19 Burst results for "WRC"
The Autosport Podcast
"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"It's a very difficult question to answer. And I think if you're being realistic, the boat has probably sailed for this cycle of rules because it finishes this cycle finishes in 2024. For a manufacturer to come in, you need 18 months to really do this properly. So I think we're looking at the next cycle of rules which will be a evolution of rally while it will be very similar, but there will be some tweaks to it. So it's interesting. This is a really key point for the WRC and the FIA at the moment is that they really need to try and attract some new manufacturers to this sport. Obviously, we've seen what's happening in whack at the moment. So we know other series, it can be done. It can be you can revive a series with a very exciting set of rules or regulations. They've had lots of conversations with manufacturers over the last years to try and work out exactly what regulations need to change too to get these people involved. Interestingly, over the winter and manufacturers, we can we saw Renault launched their new rally three car. So now this is an interesting development in terms of its now we now have two manufacturers in the rally three sphere with four and Renault. Now Renault to commit a into that sort of says that they're still keen in rallying. They want to be involved, but it has to work for them. So in that area, it clearly works for them. So surely if we can get to a rule set where it works for Renault, maybe we will see Renault join the top period as well. To pyramid to have that box tick and all three pyramids of the rally, the top level of the FIA rally pyramid. So for me, there needs to be some tweaks to the regulations. I think it rally one has worked, but it's far too expensive. So they need to find a way of being able to see what is going on in rally two, where we've got 27 entries for Monte Carlo. And with the likes of Oliver Solberg, Gus green swift Adrian fomo, who all competed in WRC lab last year. So clearly rally two works as a class, you were the amount of entries. Perhaps they need to take a little bit from that area and combine it with rally one to bring the cost down and maybe we'll see some more top level entries. Well, you kind of half answer and my last question, which was going to be if you take what I've said at the beginning, the WRC is a sleeping giant. It's about to explode this year. What do you think the series has to do to fully wake up with a wider audience? Obviously cost cutting is a big thing as well to get more entrants. Anything else they can do to engage the fans? Yeah, absolutely. There's definitely some areas that we should keep an eye on this year. They're launching their first 24/7 news and entertainment platform, shall we say? We'll launch in the second quarter of the year. It is still a subscription model, which is what they have now, but it brings not only WRC, but rally will Rallycross European rally championship. It brings it all under one umbrella one sort of area, so it's your go to place to watch any rally. If they can, if they can pull that model off, well, that it really could work for them. But for me, it still, I know it's an old fashioned situation, but they just need to be more eyeballs that don't watch rally on watching rally of her make sense. And that means having some more sort of free to air. Access, like for example, I know fill ins a rally hotbed, but the rally Finland was on the free to air network over there and on their streaming service as well. And I think the stat was that there was 5 and a half million streams. So that means that at least one person in Finland watched that rally for one hour as the way it works out. So clearly there's demand for it, but you've got to find your places. And the UK still, you know, I know we were not on the calendar and we've been away for a while, but still there is still a hotbed here. It's still a heartland. So it just needs a bit more exposure. Not tucked away on highlights on ITV at the Tuesday after the rallies at quite late at night. It needs to be, for me, what I would like to do if I was in charge was make the power stage the arali ending power stage, put that on free to air, networks across the world, just that stage as a way to hook people in, because that's often the most exciting stage that these jobs are on the limit because they want to get the extra points. That are on offer, it's a real showcase of what the sport is in a very like, quick window. So if you can get that out to as many eyeballs as possible, you may hook some people in. So if I was in charge, that's what I would do. But I'm not in charge. So yeah, I could only just put forward by suggestions, but again, it's getting it's getting the axis out there. We do the best we can through social media because whenever we see something cool or sonic crazy, we try and put it out there to show people that this is absolutely mad, what's going on?
