World Rally Championship

2016 WRC season thread

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    Bradley Downton
    Participant

    So, I was thinking this could just be the thread for any WRC related news/gossip in 2016!

    Rally Monte-Carlo is just 21 days away, and the entry list has been announced in the last few days.

    Manufacturer Entries
    Volkswagen – Volkswagen Motorsport (VW Polo R) – 1. Ogier & Ingrassia / 2. Latvala & Anttila
    Volkswagen – Volkswagen Motorsport II (VW Polo R) – 9. Mikkelsen & Jæger
    Hyundai – Hyundai Motorsport (Hyundai i20) – 3. Neuville & Gilsoul / 4. Sordo & Marti
    Hyundai – Hyundai Motorsport N (Hyundai i20) – 20. Paddon & Kennard
    M Sport – M Sport World Rally Team (Ford Fiesta RS) – 5. Østberg & Fløene / 6. Camilli & Klinger / 17. Bouffier & Bellotto
    M Sport – Drive DMACK World Rally Team (Ford Fiesta RS) – 12. Tänak & Mõlder
    M Sport – FWRT s.r.l (Ford Fiesta RS) – 37. Bertelli & Scattolin

    Independent Entries
    Citroen – Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team (Citroen DS3) – 7. Meeke & Nagel / 8. Lefebvre & Moreau
    M Sport – Robert Kubica (Ford Fiesta RS) – 16. Kubica & Szczepaniak

    So, VW & Hyundai line up as expected, though with regards to the latter they intend to involve Paddon more in the main team this season, meaning the three drivers will swap around a bit depending on who Hyundai feels will do the best in each rally. Hyundai have also developed a new car for this season (despite the major regulation change incoming for 2017) but only Neuville and Sordo will have the new cars for Monte, Paddon must wait until Sweden. Hopefully this means someone will finally be able to challenge the VW’s on a regular basis.

    M Sport return with an entirely old/new line-up thanks to the ditching of Tanak and Evans, and the re-signing and signing of Ostberg & Camilli respectively. Ostberg will likely be as solid as ever, Camilli will be making his first start in a WRC car. Interesting to note that Bouffier – who is a regular at Monte, but Monte only – is down to score Manufacturer points, could be a sign M Sport will be running a third main car with a revolving door of local drivers. Bouffier is always one to keep an eye on in Monte.

    Having been rather unfairly dropped by M Sport (for a second time) it’s nice to see Tanak still competing, now back with DMACK who he competed with in the 2014 WRC-2 championship. Showed flashes of brilliance, but needs to be more consistent. Bertelli’s back as well with his family supported (he’s the son of the woman who created Prada – no, I’ve no idea either, some sort of big Italian fashion label) team, though I’m sure I read somewhere he was told by his parents that if he didn’t improve in 2015 (which he really didn’t, he’s slow and crashes quite often) he wouldn’t be allowed back, yet here he is… Still, nice to have another driver in the field!

    Following Citroen’s temporary withdrawal, the Abu Dhabi World Rally Team will field their cars and run two out of Meeke, Lefebvre, Breen and Al-Qassimi at each event, Meeke and Lefebvre get the nod for Monte with the hope Meeke’s experience will pay off in what is one of the toughest rallies of the season. It’s a relative unknown how they perform, though it’d be a surprise if they weren’t somewhere close to where they were last year, probably battling M Sport for third best team behind VW & Hyundai.

    And finally, despite talk of walking away to return to circuit racing – and I’m sure I even saw one article linking him to an F1 return with Renault (though I now can’t re-find it) – Robert Kubica returns (for Monte at least) in his own team. He’s always shown the speed – especially in Monte – so if he can just keep it on the flipping road, he should be able to have a decent event.

    On a sad note though, one notable entrant missing from the list is Martin Prokop. As an independent he’s competed in most of the rallies of every season since 2005, and I’m unsure why he’s not entering. Though I do know he is competing in Dakar (alongside former WRC drivers Xavier Pons, Carlos Sainz, Sebastian Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen) so it’s likely a budget thing.

    I’ve been getting more and more into the WRC in recent years, though the VW dominance is somewhat frustrating. Hopefully Hyundai can take the battle to them this year and we continue to get some giant killing performances from the likes of Paddon, Tanak & Kubica that we saw in 2015.

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