RE: WRC Argentina: The Seb Show
Wednesday 8th May 2013
If anyone was under the impression that Sebastien Loeb might be winding down into his rally retirement, the nine-time world champion has proven them wrong this weekend with his eighth overall win and second victory this year at Rally Argentina. Loeb’s Citroen DS3 finished 55 seconds ahead of fellow Frenchman Seb Ogier, who led the first six stages in his VW Polo, before an error caused him to skid off the course. He was able to recover, but with 40 seconds lost, his lead over Loeb was transformed into a 17-second deficit. And after a puncture on the next stage cost him even more time, Ogier opted to ease off and settle for second, knowing Loeb won’t be able to challenge him in the driver’s standings.
Loeb wins in Argentina for the eighth time“It’s a great emotion to win here,” said Loeb, whose win looks set to be his last on gravel. “After so many months since my last gravel rally it was difficult to find the feeling in the first stage and to get the car working for me, but it was the perfect drive.” Loeb will now make one last WRC appearance at France in October – unless, of course, Citroen decide to parachute him in for an extra rally or two after his Pikes Peak debut to increase their points tally.
Ogier forced to settle for secondSo now all five rounds of the 2013 season so far have been won by either Loeb or Ogier. And while any doubts about who might be the next big name to succeed Loeb at the top of the leaderboard are rapidly fading, so too is the hope that Loeb’s departure might spark that frisson of unpredictability in the championship standings that many critics feel is missing these days.
WRC Argentina: The Seb Show
French Sebs triumph at last weekend's WRC. Stuck record, anyone?
Loeb wins in Argentina for the eighth time
Ogier’s team-mate Latvala completed the top three with his first podium finish in Argentina – after a disappointing second day, he rallied (no pun intended) to win all five of the final stages, hauling himself back up the leaderboard past the Ford Fiesta of Evgeny Norikov. Norikov’s fellow Fiesta driver Thierry Neuville and Mikko Hirvonen’s DS3 rounded out the top six, the latter having a disappointing rally thanks to a puncture and a series of electrical issues.
Ogier forced to settle for second
Discussion
rossub said:
As great as he is, I cant help but think that he's played a part in the demise of the popularity of rallying as a spectator sport. I mean, he never even crashes to add a bit of excitement to things 
I think the rule changes have had just as much an impact, only managed to see coverage of one event this year but looking at a Polo on them rally stages just looks like a Local Clubman event not a full blown WRC.Just a clip to show Loeb is human
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGwNQIY0bTM
dc2rr07 said:
rossub said:
As great as he is, I cant help but think that he's played a part in the demise of the popularity of rallying as a spectator sport. I mean, he never even crashes to add a bit of excitement to things
I think the rule changes have had just as much an impact, only managed to see coverage of one event this year but looking at a Polo on them rally stages just looks like a Local Clubman event not a full blown WRC.Just a clip to show Loeb is human
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGwNQIY0bTM
I wonder where this leaves Hirvonnen as he hasn't done much this season from what I've seen and was IIRC supposed to be pretty handy but never had the car. Loeb turns up and wins without the experience of driving the car for the last few rallies making him look a little lacking.
IMO his turning up and winning at the drop of a hat is bad for WRC. To most it will just make the rest of the field appear to be below par in driving ability if someone can pick and choose and win so easily. Imagine the same happened in F1 people would be kicking off saying the rest of the field is useless.
IMO his turning up and winning at the drop of a hat is bad for WRC. To most it will just make the rest of the field appear to be below par in driving ability if someone can pick and choose and win so easily. Imagine the same happened in F1 people would be kicking off saying the rest of the field is useless.
Gio G said:
Can't get excited about Rally anymore - fell asleep in front of ITV's coverage last night..
+1. Haven't bothered to keep track of rallying for quite a few years now. They all seem to look, sound, handle pretty much the same. The recipe is bad enough in F1 or one make racing but in rallying where there's one car run at a time it is positively boring. You could just watch he same car 10 times. Hillclimbing is a similar format but the variety makes it far more interesting. I know we'll never see GroupB again but I do hope they find a way of shaking things up. Andy Burton type machinery has to be they way forward but I guess manufacturers will feel their rallying exploits help sell road cars if they share a resemblance therefore anything too bespoke will detract etc... Edmundo2 said:
Gio G said:
Can't get excited about Rally anymore - fell asleep in front of ITV's coverage last night..
+1. Haven't bothered to keep track of rallying for quite a few years now. They all seem to look, sound, handle pretty much the same. The recipe is bad enough in F1 or one make racing but in rallying where there's one car run at a time it is positively boring. You could just watch he same car 10 times. Hillclimbing is a similar format but the variety makes it far more interesting. I know we'll never see GroupB again but I do hope they find a way of shaking things up. Andy Burton type machinery has to be they way forward but I guess manufacturers will feel their rallying exploits help sell road cars if they share a resemblance therefore anything too bespoke will detract etc... The cars only look slow, ok they don't have the outright drama of the Group B cars, but they're still a mightily impressive view when being driven with total commitment on a either gravel or tarmac.