The Autosport Podcast
"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"There and say this Callie actually Kelly has said that this is going to be more difficult than last year, which is a big statement in a way because to win your first title is often thought as one of the hardest things to do, but he's already thinking that given the way that the championships rolled out already with moving to M sport, having two teams to really fight against instead of one. Yeah, this is going to be tough. This is going to be, I think this is tough toughest examination yet for Kelly Robin Perry to see just what a driver here is. We know what he can do, but and let's remember a lot of his success last year and not to take anything away from what he did last week. He was phenomenal. The first half of the season he really built that championship and that was exactly the same time that Honda was struggling. If he's coming into a championship where an ems for a winning from the get go, then this is where it's going to be interesting. He could find himself behind in the championship early doors and it would be keen to see how he reacts to that and how he reacts with the pressure and the expectation now of him going out there and performing. I'd like to see how, you know, I think that's going to be a key area, how he's going to deal with that pressure. And the way that Cali is, he's so unflappable, cool, karma collected, he's just it's difficult to see him sort of falling into a trap of getting stressed out. And I think the only time we really saw it was in Belgium, which is shortly before he had this monumental crash, but that was only because of some sort of timing or logistics era from the organizers that had rattled Cali and his coach over Yanni. So yeah, it would be interesting to see how he coached this. He obviously knows he realizes that this is going to be difficult and perhaps harder than ever. And a key stat here to remind everyone is that only 5 drivers have defended their WRC titles in the history of the championship. So the 50 years of WRC, it's only U hawk Hank and Mickey biazzi on Tommy mcin Sebastian Loeb and Sebastian ogier, the successfully defended tiles. So it's an exclusive club. It's not easy. So this will be key to see whether he can join that club. Yeah, if he does smash it this year and grow and develop and extend his dominance. They should give him the next 6 titles right now. Then it's ominous, but I'm not sure that's how it's going to play out. He has arguably the toughest set of teammates in terms of the overall strength. Elvin Evans is no walk over. Could they end up taking points off each other if otero does a good car this year and you've got OJ in the mix? Maybe I've even offended a few Evans fans by not saying it's a four way fight for the title this year because he'll fancy it an elephant as I said in our season preview this week is I think he's going to be the most hungry of the contenders because of the season they had last year really didn't meet his expectations. But certainly 12 months in now and he's found the direction with this yaris I think he's going to be a much stronger proposition this year and in my eyes I've listed him as in my contenders for the title for in the season preview. So I'm expecting him to challenge. But you're right. He's going to be taking points off Cali in the team. So it's another factor and variable that Kelly is going to have to deal with. He's got not only has he got he's got titled threats coming from M sport and high diabetes, also got them from his own team. So it's a really fascinating prospect. It really is. And then Monte Carlo, for example, you are going to put your house on OJ to win this round. So that's already a win that's potentially going to be taken away from all of the title contenders. So in many ways, the battle for second in Monte Carlo is actually the most interesting OJ's running away for it, because that's really the victory. So it's a fascinating prospect. You've seen some car testing videos. What do you think? We can say that toys are in height, I've definitely made changes to their cars. I'm not I will correct for my wrong and I'll find out this week, but certainly from the outside you couldn't see anything different on the M sport car other than a very striking delivery. So the hind eye guys have worked well. They've been quite clever, actually. In fact, I think props the most interesting of the developments is they've extended the bonnet and flattened it to sort of create a quasi front splitter. To help with down force on the front of their car, which none of the others have done. Whether that works or not remains to be seen, but still a clever innovation, and they've completely redone their rear wing and some of the rest of the aero. So which was probably one of the areas that they were deficient in compared to the others. Last season. So we will see how that goes towards it again. Their cool little side pods are now gone. Because they even said that they overestimate the amount of cooling they needed for the hybrid, so those have gone. We've got a much smoother sleeker looking rear end of that yaris now. And so the arrow is obviously where they've worked on there as well as the engine. So yeah, it's going to be interesting to see who's done the best over the winter. But yeah, don't go wrong. It was for eSports for pure may not look that different, but we have been assured that there is plenty of development going on this year and will carry on this year. So we could well see some changes later down the line. I think it's got a fantastic looking livery as well as it did last year. If you judge it on what the cars look like. I did like the fact that it's obviously not a full manufactured team. They do have a bit more sort of free license over what they can do with their liveries so they make the most of it and fair play to them for doing it. But I think this must be the first dark synth inspired music delivery I've ever seen in motor sports. So fair place of for going down quite a niche avenue and pulling something off. Now I love it. So getting back to my point of I'm really excited about this year in WRC. I think if someone hasn't tried it and they're listening to the auto sport podcast and maybe they've not given it a guy really think that go in with an open mind, fans will know how exciting this year is going to be. You might just be surprised. With three strong teams already, as you mentioned it already look, you know, it's small, but perfectly formed. If this year is legendary, the could that possibly strike up boardroom conversations as there's more electrification coming in both road cars and rally, the likes of Subaru, BMW, Mitsubishi, et cetera. Could we see possibly a greater excitement around maybe more entrance one day?
