Issue 2, October 2012

WALES RALLY GBLatvala leads Loeb

The Paris Motor Show and the

World Motorsport Council

Tribute to the legendfive years after

COLIN MCRAE

A WEEK IN PARIS

Image: Ford NL

Rally-eMag October 2012 / Colofon

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Welcome!To the second issue of Rally-eMag. We look to bring you a monthly report of what happened in and around the WRC. Each issue will feature reports of the rallies ran that month. Each rally in the championship has its own unique character which is usually resembled in one of the special stages. Therefore we pick one of the stages from each rally and tell its story. We also look at the drivers, co-drivers and teams, who was hot and who was not?

We write this magazine as lovers of the sport. Having fol-lowed the WRC since the early nineties we have been to many rallies, seen many drivers come and go, witnessed the rise and fall of the original WRC cars and witnessed the birth of such stars as Tommi Makinen, Marcus Gron-holm, Richard Burns, Petter Solberg and Sebastien Loeb. Yet no matter how often you see these guys do what they do, it never grows old. There is simply no describing the feeling of a 300 bhp car thundering down a road, lined with trees, at speeds seemingly impossibly high.

We don’t need to tell you this as you probably know the feeling. We just wanted you to know we are on the page, we made this because we love it. Hopefully we can cap-ture the essence of the sport for you in words and images.

This magazine is only the second issue so there are proba-bly a lot of things we can improve. Although we have been writing about the sport for many years in various outlets, building an entire magazine is a new endeavour for us. So we want to hear from you! If you have an thoughts on how we can improve the magazine, let us know at info@rally-emag.com or comment us on our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/emagrally)

Enjoy reading!

Steven van VeenendaalEditor

Who made it?Publisher: Rally-eMag

Words: Steven van Veenendaal, Harry van Veenendaal.

Photography: Steven van Veenendaal, Harry van Veenendaal.

Who helped?

Logo design: Minse Blom

Distribution: Issuu.com

Who we thank!

PR Photography from: Ford NL,M-Sport, Citroen Racing, Michelin Racing, Mini Team Motorsport Italia, Hyundai Pers.

How to reach us?

Email: info@rally-emag.comWeb: www.rally-emag.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/emagrallyTwitter: @emagrallyIssuu: www.issuu.com/rally-emag

Wales Rally GB

- Latvala leads Loeb

Page 4

A week in Paris- The most important news from the Paris Motor Show and the World Motor Sport Council

Page 15

Colin McRae

- A tribute, five years after

Page 13

In this month’s issue...

Image: Michelin Racing

Wales Rally GB / Overview

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Based in: Cardiff

Date: 13-16/09/2012

Number of stages: 19

Shortest stage: Celtic Manor – 3.04 km

Longest stage: Myherin – 27.88 km

Total stage distance: 325 km

Surface: Gravel

Wales Rally GB

Image: Citroen Racing

Wales Rally GB / Rally review

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t took a long time, but finally Latvala could climb the highest

step on the podium and happily spray the winner’s champagne again. For the second time this year and the seventh time in his career. “He simply was to fast for me,” commented Loeb. “This time!” he hastened to add.

Only some 30 crews were on the entry list of Wales Rally GB. An ab-solute minimum for this event that used to easily attract between 100 and 200 competitors. Live tv cover-age was (almost) non existent which is very bad for getting sponsorship. This is a serious situation that needs attention, from the organisation committee, as well as from the mo-torsports authorities national and international. It is an important message to FIA not that they are solely to blame but they should have a good story at the World Motor Sports Council (WMSC) that is due on September 28th. First issue on our agenda: who’ll be the new WRC promoter, second who takes care of TV coverage? More about this in this edition of Rally-eMag.

Now we proceed to the actual event. According to our views this was one of the best of this season. A thriller that lasted until halfway the last stage. The key players: Latvala, Loeb and Solberg. In that order.

