Photo Credit: Citroen Racing Kris Meeke expertly took victory on round 5 of the 2016 World Rally Championship, the Vodafone Rally de Portugal last weekend. He beat the VW's of Andreas Mikkelsen and Sebastien Ogier to take his second career victory in the hills around the historic city of Porto. However, after the Briton's success came from him benefiting from a lowly starting position for both Friday and Saturday's competitive kilometres, the road positioning debate has resurfaced, with defending champions Volkswagen claiming wildcard victories like Meeke's are "devaluing" the WRC. Triple drivers champion Sebastien Ogier has long been against the rules as they often see him disadvantaged as he is left with road cleaning duties, but how valid are the complaints? Photo Credit: Volkswagen Motorsport First off, I personally believe Jost Capito's claims that the likes of Meeke's and Sebastien Loeb's rally wins are devaluing the WRC are nonsense; as Yves Matton reasonably pointed out that neither Loeb in 2013 or Meeke this year are taking any valuable points for the championship, meaning they are not really affecting its outcome. However, the road order is something that I think may need to be looked at, as I'm not even convinced it is actually achieving its objective of spicing up the action. The current system lines the drivers up in championship order for days 1 and 2, with day 3's running order reversing the current rally order, so the rally leader starts later and in theory obtains better grip and posts quicker stage times. It is a system that deeply hinders and irks Ogier, who often finds himself disadvantaged for 2 days as he is often the championship leader. And from his position you can see why it is annoying. He is almost being punished for his previous successes and sublime consistency at the limit. However, Andreas Mikkelsen and Hayden Paddon have proved over the last two rallies that the imperious world champion can be beaten in a fair fight when both men are facing similar conditions. Paddon got the better of Ogier to win Rally Argentina whilst Mikkelsen beat his team mate to take second in Portugal. However, this was only over the course of one day and day 3 is usually the shortest. So what is the solution? That's where things get tricky. It seems clear that the rules are likely to be tweaked for 2017 but what is the most fair solution? Everyone is going to have different viewpoints and opinions on the matter, but I think there are two ways the issue can be somewhat resolved with minimal backlash from differing parties. One solution is the qualifying stage, which we saw in the WRC in 2012 and 13. This allows the drivers to complete the shakedown test, and whoever gets the fastest time decides where he shall start on the road for the next day's action. Therefore the fastest drivers are rewarded for their competitiveness. Another theory is that for day 1 the cars run in championship order, but for days 2 and 3 the rally order will be the starting procedure. This will potentially disadvantage the championship leader on gravel rallies on day 1, but give him more of a level playing field for the rest of the event. A potential issue with this system which has been used in the past is we used to see drivers slow down at the end of stages to ensure they weren't leading the rally overnight and subsequently wouldn't clean the roads for their rivals, which isn't always nice to see. The above strategy could be tweaked though, with perhaps the top 10 being reversed for day 3 so that there shouldn't be any incentive to slow down. Those of course are just my opinions. What do you think the solution should be? Below are some thoughts from respected people in the rally world. Colin Clark: Here's a suggestion for the reignited road position debate. Seed the drivers and run in that order day 1, rally order day 2 and 3. That takes away any advantage for wildcard entries and also no benefit for those who fail to score points e.g. Latvala in Monte-Carlo and Sweden. Colin McMaster: Deep down everybody knows: Day 1 championship position, Day 2 rally position, Day 3 top 15 reversed. It's the fairest and most TV friendly. Hayden Paddon: I'm sorry but this road order saga is like a broken record and is taking too much gloss of the sport. Rallying will never be 'fair' for everyone. But we compete in a sport where conditions are changeable. If it rained in Argentina/Portugal, this wouldn't be such a topic. For me qualifying is for the circuit (you knew the winner of the rally after quali). The roots of rallying is championship order day 1, rally classification days 2 & 3. Photo Credit: Hyundai Motorsport
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
WRCArticles covering the World Rally Championship Archives
January 2018
Categories |