The Autosport Podcast
"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Management skills could be exactly what hi and I need to pull this team together to really take on Toyota. Well, this time last year, like you say, Hyundai were in Dire Straits, you're about to head off to Monty. I think Thierry neuville, who was the highest place finish finisher for them, was something he was something 7 or 8 minutes off to leave. But they turned it around. Can they continue that in 2023 given that some people have said they screwed up by losing their star man? Well, this is interesting thing. So Tyrion Neville is still going to be there as the team leader, but they've brought in esophagus from Toyota, which is actually quite a shrewd little signing there. And they've got cry bring from M sport to share the third car with Danny solo. So all four of those are experienced heads and I'm three of them have won rallies, so they've got plenty of experience there to deliver what they need. For me, lapi is quite an interesting sign, because yes, he's going to take some time to get used to the car and everything, but having spoken to him after his first test in the Hyundai. He actually said there wasn't much of a gap between that and the toilet. He's just driven at the car that won the world championship last season. So clearly, if lapi thinks that there isn't much of a gap between the two cars, then we are probably set for quite some challenge and some championship this year. So yeah, from that side of things, I think lapis solid he will get you podiums. He will, he will challenge for victories. He's shown that he has the pace, but for me the area is probably the team leader still. And he's your best chance at a title, but a high and dive that's in control of itself and not chasing their title for 6 months. Could be quite a fearsome prospect for the rest of the field. Yeah, I think I agree with you that I think Thierry neuville is the undisputed team leader he's been there since the start cut him an eel bleed Hyundai. It's his team, but it's a full season for esope lappi. And I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him, a really nice guy, but once he's behind the wheel, eyes are really, really fierce competitor. Although, a lovely chap, like most of these guys are, but fiercely driven. So do you think there could possibly be a battle for number one status in that team? Going to assume that it's him our editor, Kevin Turner said on a recent podcast, it described him as always the bridesmaid never the bride. But I'm wondering is 2023, possibly Thierry time. Yeah, it could well be. It could well be for today but the problem he's got though is he's got obviously to try and stop calling and also we should mention often Evans in that mix too because he's definitely going to be in the mix as well. It's actually, yes, the entries are quite small in terms of rally one, but if you look at the quality of them, you could argue it's one of the best from terms of quality of driver that the championships had for a long time. Because they're all very capable. So yeah, it could be for Terry, but the thing with Thierry is he's got to he's got to perform better on the rallies that he doesn't like. So the rally Finland that those sort of areas. He sort of you could see last season he just felt I'm comfortable, so I'm just going to settle for four 5th or 6th. He kind of has to really push, I think, a bit harder if he really wants to win this championship because the likes of Robin pair and tan are not going to just settle in rallies where they think they're not going to be on the pace. And for Thierry, he has to cut out mistakes like Belgium last year when he crashed out the lead. You have got I don't think you can make any mistakes really this year without being punished because that's how close it could be. So for me, he's got to tardy himself up a little bit, but there's no questions about his commitment or his work ethic, he will, as you said, you cut him. He believes he will do everything possible. And I think it's summed up last year in Croatia where the car broke down. But yeah, he was willing to push it for a kilometer to get to the service. This guy just doesn't give up. He's an absolute warrior in terms of that. So yeah, it'd be interesting. As I said, lapi could be very useful to him because yeah, there was a bit of, should we say the relationship between Thierry and I wasn't the best, shall we say? And I think with lapi, he's a bit more, you know, I think he's a bit more amiable, shall we show you? It's unusual for a finite, it's a big stereotype, but when you talk to Tessa pecker, he's quite open lives to talk a lot. He likes to have a joke. You can he wears his heart on his sleeve. He's very sort of open and I think it could be a good mix. Okay, we've done two teams. We'll get on to the next one and we've made our listeners wait for our youngest ever world champion Callie Robin perra in the history of the sports. In a way, obviously winning the title last year was mega. But possibly, coming back to my thesis of this podcast that WRC is about to wake up as a sleeping giant that's been maybe waking up a little bit in recent years, but this year, if it all plays out how we think it might do with all of these top top drivers in different teams, could this be a more difficult challenge to defend his championship? I obviously agree.
