2014 World Rally Championship

[Michael Nelson]

WRC Live can be found here. Which is a live radio broadcast from every round in the calender.

2014 Drivers and Co-Drivers can be found here. Along with short bios and stats.


Points tables:
WRC
WRC-2
WRC-3
Junior WRC

 

[Michael Nelson]

With Monte Carlo kicking off in a very short while I thought I'd make a thread for the WRC season here.

Gonna be a real interesting season with Hyundai stepping in, I'm hoping Thierry can secure a win this season. I'm hoping M-Sport can take a win this season too, after a dry run last year. (They certainly win in terms of best looking livery: http://www.m-sport.co.uk/m-sport-ne...ew-season-m-sport-s-2014-livery-revealed.html)

Does anyone have any bold predictions for this rally or this season? I'm gonna go with Ogier on the top step of the podium here in Monte Carlo, with Sordo 2nd and Ostberg 3rd. I'm hoping other guys can challenge Ogier for the title, but he was incredibly impressive last year.

 

[Mika Kerttula]

I wish our Finns take reins and give us cheerful moments.

 

[Ho3n3r]

Lol. Kubica leading by 36 seconds after the first 2 stages.

He probably won't win the whole rally, but damn this guy is just fast in anything!

 

[4 8 15 16 23 42 108]

Tires choices? Or why did some struggle so awfully badly? THIS is rallye

EDIT:
Guess what? They even have a livestream this year! Just found it after the stage, only interviews. But maybe nice to know for this year from now on?

 

[Arne Dopudja]

Incredible results at S6... This is the diversity we need in rally.

 

[Manuel De Samaniego]

What is funny is that last year the first stage of the year was won by a new car to the WRC driven by an old driver and this year it was won by a new driver in an old car

 

[function9]

I do appreciate the video coverage wrc provides, so I hate to sound ungrateful. But that was pretty bad [coverage] compared to previous years/events. Felt like there was relatively very little actually shown of the wrc, meanwhile they spent half the time covering wrc2, but really didn't show much of that either lol.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Me and fellow RD member @Roy Magnes was in Sweden with one action camera each.
Now, a problem was two completely different qualities and recording settings on the two cameras, which means that there had to be some black bars.

Anyway, quite good after the 5min mark anyway!

 

[Richard Eriksson]

@Ole Marius Myrvold
Nice vid. I see the roads wearing down on Finnskogen as well... We stood at Lesjofors this year, and in one of the hairpins the road was practically mud. Very tricky conditions...

Reminded me of the weather some years in the 90s, with light rain and little snow... But enjoyable as always.

We took some good footage as usual, i will post it when i get around to encoding it.

Now for planning the annual trip to Finland already, bring on Ohninpouja!

Sad to see the Hyundais struggling, they have the pace and the cash, but reliability is not their game yet...

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Nice vid. I see the roads wearing down on Finnskogen as well... We stood at Lesjofors this year, and in one of the hairpins the road was practically mud. Very tricky conditions...

We had two runs through the stage afterwards, one to put out all fires along the stage (yes, really!) and one the other way, with some speed.

It was the place where we stood and filmed, and 5-6 other corners it was a little amount of gravel, the rest of the stage actually held up without much issues. That surprised the both of us!

 

[Roy Magnes]

I know it is late, but here are my experiences of the Swedish Rally this year

 

[function9]

Man, unless you're a VW fan, this is starting off as another lack luster season.

 

[Richard Eriksson]

Man, unless you're a VW fan, this is starting off as another lack luster season.

Well, the fight behind them is still very interesting, especially with Mad Mads showing some great potential this season as well... Also, Neuville will improve a lot over the course of this season, already seeing him mature a lot as a driver. As long as the car holds together that is

As for dominance, we have always had it in motorsports and i don't think it makes it lacklustre.

VW has good drivers and by far the most developed cars, it is no wonder they succeed.

 

[function9]

True. I'm perhaps just a little butthurt because of the start Hirvonen/M-sport have had.

But congrats to Hyundai, they did in 3 rallies what they couldn't do in 3/4 years with the Accent. Good to see Atkinson back too, I take it he's the 2nd driver on gravel except for maybe Finland?

And it's a nice surprise to see how quickly Ostberg has taken to the Citroen. Be nice to see him get his first "proper" win this year.

 

[function9]

Dang. Hirvonen should ask Latvala for the number of his sports psychologist, get his head on right.

Nice to see Meeke bounce back after Portugal. If him and Ostberg can do that in the same rally, VW might have a fight on their hands.

 

[function9]

One stage to decide finishing position?

The drivers in ninth and 10th positions would run first, with the faster of the two cars taking ninth.

Then seventh and eighth places run the stage to decide seventh position, repeating all the way up to the driver in second place versus the driver in the lead of the rally to decide the actual winner.

First proposed last year:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107262
And still talking about it:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113703

I mean, holding a top 10 place at the end of a rally is nothing to scoff at. But you shouldn't have a shot at advancing a spot when you're say 1min+ behind the driver ahead of you. That doesn't seem right.

They're talking about changing the format to make it more broadcast/tv friendly and exciting. Why not do what the ERC does on some rallies and do exclusive coverage of 1 or 2 stages? Being an American, this sounds like a very American kind of solution; let's sacrifice the integrity of what we're doing so we can water it down to a fake and overly dramatized climax.

What happened to all this talk back in 2008/2009 (I think, could even be a few years earlier) about how the internet is the future and will be so crucial for the wrc in the coming years for promotion and coverage. Isn't this the first year they've had any kind of live video stream? And even that is just the service park.

Kinda surprised that this is [currently] their best solution for revitalizing interest in rallying. Actually, no I'm not surprised, seeing some of the decisions they've made in the past.

 

[function9]

VW committed to WRC until 2019:

“The series is more closely oriented towards the technology used in the latest production vehicles than any other world championship, and based on the kind of real conditions that our customers all over the world experience on a daily basis.”

http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/june/vw-extends/page/1468--12-12-.html

Congrats to Ostberg on another podium finish.

M-Sport, sweet M-Sport...

 

[function9]

Is it just me or has [internet] coverage of wrc events suddenly become subscription only? That seems kind of counter productive if your goal is to increase viewer numbers/popularity.

 

[Diehl]

Well, today I watched to a video with the highlights of the Rally Finland and... what awesome video is that!

So I thought it would be cool to share this video with you.