There's a universal adage that reads something like this...
"If you're not going forward, you're going backwards".
It's a truism that could have been written for Mads Ostberg. You see, the popular Norwegian driver has always been there or thereabouts when it comes to pace, with moments when he really looked the business behind the wheel of whatever rally weapon he happened to inhabit at that time. But the WRC doesn't stand still as clearly demonstrated in the results achieved by the current crop of talented stage-winners. It's not enough just to be quick - you have to be challenging for the stage win. Or the rally win.
Sadly, Mads isn't in that category. Despite his speed and consistency, Mads hasn't looked like a winner all season. Why is that? In a word, "stagnation". He has reached a plateau in his performances while most of his competition have improved. And there are also a clutch of guys whose experience and skills have yet to reach the rally-winner level, but who are already threatening to out-perform Mads in speed on a consistent basis.
That sounds really dire, I know, but is it as bad as it sounds? Well, that depends on Mads. This WRC ace thing needs more than natural ability and big cojones. It takes practice and an awful lot of hard work - just ask the Paddons, Breens, Evanses, Camillis, Tanaks and Mikkelsens (to name a few) of the WRC world. They're not sitting back, confident in their ability and expecting to be victorious. They're doing their utmost to improve - on every event.
Paddon is a classic example. Two seasons ago, he was seen as fortunate to have gained a foothold in the WRC, a surprisingly competent antipodean who punched above his weight and a bit of a David to virtually everybody else's Goliath. No longer.
The Kiwi's consistent and rapid gains in speed and skill have impressed every team boss in the WRC and the greater mass of the skeptical rally supporters worldwide. Yes, Hayden possesses the native talent to be competitive, but it's also due in large part to his unquenchable thirst to improve himself - to strive to be the best.
So he invests as much of his free time as he can in improving his skills. On tarmac, on gravel, in analysing conditions, in car set-up, learning from the performances of his rivals and probably most importantly, in being honest with himself as to his weaknesses and asking for help to overcome them. In a sport where ego is a huge component in motivation and success, the sort of self-analysis Paddon applies in his chosen career is key to the rate at which he has improved in his time in the WRC. Hard work trumps innate ability sometimes. And asking for help is rare at this level of competition.
But back to Mads - at the half-way point of the WRC season, the Norwegian's performance is neatly summed up by his place in the drivers' championship. Sixth overall compares poorly with the 3rd place he held after seven events last year. Yet the M-Sport lead driver has consistently voiced his satisfaction with his driving, despite the lacklustre times he's been posting. How can that be?
Mads has hinted at times that the Fiesta RS WRC is not capable of delivering more, that he has felt content with the performances he's putting in but the car is limiting the times they can achieve. Which may or may not have seemed a realistic interpretation until Rally Poland, where Ott Tanak, in a virtually identical vehicle, led the rally for three days, losing the victory only through time lost to a puncture and relegating the Estonian to second overall. But Tanak's performance across the event certainly undermines Mads's theory of the car being the limiting factor.
It's time for Mads to face the fact that he's slower because everybody else is now quicker. If he wants to get a factory seat in 2017, something that must be in serious doubt right now, then he will have to prove that this stagnation he's exhibiting is temporary and that he's capable of improving his own performance to once again match or better still, exceed, that of his peers. It's time for Mads to put in the required effort.
He's been a well-liked and respected competitor for ten plus years - it would be a shame to see him leave the World Rally Championship at this point in his career.
Showing posts with label Poland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poland. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Sunday, June 29, 2014
WRC '14 - Echoes from Poland
WRC Poland is done and dusted. Ogier won. Mikkelsen was runner up. And Neuville filled the final podium spot. You could likely have predicted that before the event began, and actually, it's fair to say that many did. But it doesn't mean the event was boring - far from it. It simply recognises that VW still retains the supremacy over its competitors currently.
Despite Ogier's healthy victory margin, it might have ended quite differently had his 'moment' early on SS12 not had the sprinkling of luck that it did. “I had a scare in the first sixth-gear corner,” Ogier reported at stage end.
A few centimetres of car placement left or right would have seen the reigning champ doing serious harm to both his car and his chances. Other competitors had similar moments during the event but their luck was of an entirely different stripe. And they paid a price for their moment that Seb did not.
There's always a tendency to ascribe good luck to some superior driving ability, the old "The harder I practice, the luckier I get" school of thought, but clearly sometimes the margins of disaster-to-happy-outcome are so fine as to be humanly impossible to negotiate. And so it was in Poland.
What isn't obvious from those overall placings is how very possible a different result could have been, and how the VW hegemony is not as strong as it was.