The Autosport Podcast
"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Let's find out. Today we ask can Hyundai pick up where they left off. How will we call Robin pair of cope with the weights? On his shoulders are being the champion. And do we have a true, true, three way fights for the first time in a long time in 2023, let's get up to speed with our rally man Tom Howard. Hey Tom, welcome back to the auto sport podcast. You must be so excited about rally this year. Yeah, no, it's really exciting. If we weren't already excited by the new cars and everything last year, this year, perhaps the excitement was even more because as you said there, we've got new drivers, new driver lineups and rally winners or champions, should we say in each of the teams, which is a spicy concoction there ready for a real real tight title fight which we're all looking forward to. Let's tell our listeners why and I'll see if I can make my case as we do this next 15 minutes of why I think WRC is about to wake up to a wider audience. I'm actually not going to start without new world champion we'll get to him in a moment, but rather a former one. Oit tanak comes into M sport. Now that team know, they have signed somebody who they simply must deliver for. He's a star signing. Do you think M sport can rise to the occasion? So firstly, we should just clear up for anyone who doesn't follow the reality that aim sport isn't a full manufacturer back team like Toyota and Hyundai. So they don't quite have the same resource as those two. So they really have to sort of cut their cloth accordingly. But for this, after a dismal, should we say dismal last season where they only had one win, which is Monte Carlo, and a couple of podiums after that. They needed to make some changes. Malcolm Wilson, the team boss. He doesn't come here just to make up the numbers. He comes in to win rallies into wind tiles. So he's cut his coffin called me. We've got two full-time entrance, and one of those is the 2019 world champion. He left high and die after three years at the end of last year with a year contract still on the year still on his contract. So he was quite unhappy with how things went behind the relationship kind of broke down. He needed a somewhere new to go and he's rejoined eSport, which is the team that gave him his first break back in 2011. And it's where he's got his first parody in his first win. So there's a lot of history. It's a homecoming of sorts. And this is really the sort of key piece in the puzzle frames for what they needed a world champion or a genuine rally winner to lift and to spearhead their challenge and in order to get one. But to answer your question, can they deliver for him? There is no option other than they have to. They have to deliver for it tanak. Yes, they don't have the resource, but it has been assured that the development will continue with the puma. They do have a very strong relationship with Ford in the U.S. Ford performance who helped design the puma. So they do have the resource there, not perhaps not quite as much as the other two teams, but if they nail their direction of development correctly and oit gives them the feedback that they need to do that and the two combine, you have got a genuine title contender in their possibility and one thing we're also going to support is they've been clever here in terms of only putting out two full-time cars last season, they perhaps overstretched their resources, running 5 cars sometimes, and you could see that it was too much. Scaling back to two really puts the focus on making sure that they can give everything they need to owe it to him to do or for him to challenge for his title with Pierre Louis lube as a really worthy assistant in the second car. So yes, my answer is yes, but we were wait and see. What a tan X qualities that you think could bring the title to M sport. There's no question marks are about his ability. We've seen what he can do and he's won a world title in 2019 with Toyota. He was extremely dominant that year. And let's not forget that that was sort of the only sort of gap in before Cali struck last year. It's the only gap in the sort of Sebastian rain where Loeb and OJ dominated for decades. So he can beat the best, but also what probably stands out last year more than ever was his ability to extract the most out of the car that perhaps isn't the best. So this could be key for M sport in terms of if it is found that the pure is maybe slightly lacking compared to the high end iron Toyotas in tanakh, they've got someone who can rise above that, shall we say, because infinite last year in a high end it was quite wayward tannic was supreme and managed to be able to beat Kelly Robin pere in the best machine out there. So that's probably the skill work tanak is the fact that he can really wrangle the best out of anything. And I think this is where his skills are really kind of come to the forks. He's got to learn a new car, new team, but I don't have any concerns over that. I'm pretty sure he will get that pretty quickly and he'll be on the pies for the rest. Next, Hyundai, what about the hierarchy at that team? And the leadership Nigerian monse was the man who had to take over at short notice last year and there was a brand new car, new set of regulations, new hybrid power, he's no longer in charge though. What happened there? So Hyundai is a very curious case if you look at last season because if you look at it on paper, it was their most successful year ever. They didn't win any titles, but they won 5 rallies, which is the most I've ever done in a single season, but that is only a snippet of the story because they were so far behind up to 6 months behind their opposition because of a light green light to join the new regulations so the car was delayed. Then they lost a longtime team prince Andrea damo, who left in December. There was a huge testing accident for Tyrion noville, so