World Rally Championship

“Win on Sunday sell on Monday” has been disappearing for a long while now throughout motorsport.
If manufacturers are looking for R&D for road cars, then maybe there needs to be either a new class in WRC or regulations for electric vehicles to compete at the top.
I remember growing up, watching WRC highlights and then seeing quite a few of those…[Read more]

The headline here then, surely, is that VW (and presumably other manufacturers as well) view their premium motorsport operations as net losses. i.e. they don’t return in additional sales, what they cost to run.

This perhaps is the real reason so many top line championships are struggling to attract manufacturers – motorsport just doesn’t sell…[Read more]

Following Audi’s shock announcement last week that they will pull out of the WEC at the end of this year, Volkswagen have followed with their own surprise announcement today that they will withdraw from the WRC at the end of 2016, meaning they have just one rally left in the championship.

The announcement comes despite the manufacturer sweeping…[Read more]

Following Audi’s shock announcement last week that they will pull out of the WEC at the end of this year, Volkswagen have followed with their own surprise announcement today that they will withdraw from the WRC at the end of 2016, meaning they have just one rally left in the championship.

The announcement comes despite the manufacturer sweeping…[Read more]

So I missed this last time out in Argentina when Hayden Paddon claimed an incredible maiden win, but sadly things have gone rather wrong for him this weekend out in Portugal. A small mistake led to a rather unspectacular accident, but the hot car surrounded by dry bushes didn’t mix, and sadly the Hyundai went up in flames.

Video of the…[Read more]

So I missed this last time out in Argentina when Hayden Paddon claimed an incredible maiden win, but sadly things have gone rather wrong for him this weekend out in Portugal. A small mistake led to a rather unspectacular accident, but the hot car surrounded by dry bushes didn’t mix, and sadly the Hyundai went up in flames.

Video of the…[Read more]

That was absolutely the perfect rally from Latvala. Okay, he was helped enormously by his road position, but he still had to keep it on the road and get to the end. But as always kudos to Ogier, second despite two days of road-sweeping – while admittedly not too bad. Neuville needs to get back into his rhythm, Camilli needs to give up and Ostberg…[Read more]

In Mexico, as of right now, Latvala is offering the perfect response to Ogier’s criticism of his mental strength.

Granted, if Latvala chucks it into a rock by tomorrow and loses the rally, he’ll prove Ogier right for a bit.

I enjoyed Rally Sweden, but was a shame to see it shortened, though obviously I understand why it to be!

Paddon was mighty, and if there had just been a bit more snow on Saturday, it could have been a rather different story. I feel there could be quite a lot of pressure on him this year, but I do feel he has a very real possibility of winning a…[Read more]

I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed by the fact that the VWs seem again to be unbeatable; Neuville was the fastest Hyundai, but they didn’t offer that big of a challenge against Ogier, who was very far ahead from everybody. I really hope this season doesn’t end up being another walk in the park for him.

I am really interested in the battle…[Read more]

@rjoconnell – Absolutely agreed on Lefebrve, astonishingly clean result. Regarding Evans, his rally was insane. Two punctures and still won by over two minutes, and only finished one place lower than he did last year!

That was a great result for Stephane Lefebvre as well – 5th overall on his Monte WRC debut. Some “demotion” for Elfyn Evans – he was 8th overall and just blitzed the field in WRC-2.