The routeAfter last year’s rally there was a bit of criticism form the drivers’ side. This criticism focused on the long distances between the several ven-ues. Here is a problem for the organ-isers. A major part of their budget comes from the Wales government and they want the rally to be a Welsh event. That means form Cardiff to Llandudno! Another problem was the issue of Builth Wells. Due to the change of date of the event, this year the cattle market was simply not available for the central service zone as an important cattle market was scheduled there. The outcome had little surprise. Most of the route consisted of the well-known stages, central service went back to Cardiff and the Great Orme stage was (re-gretfully) dropped. The ceremonial start however was still in the north. On Thursday evening Llandudno served as the scenic background for this. The next morning competitors headed south for the famous stages of Dyfnant, Hafren/Sweet Lamb and Myherin. The service of Builth Wells was substituted by a remote service in Newtown. In the afternoon this loop of stages was repeated and after that everyone started a jour-ney to Welsh capital Cardiff for the overnight service. On Saturday the journey continued for two rounds of Epynt, Crychan and Halfway and

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Latvala dominated in Wales.

Chased by a hungry French predator.

Latvala leads Loeb

Image: Michelin Racing

Image: Citroen Racing

Wales Rally GB / Rally review

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a sweet dessert at Celtic Manor golf course, before coming back to Cardiff again. On the final day distances were a bit shorter as Port Talbot, Rheola and Walter’s Arena were on the menu, the last one serving as powerstage.

The battle beginsSolberg thundered to a win on the first two stages. But Latvala reciprocated on his favourite Myherin stage. (“I think this Is the best stage in this rally, perhaps even in the whole championship,” he said before the start.) And Myherin was only the start. He continued winning all other stages of the day. The overnight rain had changed conditions in such a way that most competitors were puzzled with the muddy and slippery stages. Especially Loeb made clear he wasn’t happy with the lack of grip supposedly caused by the wrong set up for these conditions. The shear dominance on the smooth and very fast Finnish gravel stages seemed completely gone in the wet Welsh forest. Even Mikko very unchacteristically moaned: “We don’t have any f*cking grip!” leaving stage end reporter Colin Clark and WRC Radio host Becsy flabbergasted. A fifth place at the end of the day was all he got for his hard work. Former teammate Jari Matti Latvala wasn’t bothered, he was in the lead, followed by teammate Peter Solberg. Sebastien Loeb was in third but it has been a long time that he was 20 seconds off the pace after day one. (The other way around, a 20 second lead, being the normal situa-tion). In fourth we saw Mads Østberg who desperately wants to prove he is capable of challenging the factory boys and consequently is in line for such a factory drive.

Harder and higherThe following morning Østberg continued his challenge by winning the first stage. But that is it for the day. He is constantly bothered by the fact he is carrying two spares. The excess weight makes it impossible for him to challenge the leaders who only carry one. Loeb slowly crawls back but Latvala is in control. On the second morning stage, he loses less than half a second to Loeb, but on all the other stages he is faster than his French contender. For Solberg it is a bit different. During the first loop his lead shrinks to four seconds. “It did not go as planned this morning,” he told us. The set up is a bit too soft. Yesterday that was okay but today it’s not.” Dur-ing the midday service he had his Fiësta set up changed a little harder and higher and it worked, as he won two of the afternoon stages. Latvala won the others and being an enthusiastic golfer, was particularly happy with his win on the Celtic Manor golf stage. “This was my best superspecial ever,” he laughed at the end of the day.

Thrilling finale“I don’t have to win here,” said Loeb before the start of the rally in his usual cool. Obviously he referred to his chances of winning the championship. But a true sportsman like Loeb hates to lose in any battle. It’s true at the end of day two he said Jari Matti is simply to fast for me.” Jari Matti might be but Solberg… And yes at the first stage the next and final day he closed the six seconds gap to a mere one second. At the next stage he took another two and thus passed Solberg. This 0,7 gap widened to three seconds, but

Mads Ostberg was right on the pace again to take a well deserved fourth place despite a misfiring Fiesta.

Loeb fell behind early on but eventually jumped back into second.