at Karl's written off. So they were chasing their tiles for basically the first half of the season with an underdeveloped and an unreliable I 20 N but credit to Julian monse and despite a lot of leadership struggle, should we say because he was sort of just trusted into sort of a control when we didn't know if he was going to be replaced mid season or whether he was going to be there the whole year. It's hard for him to do that. But he managed to bring the team to get it to score 5 ready wins in the second half of the year. They outscored Toyota, which were the champions. So they closed the gap, remarkably. And it points us get enough credit for what they did there. So in many ways, I'm very excited to see what they do this year because if they can close the gap from being that far behind it start the season. What are we going to see if there are much more equal staff to this year? Will we actually see Hyundai actually overtake to us? Because the way that they were going at the second half of the year, it was suggesting that they were going to. So both teams have made changes to their cars and certainly in the aero department on both cars and the engine on the Toyota. So we will see, but I think we have generally going to see quite a strong challenge from Hyundai and now under the new management with Cyril, a B 12 coming in. His Formula One experience. What I've actually written in the column for the magazine this week is I feel like, yes, Cyril doesn't have the rally experience, but his man
The Autosport Podcast
"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"The results, that I'd imagine becomes more difficult to ensure that the funding is there. So it's a serious issue that needs to be resolved and they need to start getting some strong results. In the last four rallies, I think they have to they've got to do something. I don't know what they do. It's obviously people can say, oh, why don't they bench drivers? I'm not, I don't believe that's the answer. I think that could just create more pressure on them for when they come back, or if they do come back, it just sends for me the message. A very nasty message out there and the team rich Miller and the team principal was quite keen to quash that by saying that that's probably not something we wanted to go down the road of. So yeah, extremely difficult times for them. I'll bring half in because obviously he got to see sort of the reaction of that in the service part, but it's difficult to watch, wasn't it? Yeah, it's really, really tricky to see the level of the team morale is at now. And I think even if you wipe away from memory, how unlucky they've been in the results that they haven't got up to rally Belgium, if you just isolate that and look at this event, they were very clear heading into this that they needed a result with the context of how their season has gone since the high of Monty that hasn't been much to write home about and they're all aware of that. So the brief going into the weekend was let's bring it home and see if we can get a result and I know this is partially with hindsight, but we had the two favorites crash out. So this was a golden opportunity to get someone like breen on the podium to get someone like Gus or Adrian in the top 5 because they have to start bringing results home and when these opportunities come up and as we've seen with guys like Cali, that doesn't happen often, he's not making those mistakes regularly. So you have to capitalize on them and the same with Thierry, it's his home event. He was bulletproof and absolutely untouchable here last year, so of course you're not expecting that going into it, but you have to be in the fight. And I'm not underestimating just how difficult it is to keep these cars on the road on such a challenging rally of course not and I'm not saying for a second that I know what's right or how to approach things, but you do get to a point where you do need to just go into the mode that lappy went into and the mode that Oliver Solberg went into where they're just saying, okay, I don't have the outright pace, but I'm just gonna have to keep this thing on the black stuff and then maybe just maybe I'll be able to bring home result and like Tom said it is now it's difficult to watch because you do get to a point where you start to think of the future and you wonder what the solution is but it feels like they've almost exhausted all of their different approaches. So far this season. So it's gone beyond head scratching to almost a bit of desolation after the rally where they were just almost lost for words and just everyone was keen to have a break for a few days and then revisit it because they were that sort of emotionally burnt out with the whole situation. So yeah, it was really, really difficult to watch and especially for Craig because we know he's gone well here in the past obviously 2019 and getting the podium here last year. So I think that one's really going to hurt and I think it's a small factor but he was setting the best split times on that stage. So what does that do to your confidence if you're a driver who when it's just coming good then it goes again? I genuinely don't know what that can do to a driver's confidence so really genuinely difficult to watch. And Tom, what do you think they'll do between now and Greece? Because we saw in that penultimate stage, big off for foremost. Not big in the context of his Monty off at the beginning of the year, but it was a telegraph that I would tend to move too much. You saw the cables come sort of flinging down. So they'll be repairs to do that. Someone gets their broadband back up in a couple of days, but. They cut to on the live coverage, rich Milner, and I can't use the audio because I'm sure if we asked that lettuce, but quick interview with him and he was just sort of doing that politicians thing of being like right. It's too early to make comment, you know, but