So the landscape of the championship has shifted almost imperceptibly away from VW and it's ace Ogier, towards the likes of Mikkelsen, Latvala, Neuville, Meeke, Hirvonen and Hanninen. And while they may not have been immediately apparent in Poland, there are subtle signs. Finland is likely to be the first real evidence that the sea-change is underway. I predict that the winner in Finland will be neither Ogier nor VW. The WRC is getting very interesting.
On the subject of landscape, Poland showed up a flaw in the championship that may have consequences beyond the event itself. With the Polish stages, the event included Lithuanian roads. There's no official explanation for why, and it could be that Poland simply didn't have enough stage miles available, and the excursion across the border made the event physically possible. But that seems highly unlikely and the inclusion of Lithuanian roads was probably a commercial decision.
Whichever, it transpires that it was a terrible error for the rally. Even the first pass of the cars through the first stage uncovered a serious problem with the construction of the roads, the surface degrading unacceptably quickly to the point that by the sixth or seventh car through any section, the ruts exposed made tramlining the only option. Not a terrific way to showcase the WRC as a motorsport spectacle.
The same issue arose on the second Lithuanian stage, making passage through the test an exercise in frustration for the drivers - especially after the first half dozen cars had passed. The event organisers had no option other than to accept the gravity of the situation and they cancelled the repeat running of both tests.
A serious amount of time and road miles for not much benefit to the teams or the spectators.
Remember that this was not the result of force majeure - it was the conscious decision by the organisers to include what must have been clearly inappropriate roads on their event. Not a WRC round promoter's finest hour.
It seems that decisions to include 'new' events in the calendar are not attracting the scrutiny that they should (the first WRC round in Poland since 2009 and mostly new roads). If such a situation arose in, for example, New Zealand, you can bet that the screams from various motorsport representatives in European capitals to exclude the event in future would be heard loud and long - probably for years.
On the good side of the ledger, the Polish stages were seen by the drivers and teams (and perhaps more importantly, the many thousands of spectators and fans) as demanding and exciting. That bodes well for the round remaining in the championship for the foreseeable future. Just keep it all in Poland thanks.
Despite Ogier's healthy victory margin, it might have ended quite differently had his 'moment' early on SS12 not had the sprinkling of luck that it did. “I had a scare in the first sixth-gear corner,” Ogier reported at stage end.
A few centimetres of car placement left or right would have seen the reigning champ doing serious harm to both his car and his chances. Other competitors had similar moments during the event but their luck was of an entirely different stripe. And they paid a price for their moment that Seb did not.
There's always a tendency to ascribe good luck to some superior driving ability, the old "The harder I practice, the luckier I get" school of thought, but clearly sometimes the margins of disaster-to-happy-outcome are so fine as to be humanly impossible to negotiate. And so it was in Poland.
What isn't obvious from those overall placings is how very possible a different result could have been, and how the VW hegemony is not as strong as it was.
So the landscape of the championship has shifted almost imperceptibly away from VW and it's ace Ogier, towards the likes of Mikkelsen, Latvala, Neuville, Meeke, Hirvonen and Hanninen. And while they may not have been immediately apparent in Poland, there are subtle signs. Finland is likely to be the first real evidence that the sea-change is underway. I predict that the winner in Finland will be neither Ogier nor VW. The WRC is getting very interesting.
On the subject of landscape, Poland showed up a flaw in the championship that may have consequences beyond the event itself. With the Polish stages, the event included Lithuanian roads. There's no official explanation for why, and it could be that Poland simply didn't have enough stage miles available, and the excursion across the border made the event physically possible. But that seems highly unlikely and the inclusion of Lithuanian roads was probably a commercial decision.
Whichever, it transpires that it was a terrible error for the rally. Even the first pass of the cars through the first stage uncovered a serious problem with the construction of the roads, the surface degrading unacceptably quickly to the point that by the sixth or seventh car through any section, the ruts exposed made tramlining the only option. Not a terrific way to showcase the WRC as a motorsport spectacle.
The same issue arose on the second Lithuanian stage, making passage through the test an exercise in frustration for the drivers - especially after the first half dozen cars had passed. The event organisers had no option other than to accept the gravity of the situation and they cancelled the repeat running of both tests.
A serious amount of time and road miles for not much benefit to the teams or the spectators.
Remember that this was not the result of force majeure - it was the conscious decision by the organisers to include what must have been clearly inappropriate roads on their event. Not a WRC round promoter's finest hour.
It seems that decisions to include 'new' events in the calendar are not attracting the scrutiny that they should (the first WRC round in Poland since 2009 and mostly new roads). If such a situation arose in, for example, New Zealand, you can bet that the screams from various motorsport representatives in European capitals to exclude the event in future would be heard loud and long - probably for years.
On the good side of the ledger, the Polish stages were seen by the drivers and teams (and perhaps more importantly, the many thousands of spectators and fans) as demanding and exciting. That bodes well for the round remaining in the championship for the foreseeable future. Just keep it all in Poland thanks.
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