Image: Citroen Racing Image: M-Sport

Image: Citroen Racing

Wales Rally GB / Rally review

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then Solberg woke up and set fasted time to come back to the second spot. But obviously the battle was not yet over. Loeb came back and was second again with a 0,4 sec. gap. The decision would come in the powerstage. “I’m not going to throw every-thing away now,” both drivers said. Still the power-stage was very exciting. Latvala was way to far away but what would the two gladiators of the day do? On the first split time Solberg was marginally faster but then he made a small mistake and Loeb won by less than one second. It is not often you see some-one so happy being second and certainly not Loeb, but he was happy and both opponents hugged thanking each other for a terrific fight! But on the highest step of the podium it was Latvala. By con-trolling the entire rally he proved he really belongs to the best drivers, possibly one of the very few to be able to challenge Loeb.

The championshipAt Citroen they have to wait one more rally before they can wave the flags. But they can relax. The manufacturer’s title is within easy reach and no matter who will be the driver’s champion, in any case it will be a Citroen driver! To be continued in France, where we can see if Latvala is really as good on asphalt as he showed in Germany.

The other teamsIn fourth place it was Mads Østberg, but before he reached the finish ramp he had quite a scare when, before setting off for the last day, his engine refused to start. After several attempts the team decide to throw the towel but then all of the sudden the engine coughingly started and after some revs it started to run smoothly so the towel was picked up again and the Norwegian Adapta team driver resumed to finish fourth in the rally. Less fortu-nate was Matthew Wilson. Although a bit rusty in driving skills after an absence since the beginning of this year caused by a running accident, he soon picked up the speed again only to be caught by the

same mishap as Østberg’s: a misfiring engine. “That was unfortunate,” said Matthew Wilson. “But when that was over it went quite okay again. It certainly makes me want more, so tanks to the people from Cumbria for making this possible. At this moment we are looking to a few options for a further pro-gramme this year and hopefully next. I’ve really missed competing in the WRC.” In the WRC Team MINI Portugal they were not completely happy. Chris Atkinson after a solid drive was ready to get a tenth place with the championship point belonging to that. However in the final stage a part of his rear wheel setup broke causing him to stumble to the stage finish. An emergency repair by the crew was necessary to make it to the finish in Cardiff. Paulo Nobre was not so happy. He retired on the road section to stage 17. A vibration in the engine had caused the alternator belt to break. The M-sport team was happy with sixth place for Novikov and his new co-driver Ilka Minor. In the Qatar team it was Neuville in seventh and Al-Attiyah in 10th. The young Belgian was later rewarded or his achieve-ment. He may now start in France to replace Al Attiyah who has other commitments. (In this case preparing his buggy for Dakar)

Nasser Al-Attiyah is a busy man. Skipping France to prepare for Dakar, he missed Rally Germany to win bronze in Skeetshooting at the Olympics.

Above: Atkinson failed to make an impact. Though on course for a top ten finish, a misfire near the end of the rally dropped him to elev-enth.

Left: It’s been a long wait for Jari Matti Latvala and the entire Ford team, but that just makes the champagne taste all the better.

Image: Michelin Racing

Image: Mini Team Motorsport Italia

Image: Citroen Racing

Wales rally GB / Final results

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Final result

1. Latvala-Antilla Ford Fiesta WRC 3.03.40,32. Loeb-Elena Citroen DS3 WRC +27,83. Solberg-Patterson Ford Fiesta WRC +28,74. Ostberg-Andersson Ford Fiesta WRC +1.10,65. Hirvonen-Lehtinen Citroen DS3 WRC +1.29,56. Novikov-Minor Ford Fiesta WRC +3.37,07. Neuville-Gilsoul Citroen DS3 WRC +4.11,98. Wilson-Martin Ford Fiesta WRC +6.00,49. Prokop-Hruza Ford Fiesta WRC +6.58,910. Al-Attiyah- Bernacchini Citroen DS3 WRC +9.32,1

Image: Ford NL

Manufacturer standings

1. Citroën Total World Rally Team 348 points 2. Ford World Rally Team 237 points 3. M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 123 points4. Qatar World Rally Team 63 points5. Adapta World Rally Team 61 points 6. Citroën Junior World Rally Team 60 points7. MINI WRC Team 26 points8. Brazil World Rally Team 20 points