he sort of did say, look, you know, at this stage of the rally, you have one job. You know, and it's that sort of Twitter meme you had one job and you failed it, like on stage 19, and you know, you're going off the road. What is it going to be like at headquarters? Do you think this week and next week and is it time for a summit? There will definitely be something of that nature out of the thought. I have to sit down and work out what they're going to do here. Yeah, I don't think I'd want to be in that room or I maybe I should because I think there would be some interesting comments, but yeah it's such a challenge for them because they're running slightly different model as we've highlighted there with the other two teams. They're having to, you know, they have a customer program as well, which is bringing in some money. So they've got, for example, like Jordan said, or he's bought one of these pumas. So there's money coming in through selling cars to privateer and sort of, you know, gentlemen drivers are supposed to do the old phrase that you'd use, but yeah, so yeah, I don't know, I think they've just got to be open and honest with the situation. But I mean, what do you do? I mean, there's probably nothing you can really do mid season as I said, I don't. I don't think bench and drivers is the right way to go about it. I don't think that really works. But maybe they've just got to sit down and go like, this is, this is the final, like there's maybe there's an ultimatum or something. I don't know. Maybe this is what you've got to do. This doesn't happen. You're not here next year or whatever. I don't know. It's such a difficult. I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. But I have got to start thinking about the future, because I just write this year off and they put their eggs into a different basket for next year, see if they can attract someone else to the team. I don't know, maybe they've already said they need a second experienced head to help Craig as team leader. So that maybe they really start to go down that avenue and see who is available and see if they can attract someone to come in because let's be honest and as rich said, the car isn't bad. The car is not bad. It might not be as developed as some of the others. But it's one a rally. It's not a bad bit of kit. It can. In the right hands, it can deliver. So it's hard. It's a hard situation because a lot of those obviously Gus and agin are quite young drivers. We've seen in the past it takes a while for some drivers to really hit their peak and I know sort of cally has kind of destroyed that with his sort of coming in and dominating that 21 years old. But historically, drivers do tend to take a bit more time to get there and find their feet. So Adrian this is what second full season in WRC Gus similar. So those two are very young in their WRC careers, Craig, obviously. This is his first full-time campaign. He's done a lot of rallies, but this is his first full-time campaign. So yeah, you could, you could argue that they need to sort of lay off their drivers a little bit, but it's a business at the end of the day, isn't it? So you've got to, you've got to deliver to keep this thing going. So it's going to be some interesting few days, I think. The other problem
The Autosport Podcast
"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Realize you couldn't catch him elvin or was it a case of pushing right to the end? Well, I knew already it was a bit of a long shot, you know, I didn't care. Of course I had to keep the pressure on to try and force a small spin on an error which was easily done in the conditions we had. I knew that the executives in 50 K is not so easy about any mistakes and if I draw wells or it was just the case of doing the best job we can be solid and make sure that we were there all the way through just to capitalize if it made a small error. So that's two on the bounce Botanic now third win of the year. What was he like when you spoke to him afterwards? Very interesting actually. I think it's such a fascinating character and to finally get to see sort of how he interviews in person was actually kind of one of the highlights for me of the weekend. I find him pretty fascinating as a guy I think obviously it's remarkable what he's doing in that car to have notched up three wins now. If you consider where I and I were, even how downbeat he was after his home rally at Estonia, you would you would not say he would have gone on to win the next two rallies after that point. And actually he was the interesting part for me was he was pretty insistent that the team and the car had made very little progress and they need to be doing more. That was the sort of overriding feeling. Obviously he was he was massively happy to win the event. But he was also under no illusion that this means inevitably he was getting questions about the turnaround and the progress hind I have made and he was sort of downplaying it and I don't I don't feel it was downplaying it in a way that some drivers do to sort of take the pressure off because you know he's pretty much aware that the title is out of reach at this point. So there's no real reason for him to go and say on that if he was in the title battle toe to toe with Callie he might try and take the pressure off himself a little bit by saying tires have the pace. They've got the faster car. I'm just doing what I can do. But yeah, it was fascinating to hear him say, you know, we need to be doing more. Even though he's just had the back to back wins. But I think it's a fair enough comment given all the issues that he's, you know, if you look at Finland, he had to drive absolutely on the limit every single stage and somehow pulled it all together and somehow didn't drop it off the road, although at times it did come pretty close. And in Belgium, he had to overcome slow puncture. He had transmission issues. And like he said at