If a return to Group B is not feasible, let's go someway towards it, using Ken Block's Fiesta as a template would be a good start
Either retain the 1600cc regs or make things less stressed and more torquey with a return to 2000cc but limit the power to 500hp 
Widen the rims to 10" with an appropriate size increase in tyres (but tyre choices and compounds would need to be policed carefully) keep the servicing (and parts replacement) restrictions the same.All external panels would have to be steel (bumpers would be the only composite panels allowed) Crew safety would obviously have to be paramount, if this means running smaller, safer fuel tanks, then lets introduce between-stage refuelling.
The events themselves should be four full days or three full days, but if three full days, then the "middle" day should start at sparrows f*rt and not finish until midnight at the earliest (so would have to include some night stages) So no more finishing at lunchtime on the final day having done 50 Kms of stage mileage in the morning . . . .
And please, please, please lets have a return to a more equal balance between gravel and tarmac events. Much as I like seeing the WRC cars on gravel, there's nothing to beat the sight of a tarmac WRC car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OvUTCbO6ew
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmoUQ3B6JWQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBP98HfY3Qs
Slippydiff said:
Edmundo2 said:
Gio G said:
Can't get excited about Rally anymore - fell asleep in front of ITV's coverage last night..
+1. Haven't bothered to keep track of rallying for quite a few years now. They all seem to look, sound, handle pretty much the same. The recipe is bad enough in F1 or one make racing but in rallying where there's one car run at a time it is positively boring. You could just watch he same car 10 times. Hillclimbing is a similar format but the variety makes it far more interesting. I know we'll never see GroupB again but I do hope they find a way of shaking things up. Andy Burton type machinery has to be they way forward but I guess manufacturers will feel their rallying exploits help sell road cars if they share a resemblance therefore anything too bespoke will detract etc... The cars only look slow, ok they don't have the outright drama of the Group B cars, but they're still a mightily impressive view when being driven with total commitment on a either gravel or tarmac.
If a return to Group B is not feasible, let's go someway towards it, using Ken Block's Fiesta as a template would be a good start
Either retain the 1600cc regs or make things less stressed and more torquey with a return to 2000cc but limit the power to 500hp Widen the rims to 10" with an appropriate size increase in tyres (but tyre choices and compounds would need to be policed carefully) keep the servicing (and parts replacement) restrictions the same.All external panels would have to be steel (bumpers would be the only composite panels allowed) Crew safety would obviously have to be paramount, if this means running smaller, safer fuel tanks, then lets introduce between-stage refuelling.
The events themselves should be four full days or three full days, but if three full days, then the "middle" day should start at sparrows f*rt and not finish until midnight at the earliest (so would have to include some night stages) So no more finishing at lunchtime on the final day having done 50 Kms of stage mileage in the morning . . . .
And please, please, please lets have a return to a more equal balance between gravel and tarmac events. Much as I like seeing the WRC cars on gravel, there's nothing to beat the sight of a tarmac WRC car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OvUTCbO6ew
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmoUQ3B6JWQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBP98HfY3Qs
1. Bring knowledgeable people to commentate e.g. 1 ex-rally pilot like Chris Atkinson and 1 person who is from the team management side; additionally every rally bring a third presenter. The sport has very rich history with many of the greatest drivers still alive. For rally Finland why not bring Grönholm and for Monte Carlo Röhrl - those people have tremendous experience and currently that is not being used! What they will do is bring more inside perspective and analysis.
2. More helicopter shots! Rally is inherently difficult to watch so here is my idea. You get 3 choppers and in the first stage they follow 3 drivers THROUGH THE WHOLE STAGE; next stage you follow different drivers and so on - this way we can get awesome footage.
3. Bring back graphic comparison of different drivers on the same stage. A few years back they had a comparison of two drivers through the same sections of the stage showing different lines and driving styles.
4. When showing some footage of the cars show a graph with the speed, RPM, the gear and even the angle of drift! Some other cool things are how long are the cars jumping or how high.
5. Include more coverage from the pits. I want to know how the teams operate, what are they doing in the garage, how are they setting up their cars, how they run their operations back at HQ.
6. Increase the viewing opportunities. This one is a little tricky as WRC needs a good chunk of TV time(you know for all those great helicopter shots
). If they can't secure a TV deal then turn to the internet - stream it on the WRC website or on YouTube, anything as long as you find a way to reach more viewers. Let's all hope rally gets better, because it is one of the greatest sports EVER!
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