Wales Rally GB / Standings

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Championship standings

1. Sebastien Loeb Citroën DS3 WRC 219 points2. Mikko Hirvonen Citroën DS3 WRC 158 points3. Petter Solberg Ford Fiesta WRC 119 points4. Mads Ostberg Ford Fiesta WRC 114 points5. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford Fiesta WRC 113 points6. Evgeny Novikov Ford Fiesta WRC 63 points7. Martin Prokop Ford Fiesta WRC 40 points8. Thierry Neuville Citroën DS3 WRC 38 points9. Dani Sordo Mini John Cooper Works WRC 31 points10. Sebastien Ogier Skoda Fabia S2000 31 points

Image: Citroen Racing

world. In the eighties and nineties the RAC Rally (as Wales Rally GB was known then) used to run for almost an entire week from Sunday till Wednesday. The Sunday was often dedicated entirely to the fans. The cars would run various stages through parklands which provided excellent viewing opportunities for the fans but never held much favor amongst the drivers. In 1998 Tommi Makinen and Carlos Sainz lost the World Cham-pionship crown to each other on these stages. On the opening day Tommi ripped of one the rear wheels of his Mitsubishi after sliding over a patch

Special StageWalters Arena - 15.33 km

Wales Rally GB / Special Stage

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hroughout the long history of the event Wales Rally GB has includ-ed some of the greatest and most fearsome stages in the world. The lion share of these stages, with classics as Dyfnant, Chrychan,

Halfway, Gartheiniog, Myherin and Rheola lie in the Welsh region where the rally is currently held. We look at a stage that used to be part of the Rheola stage but now has its very own status, Walters Are-na.

Amongst rallying purist you can often hear discussion about the inclusion of special spectator sections, also known as super specials, in rallies. Some like them and argue that they bring the sport closer to the fans while others say that rallying is meant to take place in secluded forests with no room for the masses. Super specials often take the form of a rallycross-like venue with two cars on the track simultaneously racing head to head. In places like these the old saying ‘you can’t win the rally here, but you can certainly lose it’ holds true. Differences between top drivers seldom exceed five seconds, but hard Armco barriers right at the side of the road have a tendency to induce heavy damage often impact.

We have seen these events take place in specially built venues such as the tracks in Turkey or Poland. In Finland they have used skiing slopes in the past and in the latest events the horse trotting track of Jyvaskyla has been the scene of fan friendly rally watching. Rally crazy Portugal ran a stage through a packed football stadium, just like they did in Athens some years ago. The most extreme example was found in Argentina in 2007. The organ-izers thought it would be a good idea to have the cars run through the River-plate stadium in downtown Buenos Aires. Quite a spectacle but the problem was that Buenos Aires is located some 750 km from Villa Carlos Paz, the rally HQ. Heavy mist grounded air traffic to a hold that night, which meant the teams could not make the flight back. As a result the entire first day of stages had to be cancelled. Not everyone was too thrilled with this...

In the UK the special purpose spectator stages have long taken a special role in the world of rallying. They have become a regular feature on the rallies although in a slightly different form than most other super specials in the

T

Image: Michelin Racing

of oil into a concrete block lining the road. This ended his rally, giving Sainz a free ride home to the title. The rally concluded with a run through Margam Park. Some 500 meters before the end of that stage the engine of Sainz’s Toyota died giving the title back to Makinen.

We understand the desire of the FIA and organizers to run super specials on an event but at the same time we don’t really love them. They are easier to organize and control than a regular stage and they give people who don’t want to enter the forests an opportunity to witness the sport first hand. On the other hand they are ‘made’, they are short and feature unnatural twists and turns giving it a ‘Mickey Mouse’ feel. In all honesty, we are not

real-ly fans of the concept. Some stages how-ever, are the exception to the rule.