the end, he was fighting against Toyota and he still firmly believes that tied to as the faster package. So it's definitely still an uphill battle for all the high and high drivers and certainly an oat size. So I don't think it can be downplayed and Tom made a very very good point of the full season drivers, obviously discounting lobes, Monty win at the start of the season. That's now only there's only two drivers who have won rallies and it's Cali and it's just shows the level that those guys performing on because, you know, we're not short of talent in the WRC, but there's only two full season drivers who have been winning events week in week out. So it's just, it's really quite a pleasure to see the form that those guys have right now. And we've not mentioned spek a lappy very much, but another trip to the podium for him, Tom, how do you make it his rally? Yeah, for us because as we obviously talked about the last podcast he had quite an eventful to put it mildly finished to Finland where he ended up with no roof, no windscreen, goggles on, and after a visit to a Lake to fill up the radiator on his car. So it's such a bizarre situation, but speaking to on Wednesday, when we asked him, what are your expectations for the event? He said, I just want to finish with my roof for my windscreen. So he was and he did. And he did. Yeah, he did it. So we should be proud of that. So yeah, he was very he's such a cool character when you do get a chance to talk to him, but yes, his expectations will lie. This is not his sort of rally, shall we say, it's quite a unique rally. This doesn't probably fit into his what you'd call favorite event or list of favorite events, but what he did do brilliantly was just avoid trouble. And that's what there's the key to this rally as we said at the top of the podcast with Adrian fomo is that if you can just avoid trouble, there's a good chance you'll get a result. So that's exactly what a lapy did. The only had a couple of couple of little scares, hit a fence post on Friday, but it didn't really do anything to just remove some of the rear bumper, not a roof destroyer or a Wednesday and destroy a life Finland. So yeah, no, he did brilliantly, and for someone who's not in that car every week, he's making this part time driver job look very, very handy for Toyota because he does seem to be very reliable, which is, which is what you want when you've got a car when you've got a driver coming in to sort of share that car with OJ. So yeah, I'd say a very impressive performance from lapi, if the place wasn't the outright pace wasn't there, but the skill to navigate these roads and get a result out of it was. And after Finland, there's another podium, so it's two thirds in a row now. So that's a great great bit of form for rest maker. Talking to form as well, hopefully the start of a good patch. For Oliver Solberg, Oliver and co driver Elliot edmondson, a career best fourth finish
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"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Drivers were not happy about that. A lot of choice words, but the right words too were directed at the organizers and on Saturday. A resolution was found and four minute gaps were introduced to the first two morning stages so that that issue didn't come back up again. So that was good. As you're talking about organizers Marshals, I guess, and the heat. These are also people that we can't go motor racing without Marshals. And there was a bit of confusion. It's understandable everyone's human on Saturday. What happened here and how did it affect the rally? Saturday night? Yes, let me just try, remember that? Yeah, a lot happened. So yeah, probably one of the most bizarre things we've seen for a while. I dream for my crashed out of 5th place on the final stage of the day of Saturday night. These Karl partially blocked the road, so rightfully so the red flags were shown and this age was suspended. Once the car was cleared, the stage resumed, but a marshal, one of the marshes kept their red flag out, which was seen by breen and Tanaka who were the two frontrunners, so an important to have seen that red flag. And they slowed down even though the rest of the stage was live. So he had the situation where the poor Marshall had made a mistake, but it's quite a big mistake because that affects the entire field for times and everything. So there was a point on Saturday night where we generally didn't know just how far ahead or it was going to be because they had to decide what to do and the result was to hand notional times to the guys that were effective and basically effectively it was almost like the stage was canceled because the time differences didn't change. But for a moment there, there was utter confusion because like what tank seen a red flag in east load down Craig slowed down and he's like, why am I slowing down? Because of the FIA said they've been able to work out why the Marshall was confused was she given the wrong information or is that investigation on going? All we know at this point is an investigation is ongoing. So there hasn't been an actual clear explanation as to what happened, but it was pretty obvious from watching what did occur, obviously we don't know what information was given to that Marshall, but clearly the red flag was very visible to the drivers. So it was an interesting one. The other. The only other unknown that we have is that we're not sure if Pierre Louis lube, who was before those two, actually was shown a flag because we didn't see it on the camera. Yeah, and also in a worth saying what I said at a minute ago as well, which is we can't go racing without Marshals. They do an amazing job. Mistakes happen, because everyone's human. It can be overwhelming, as well with so much responsibility on your shoulders in situations like that. And that's leads me on to thanking our sponsor of the auto sport podcast recently,.
