Photo Credit: Citroen Racing It's another day, and time for another blog post on here because I enjoy writing and frankly, as you are probably well aware by now, I am buzzing for the dawn of the latest era of the WRC which begins this month. Besides from the obvious changes for 2017 with the new cars and shake-up of the driver line-ups, there have been a few revised tweaks to the WRC rulebook that will be introduced when the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship kicks off in the French Alps in under 2 weeks time. The first major change comes in response to one of 2016's most talked about topics: the road order rules. Last season, the running order on the stages for each rally was determined by the championship classification prior to the event for the first two days, meaning whoever was leading the championship (in 2016 it was always Sebastien Ogier) would start at the front for two days and would predominantly be disadvantaged by having to clean the stages of all the loose gravel, costing performance. Day 3 saw the reversal of the rally order, so whoever was leading the rally after Saturday would start as the last WRC car on the final leg. Ogier felt he was being unfairly targeted and disadvantaged by the FIA, and after lots of discussion the rules have been relaxed for the championship leader with day 1's order being determined by championship classification and day's 2 and 3 being the reversal of the rally standings for this season. Overall, this seems quite a logical and fair system, and to be honest if this rule hadn't been tweaked in 2017 coupled with VW's withdrawal, I wouldn't have been surprised to have seen our champion walk away from the WRC. The second major and important rule change is related to the manufacturers championship. In 2016, Volkswagen and Hyundai ran three works cars all season, with two of their drivers scoring for the constructor in the championship and the third which was Mikkelsen at VW and Neuville, Sordo and Paddon on occasion at Hyundai would score points for the make's second team, Volkswagen Motorsport II and Hyundai Motorsport N respectively. For this year, the second teams have been ditched as now each manufacturer is allowed three works cars, with the two highest placed cars on each event bagging the manufacturers points. M-Sport have Sebastien Ogier, Ott Tanak and Elfyn Evans; Hyundai Hayden Paddon, Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo; Citroen Kris Meeke, Craig Breen and Stephane Lefebvre; and Toyota Jari-Matti Latvala, Juho Hanninen and on occasion Esapekka Lappi. A manufacturer can enter just two cars if they wish, with Citroen and Toyota both jumping on this ship for Rallye Monte-Carlo at least. This rule makes complete logical sense. The third and final major rule change involves the end-of-rally Power Stage. Since its induction in 2011, bonus points have been awarded for the three fastest drivers through the nominated stage which more often than not is the final stage of the rally. The fastest man gets 3 bonus championship points, 2 points are awarded for second and a solitary point is earned by the third fastest man. In 2017 however there will be more points available, with the top 5 positions in the stage now eligible for championship points. The points system is more or less the same, with the stage winner receiving 5 bonus points, second place earning 4th and so on. This however should make the final stage shoot-outs more exciting and could prove pivotal in the title race which is expected to be close this year. And on that note, I have another good omen to further stimulate the excitement levels. The last time the World Rally Championship saw a re-write of its technical regulations was 2011. The last time the World Rally Championship saw a proper title fight was 2011. Just saying... Photo Credit: Ford WRC
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January 2018
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