Walters Arena is one of these excep-tions. The old coal mining area is definite-ly not a super special in the traditional sense of the word but it shares some important charac-teristics. The area boosts a small lake around which part of the stage is run. It features two large natural hills from which the huge crowds can follow the cars for over a mile. The great thing about this stage is the possibility the see the cars for a long section, while at some point the cars also pass by at very short distance. The section provides everything a rally can offer, squeezed into a single mile stretch and all vis-ible from one point. The best thing about it is the roads are just scattered around for the sake of coal mining, not purpose-build for rallying, giving it an authentic ‘rally-feel’.

When the cars first come into sight they come storming down the hill tak-ing two hairpins with a long straight in between. As they reach the bottom of the valley they are launched at the first of three jumps. A long wide left hander followed by a tight right hairpin takes the cars towards to the next, sort of straight, section. Two jumps, of which the first has a nasty bump which launches the cars at an awkward angel, take place right in front of the crowds on the hill. After the second jump the crews take a dive as they splash through on of the canals feeding the lake in the middle. After this watersplash the cars race uphill until a left hander takes them to the other side of the hill, the point at which they finally go out of sight of the fans. But not to worry, it takes the top guys just under a minute to get through the section meaning it’s not long until the next competitor will be coming down the hill to start the whole

thing over again.

Wales Rally GB / Special Stage

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Previous: Sebastien Loeb flying over one of the jumps.

Left: An overview of the spectator area of the Walters Arena stage.

Who’s hot?Jari Matti LatvalaFord Fiesta WRCM-Sport Ford World Rally Team

Wales Rally GB / Who’s hot?

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t was not hard to pinpoint who was hot during Wales Rally GB. The honor of course goes to Jari Matti Latvala. The Fin calls this his second home rally as he first started rallying

here at the age of 17. That clearly showed in the confidence with which he was driving. Rally Finland was a huge disappointment for him, while in Germany he showed signs of regaining confidence. It all came together in Wales. Teammate Solberg took the early lead but halfway through the opening day Latvala stormed past to never look back. Winning 8 out of 19 stages he brought home a commanding 30 second lead to give Ford the second win of the season it so desperately needed.

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Image: Michelin Racing Image: Michelin Racing

Who’s not?Mikko HirvonenCitroen DS3 WRCCitroen Total World Rally Team

Wales Rally GB / Who’s not?

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ikko Hirvonen was struggling throughout the event. Citroen got it all wrong tire wise on the opening day which gave the Fords a nice cush-

ion. But while teamleader Loeb managed to cling on during the remainder of the rally and claw his way back up to second, Hirvonen never got back in the thick of things. Testimony of his frustration showed at one of the stage end interviews where he uncharacteristically resorted to some heavy curs-ing. His ironic response at the end of the rally though, said it all: ‘Well, in the end it wasn’t a total disaster…’

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Image: Citroen Racing

Rally-eMag October 2012 / Colin McRae

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This year’s Wales Rally GB marked the fifth anniversary of Colin McRae’s fatal helicopter crash. The local hero was of course re-membered during the event. We would like to take this opportu-nity to pay tribute to the great man too.

When talking about McRae you can mention his achievements of be-coming the youngest World Rally Champion ever. Or about how he at one point was the most successful driver ever (when judged by the num-ber of WRC victories). However perhaps more than by the shear num-ber of wins McRae will always be remembered for his cool outside the car and flamboyance inside it. This combination captured the hearts of many fans and he was perhaps the first driver to really put rallying on the map. He reached an audience far wider than the typical hardcore rally fans. When he collaborated with Codemasters to create the Colin McRae Rally videogame many people who had never heard of the sport suddenly got interested. Even today when you mention rallying to someone he is the first one many mention, far more famous than for example Sebastien Loeb.

Apart from reaching people outside the world of rallying, McRae was also a firm favorite for those actively involved. When on the stage one could sense the anticipation when McRae was due to come through next. The man had natural near perfect car control and was always driving at the very limit. This combination provided some of the most spectacular im-ages ever witnessed in rallying. Who doesn’t remember his early years drifting the bulky Subaru Legacy to his first win in New Zealand? Or his sideways jumps at Bunnings in Australia which seemed impossible to land yet Colin succeeded in doing so with amazing ease.

