
Friday, March 27th, 2009
Marcus Grönholm and the Prodrive team tested in Spain before Rally de Portugal earlier this week. Marcus told that the feeling of the driving was good, but Grönholm admitted having problems with making accurate notes and told that the problem could slow his driving. He also told that no explicit goals for his rally were set, but he would be disappointed if he didn’t found the speed he expected. I just hope he doesn’t expect too much, since he must know he’s not in the best of cars. (See my previous post)
Here is the video:
Tags: marcus grönholm, prodrive, rally de portugal, rally of portugal, s14, spain, subaru impreza, Video, WRC
Posted in Video, WRC | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
The Skoda Fabia Super2000 has established itself as a well-known car this year, starting with a really solid performance in IRC Rally Monte Carlo and following up with leading the PWRC championship after Patrik Sandell’s and the Red Bull Skoda team’s two victories in a row in the WRC. However, as we all know, the car has no turbo – since the Super2000 regulations currently doesn’t allow that. A turbo kit has been discussed by the FIA for 2010 and forward, but the decision came that the Super2000 cars will run without turbo kit until 2013, when a new Super2000 specification in the WRC may be adopted and allow for 1,6 litre engines with turbo in the championship.
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.
Tags: fia, patrik sandell, red bull skoda, skoda fabia super2000, super2000, turbo, WRC
Posted in IRC, Rally testing, WRC | 7 Comments »
