World Rally Championship 2021

New season ahead!

Some rumours already about cancelled events, Sweden being one, due to covid, and others like the Monte, running officially as non-spectator.

https://www.wrc.com/en/news/season-2020/wrc/wrc-calendar-2021/

The GB round is still uncertain. There is/was talk of a move to N.Ireland which the August date may suit however with the current pandemic and Brexit issues still causing doubt we may not have a round in 2021 or for a while if we arent careful.

Testing has started already as much to do with the tyre supplier switching from Michelin to Pirelli however Youtube vids already showing lots of new aero being used like the F1 style winglets on the Toyota.

Good to see Craig Breen getting more rallies in 2021 for Hyundai and looks set to continue in the ERC aswell.

Great vid of him testing the new Rally2/R5 i20 below. Car looks like the Polo over the bumps which is the quickest car in the category at the mo. Suspect a few ITRC and BRC boys may be putting an order in for one of these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve66_Fh5BU8

Sweden now officially cancelled

looking for a replacement event....

Contacts in Finland think it could be a second Arctic Rally in late February

Usually snowy and lighter evenings.

With no spectators the infrastructure could cope.

One stage is 51mk long in the middle of a snowy nowhere

Cd

GB round already with questions marks against it.

Main problem with the Rally GB is the date.

IF Rally GB is still in Wales I think its supposed to be based in Llandudno??? which is a big tourist hot spot in North Wales.

The Rally GB date is in the school holiday period and a week before August Bank Holiday. So hotels already packed out with tourists, will need to be block booked very early for the teams.

For spectators and officials/marshals they will have a similar problem out in the wilds of Wales, small towns already booked out with tourists doing their own things.

The date would mean a lot more people out and about on holiday, which is good to get more people involved/watching and great for the kids. But its a big mix of people that know nothing about whats going on and many more that wont care.

All the above is assuming we will be able to go on holidays again in 2021!!!!!

CD

lattvala taking over toyota wrc from makinen...

presuming its going ahead but who knows...

With entries due to shut at midnight on Friday (18 December), organiser Automobile Club de Monaco had received more than 90 entries, including submissions to the headline World Rally Car category from Hyundai Motorsport, Toyota Gazoo Racing and M-Sport Ford.
Reigning manufacturers’ champion Hyundai has entered Ott Tänak, Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo in i20s. Toyota’s four-car entry features world champion Sébastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanperä and Takamoto Katsuta in Yaris cars.
M-Sport Ford has entered two Fiestas, with both crews due to be confirmed in early January. Pierre-Louis Loubet is also listed in a privately-entered i20.
There is a strong WRC2 entry. Andreas Mikkelsen and Marco Bulacia, who steps up from a WRC3 campaign this year, are entered in Skoda Fabias, with two Citroën C3s for Sean Johnston and Eric Camilli.

I’ve seen what looks like an official WRC website event list for 2021, which makes interesting reading, mainly because GB is not on it and no obvious date gaps for it. Sweden confirmed as cancelled due to Covid. Estonia and Monza continue. Arctic Lapland, Ypres and Croatia are added. Japan is back (well telegraphed) but I thought Safari was meant to be back in 2021?

Latest news from M Sport Ford

https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/154458/msport-reveals-youthful-wrc-lineup-for-2021

Decision on the 7th January if the Monte Carlo Rally will run or not

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/monte-carlo-rally-decision-on-thursday/

The area was very badly hit by floods towards the end of 2020 and with C19 as well, it looks unlikely.

CD

CDM wrote:Latest news from M Sport Ford

https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/154458/msport-reveals-youthful-wrc-lineup-for-2021

Decision on the 7th January if the Monte Carlo Rally will run or not

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/monte-carlo-rally-decision-on-thursday/

The area was very badly hit by floods towards the end of 2020 and with C19 as well, it looks unlikely.

CD

I’ll be delighted to be proved wrong, and I acknowledge up front that Greensmith has more driving talent than I will ever dream of having, but I’m not convinced he is going to kick on. He looked very impressive at an incredibly young age when I first saw him in a Fiesta R1 in the BRC some years ago but since then he hasn’t looked like he has the pace to run at the sharp end of the WRC. Hopefully he is another slow burn like Evans has turned out to be and Malcolm has a wonderful track record of developing young drivers and is a far better qualified judge than me I’m sure. I’m pleased to see Fourmaux get a partial drive as he looks like he has some potential. I appreciate the last couple of years must have been crippling for M-Sport compared to the Factory teams, so lower cost drivers or those who bring sponsorship money are understandably the way forward for them, but it’s a crying shame there wasn’t a way to give Breen a full year seat as I genuinely believe he would have been pushing for some podiums in the Fiesta.

totally agree with your post paul, also have my doubts about Greensmith and believe Breen has shown more than enough to warrant a full season but i know its only my opinion and others are entitled to disagree...just hope we get a good number of events this year, no doubt some will be hit....first half of this year going to be messy i fear....

Money talks. Greensmith bank of mum and dad. Formeaux has FFSA money behind him. Sunninen not doing the full series so pay per drive bods can be slotted in to pay for the rest of the gaps. Regards testing any of those 3 can do the grunt work on the 2022 car (if there is one) as its just a case of getting miles on and then a proper experienced driver can be hired to do the fine tuning. Its a gamble as all 3 have wrecked Fiestas and with M Sport on fumes it would appear a couple of written off test cars wont go down well.

Ypres to take Rally GB slot...

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/ypres-takes-rally-uks-slot-on-2021-wrc-calendar/

CD

Wow August in Belgium is going to be mental assuming lockdowns are at an end! Been a few times when it was an ERC round and it was busy.

Think this year again is going to be tough for UK rallying. With forestry off limits and tiers limiting travel meaning nothing is realistically going to get going before late summer at the earliest and there are going to a lot of events scrambling to see if they can move to later in the year which isnt necessarily a good thing. Think it might be prudent for Motorsport UK etc to step in and start a reasoned debate about the calendar to ensure some events run and get proper entries rather than several rallies trying to run on the same weekend. It could get messy otherwise.

Not a great result at all for rallying in the UK.....

nope.........

More thoughts on the future of Rally GB

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/can-rally-gb-recover-from-2021-blow/

Monte shortened to 14 stages and earlier starts to complete each day before the 18.00hrs curfew.

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/monte-carlo-rally-shortened-again-in-organizational-boost/

CD

SO EARLY MORNING STARTS MEAN MORE DARKNESS STAGES-THAT'S GOOD!

M Sport been testing now so at least they are there!

Historic Monte which runs a week later has now been called off.

see neuville and codriver gilsoul have split just a week before monte....

Would imagine Greensmith and his dad's firm are paying for damage as he removed a fair bit of carbon fibre today with another off in testing.

The Neuville situation is a bit odd. If the rumours about it being money related are true then it makes Thierry look bad.

Hells bells. One less Fiesta factory car left after Suninen binned his on SS1 - that must delight Malcolm