Colin McRaeFive years after

Rally-eMag October 2012 / Colin McRae

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Our most remarkable memories were created in the later years of his career. In 2002 McRae was driving for Ford and was having a tough season. Some excursions of the road and technical issues had hampered his progress and McRae was falling behind in the championship. The fifth round of the cham-pionship was held in Cyprus, a new addition to the championship. McRae knew he had to do well to revitalize his championship ambitions. The rough roads of Cyprus suited the Ford Focus very well and McRae was immedi-ately on the pace. Taking the lead after the first stage and building up a lead throughout the day, things were going well. Cyprus was the slowest round of the championship, but McRae was rocketing through the stages in classic spectacular fashion.

All seemed well as the lead grew throughout the second day to almost half a minute. This set up a most remarkable final day. The Focus had suffered quite a bit from the relentless pace McRae was putting it through, but the rugged build kept it going. On the second stage of the final day we were waiting for McRae when suddenly a pick-up truck seemed to appear on the stage. A clos-er look proofed us wrong, it was in fact McRae’s Focus which had rolled. The rear of the car was crushed giving it a pick-up truck shape. Nonetheless the pace of the car was still remarkably good. The roll had cost him the lead but the Ford mechanics managed to repair the most important bits and pieces of the car and McRae was off again. A storming run through the next stage pro-

vided some of those typical images of a completely battered car being driven on the limit. Another stage later McRae was right back in the thick of things and pushing hard as ever until he rolled again. After the stage we encountered him roadside swinging a sledge hammer at the car to provide some room for the wheels. After clearing some space for the wheels he proceeded to kick the trunk back in shape to make sure everything could be tightened again. Af-ter a couple of minutes the car looked a wreck and surely non-driveable, but McRae managed a faint smile. Apparently thinking ‘Job well done, I can drive this again!’ And so he did, completing the rally in a car which seemed to col-lapse if a slightly overweight fly would have landed on it. Victory was out of sight, but an incredibly well deserved sixth was eventually his.

Unfortunately we could not recover the Cyprian images from our archive. instead we added some images of Colin in style, flat out in Finland. On the right Colin and Nicky contemplate their misfortune after their Focus caught fire on the final stage of Rally Finland.

Rally-eMag October 2012 / Parisian News

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Just before the media days of the famous Salon Mondiale de l’Automobile de Paris the first picture appeared on Twitter, Facebook and other social media. It was a photo of a Hyundai i20 in rally livery. Immediately rumours started to spread. “This is Hyundai’s new WRC!” Serious media were a bit more sceptic. “This is just a study model,” they said. But during a press conference Marketing Manager Mark Hall of Hyundai Europe explained the manufacturer’s intention to really participate in WRC. “Competition in this championship offers a techni-cal challenge to every car manufacturer and thus it helps development of future models.”

Hyundai Returns to WRC

Hyundai’s WRC historyRally-eMag dug deep down into its archives and found photo’s of former Hyundai’s. In 1998 the company started its WRC involvement in a Hyundai Coupe in the F2 class. We found a photo of this car in the 1999 Finland Rally. That year the team was second in the F2 championship with Kenneth Eriksson and Allister McRae. It was also the year they informed the world they would bring the Accent to the ‘real’ WRC. For three years they tried to mingle with far more experienced WRC teams like Ford, Mitsubishi and Subaru to just mention a few. It was not a big surprise they had trouble to equal these teams. Experienced drivers like Eriksson and McRae and later Armin Schwarz and Freddy Loix couldn’t change that fact. Even Juha Kankkunen who competed in a Hyuandai for ten rally’s, could not help when he was in the car. At the end of the 2003 season the team simply disappeared from the charts. The cooperation with MSD, the British firm that ran the Hyundai World Rally Team, was ended somewhat inelegantly and Hyundai left the WRC.

A Week in ParisPart 1The final week of September boasted two very important Parisian events, the Paris Motor Show and the meeting of the World Motor Sport Counsil. Lots of WRC news was announced, here’s what we learned from that week.

Image: Hyundai Pers

FutureThe future for the team looks better. First of all they now have their own team operating from Germany. Also from the shear number of teams there is simply less competition. And they ex-cellently timed their re-entry at the same moment that the FIA seems to get back their hold on the championship.

