WRC '17 - Does it have to disappoint? Part 3...

In Part 2 of the 2017 season preview of the World Rally Championship, the new chassis regulations came under scrutiny with emphasis on wilder appearances and greater spectacle as a result of more radical aero devices and wider tracks.
So there's plenty of scope for a huge uplift in positivity about the championship. Isn't there?

The rally format fail

Yes, I know. I may have mentioned these things once before, briefly. But in a season preview, especially one that offers as much 2017 apparently does, you have to cover it all. So read on and mutter under your breath if you must. Or just skip to the "Start Order" section below.

That #@$%&*! Sunday half day

If we accept that the average WRC event should encompass roughly 300kms of competitive stage mileage - around 40% on day #1, 40% on day #2 and a piddly 20% on day #3 - then those precious three hundred kilometres should work as hard as possible, right? I mean, we should expect every single one of those kilometres to count, surely?

Ogier on Condor - credit: magallanesdeportes

So how is it that they don't?

WRC '16 - Pondering Paddon...

I wrote this post at the end of Friday's action in Argentina. It's a draft, and before I had a chance to polish the wording a bit and stick a pic or two into the layout, events overtook the subject of the article.

In light of what eventually transpired, the predictive tone of the original has been lost a little - 20/20 hindsight could well have been applied, making the post irrelevant really. I had intended to shrug and delete it, but I decided, given how many others were seemingly thinking similar thoughts, to post it regardless.
I think maybe you'll enjoy it anyway...

Andy

The first full day of Rally Argentina is behind us and we're seeing trends forming, the most dominant being Volkswagen's consolidation of position at the head of the field. All three VW pilots are within the top five places.

This will come as no surprise at all to the reader, the sitution having a strongly familiar air about it. When was there a rally in the last three-and-a-bit years where VW's presence wasn't dominating the podium? Personally, I don't remember. But Rally Argentina may play itself out somewhat differently to the way it has in the past and has seemed almost destinued to continue to do.

WRC '16 - Out of the wilderness

In groups of two, or five, or ten, scattered across the face of our planet, fans of the World Rally Championship sat about sipping coffees, quaffing wines or chugging beers and talking in hushed, slightly reverential-yet-excited tones about shakedown at Rally Argentina.

Paddon and Kennard celebrate their victory at Rally Argentina

The theme of these discussions can be universally classified as " Is it time? Will it happen here, this weekend". And opinions swung from a tentative "Yes, it really could", as the rally first began, to an eye-widening near-certainty as the evidence unfolded in front of them, where it eventually became
"I think it will".