Clear and unclear These days it seems appropriate to announce news in portions. Hyundai did that as did Citroën and the FIA so we end each news item with the news and the questions that are still open. Clear is that Hyundai will compete in the WRC. When it will start is not. A limited programme may be a fair bet. As from the driver’s side nothing is clear yet. Let’s hope they will enter soon as the i20 is a very nice addition to the likes of DS3, Fiësta and Polo! If Toyota also decides to come back it would be very good for WRC, not like in the old days when we had 7 makes but still.

In 1999 seven different makes competed for the crown. The whole crew gath-ered here in Finland. Sadly, two of these top drivers are no longer among us. From left to right: Mitsubishi with Freddy Loix and Tommi Makinen, Skoda with Emil Triner and Armin Schwarz, Subaru with Juha Kankkunen and Richard Burns, Peugeot with Marcus Gronholm and Francois Delecoer, Seat with Oriol Gomez and Harri Rovenpera, Ford with Thomas Radstrom and Colin McRae, Toyota with Didier Auriol and Carlos Sainz.

Hyundai enjoyed mixed success in the past. The Coupe (above) did very well and nearly won the 2WD title in the hands of Kenneth Eriksson and Alister McRae. The Ac-cent (below) was never really a contender and retired from the WRC after a few years.

Rally-eMag October 2012 / Parisian News

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CitroënThe French carmaker and wholesaler in WRC titles also had a widely antici-pated press conference in Paris. This time the news was not a complete sur-prise (as in the case of Hyundai) but still it struck like a bombshell. Sebast-ien Loeb the absolute ruler in WRC since nine years now, is not going to pursue his tenth title (assuming he will gain his ninth title this year). He will not leave Citroën, he will not even leave the WRC but he will leave full time involvement in the series.

New sponsorBut that was not all Citroën had to tell us. For the survival of the team the first announcement during the conference was perhaps even more important. At this moment we are experiencing tough economic times, that includes Citroën. Thier parent company PSA has to reorganize which will cause amongst others that quite a lot of people will lose their jobs. Al-though the costs to run a rallyteam are small in comparison to running a big company like PSA, it is hard to keep on spending money on something that is generally considered not to be essential to the company. Still Citroën has taken the view it wants to be to remain involved in motorsport. But at the same time it was equally impor-

tant for them to find a way of reducing PSA’s financial commitment to the team’s operating costs. And they’ve been successful as they have been able to catch Abu Dhabi. Formerly involved in Ford’s WRC efforts and now back in WRC with Citroën “We are very proud to welcome Abu Dhabi on board,” commented teamprincipal Yves Matton, This enables us to con-tinue our programme and enter three DS3 WRCs in 2013.” Later on Mikko Hirvonen was introduced as Citroën’s lead driver. So now the French team has a complete former Ford line-up because as third driver the United Arab Emirates driver Khaleed Al- Qas-simi was announced. They won’t be happy at Ford, Citroën took over their former sponsor, first driver and a val-ued customer!

Clear and unclearLoeb will compete in four rally’s, start-ing in Monte Carlo, the press release says. So that is clear, he will start in the Monte. But the other ones? He could continue with Sweden, and the two next rally’s, win them and then think: “Hmmm I might win my 10th Championship, let’s continue…” Then the second driver, (Al- Qassimi being the third one), no word on that. We guess we just have to be patient…

A Week in ParisPart 2

Rally-eMag October 2012 / Parisian News

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Loeb steps back, Abu Dhabi moves in

We will be seeing a lot less action like this from Grand Master Loeb.

Khaled Al-Qassimi will be displaying his spectacular skill for Citroën from now on.

Rally-eMag October 2012 / Parisian News

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A Week in ParisPart 3

New promotor, new calendar,

new rules

World Motor Sport Council

This last week of September also brought us the news of the WMSC. Most impor-tant was the fact that finally a promoter was found. Officially this means that the WMSC allows the FIA to proceed with the negotiation of an agreement with The Sportsman Media Group and Red Bull Media House to become the new global promoter of the FIA World Rally Cham-pionship starting in 2013. Thus these two companies will be responsible for invest-ment and development for the WRC. Important points will be increasing its profile, reputation and commercial value. The promoter will cooperate closely with the FIA. Especially they will try to intro-duce live television and also they will adopt an ‘innovative digital media strategy’ in the next years. The combination of the two companies seems a good one. Sports-man Media Group from Germany has a vast knowledge of sports marketing as they are, for example, the promoter of the German ‘Bundesliga’, (the German soccer competition). They specialize in advising commercial right holders (As the FIA for WRC). Red Bull Media (NOT the same as Red Bull, the company that produces the famous energy drink.) is the affiliated com-pany that specializes in all kinds of media coverage. They operate websites, radio- and television stations, and know everything about producing content for these media. A strong couple we would say.

The calendarThe 2013 calendar has also been confirmed: The stated date is the final Sunday of the event. It is up to the organizers to fix the starting day. Also in at least one case (Fin-land) the Saturday before the Sunday is the final day.

20-01 Rallye Monte Carlo10-02 Rally Sweden10-03 Rally Mexico14-04 Rallye de Portugal05-05 Rally Argentina02-06 Acropolis Rally23-06 Rally d’Italia04-08 Rally FinlandTBC Rallye Deutschland15-09 Rally Australia06-10 Rallye de France27-10 Rally de España 17-11 Rally of Great Britain

In total not much news, apart from the fact that Australia is back on the calendar in 2013 and that Rally Wales GB is again the season’s finale.

Rule changesIn future issues of Rally-eMag we will keep you posted on all rule changes. We now give you the most important ones.

Gravel cars. Each crew driving a WRC car is now per-mitted to use gravel cars in all events (so including asphalt events). Therefore gravel

cars are now called route note cars. This rule has been introduced for safety reasons therefore it starts right away. This means that we will see this route note car for the first time during Rally de France in early October of this year.

Non European eventsThe FIA has been trying for a long time to reduce costs in order to attract more teams to compete. That is the reason why WRC teams competing in the 2013 FIA World Rally Championship now have to compete in one non-European event only. But they must still nominate and take part in a minimum of seven events.

Support championshipsIn 2013, the current S2000 Championship (SWRC) will make way for the WRC-2 Championship including cars with four-wheel drive (R5, R4 and S2000). A specific cup for cars in the Group N category will also form part of the FIA WRC-2 Champi-onship, and titles for teams, drivers and co-drivers will be awarded to those who have scored the most points in six of the seven events in which they have taken part. The current Production Car World Rally Championship (PWRC) will be replaced by the FIA WRC-3 Championship. The WRC-3 includes Group R cars with two-wheel drive (R3, R2 and R1). Titles for teams, driv-ers and co-drivers will be awarded to those who have scored the most points in five

of the six events in which they have taken part. The current FIA WRC Academy will be re-named the FIA Junior WRC Championship. So this brings us back to the old name. FIA Junior WRC Championship is much clearer than the current name as it clearly indicates it is a championship and not an educational institution as quite a few spon-sor seemed to think.

From a competition point of view we can see the importance of these new champi-onships. For the general public it will be hard to understand what all these cham-pionships really mean. Possibly with the exception of the junior championship.

Clear and not clear,It is now clear we have a new promoter for the next ten years, It is however un-clear what the terms of the contract are. So we still don’t know who is responsible for what. Who for example eventually decides what the calendar will look like? We hope FIA will be a bit clearer on this aspect in the not too distant future. As far as the calendar is concerned, there also seems to be a problem. The original date for Germany was 25 August. But that is the same date for Spa F1 which geographically is only a stone’s throw away. This means the WRC Germany date still is TBC (to be confirmed.)

Words: Steven van Veenendaal; Harry van VeenendaalImages: Steven van Veenendaal; Harry van Veenendaal& PR (credited where used)Copyright: Rally-eMag; Please drop your comments at info@rally-emag.com!

Next issue early November covering: Rallye de France-Alsace andRally d’Italia Sardegna.

Image: Hyundai Pers