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"It's been challenging. Especially beginning of this generation. So definitely very happy for all the mechanics actually. They would incredible effort to know or land up the last day and beginning of this year and also now this really it was never easy so they make good job going. So no, they don't step in at the challenge. Anything specific home may have done to nail these gremlins. Interestingly, he was very lucky to win this rally because he did actually have a reliability concern of his own and it did threaten his chances, but he was offered a rare, rare piece of good fortune. So I don't know whether he's been praying or doing something to try and turn his luck, but he actually got a bit of a piece of good fortune on the Friday because he had a transmission issue, which meant he was down to three wheel drive, and was losing time, actually lost the lead. But then the organizers canceled the final two stages of the day. Where he would have lost way more time and actually headed into Saturday only .7 behind Toyota's especial appy. So he was offered a massive stroke of luck because it meant that hind I could fix the problem without him losing more time. For the rest of the rally. So he really does have that to thank. But again, the reliability issues were still there as Tierra Neville, who just can not buy a piece of luck at the moment. Everything seems to be going wrong for him. He also had a transmission issue was down to two wheel drive, lost two minutes, and that was his sort of rally over before he rolled the thing on Saturday, which is not ideal, but yeah, a real stroke of luck, unusual bit of good luck for white tanak and he made the most of it to win to win 9 stages out over all out the 21. He was dominant. Absolutely dominant. To win the rally by more than a minute from M sports Craig brain. So a really good performance, despite some issues. And issues for his competitors as well, it must be said. It was a rally of attrition for some, but spectacular as well, like the photos that I was looking that we were posting over the weekend. Whether it's the water splashes or whether it is just that gravel and the dust which was hanging in the air, which we can talk about now if you want about how the drivers are feeling about that dust. It is a spectacular, but really hard rally on the cars. And on the drivers in those temperatures, can we just address the temperatures and that kind of dust in the air as well? Absolutely. This probably will be perhaps the toughest rally they will actually do. And that's saying quite a lot. Something isn't it, because you're going to Africa in three weeks. So far, they're doing so. So this is quite a situation. So just to sort of explain why it was so tough is, firstly, these are incredibly long days. Thierry was saying that he gets four hours sleep. That's it. A night because there are very early 4 a.m. in the morning and they don't finish till 8 o'clock at night. It's a real brutal brutal day and when you're doing that in 40° temperatures and then to add into the fact that the cabin temperatures and cars are a lot higher because of the exhaust positioning of the rally one hybrid cars. So you're talking like 60, 70° inside the car. It's incredibly hard. And then, for example, on Saturday, they only had a 15 minute break to get a bit of food and water before they go again. And you just think, how do these guys do it? But yes, incredibly tough. The team's and the FI recognized the conditions and the situations in the car. So there was frantic changes to the cars to try and get the temperatures outside of the cockpit on lower them. So for example, high and I fitted a reflective golden roof to try and reflect the sunlight to reduce some of the heat in the car. There was some extra vents drilled into windows and some ceramic heat shielding put around the firewall in the exhaust to try and take some of the heat away. Toyota even redesigned their roof vent brought a whole new roof in, which is had to come in some luggage from the team members in Finland. They have to carry it in their suitcases to get it to the rally. That was how tight it was, and they were fitting that on the Wednesday, so it was, yeah, a lot of going on, and you had to feel for the drivers because it was incredibly hot. Interestingly, as a lappy, actually sort of tried to train himself for the conditions by sitting in his race suit in a sauna in Finland to try and create the conditions he would be facing. But you just can't really sort of imagine how tough it could be. I mean, calorie robbery even said that the car was basically a sauna, like all he needed was the water, the fro on the floor, and it would have been a sauna. That was how tough it was. So I take my hat off to the drivers and particularly the co drivers who have to really suffer in those heat in extraordinarily hot conditions in the car. So to reach the finish, you would have been proud of yourself because that is some effort to get there and let alone to win. As you've been recently hanging out with the mechanics for a special feature, I'm surprised you're not also throwing a bit of love their way. Yes, of course. I should point that out actually gets a very, very good point because Cali actually said that at the moment, the mechanics are getting perhaps two hours sleep a night, which is not good enough, really. In this situation, just how these are how brutally long the days are. So my hats off to those guys, they are absolutely heroes for doing what they do to keep the drivers going. But yeah, it's a really, this is when you need your team around you. This is when you need everyone. Helping you out because this is not just a sport. It's a genuine survival. At times, it's that tough. So yeah, these guys are superhuman. Wow, let's talk a little bit about how the progress of the weekend went because it was not, it was not nailed on, actually. He had to kind of dial in his performance as the rally went on. Just talk us through how the lead changed hands and how he consolidated that win. Yeah, so actually we started on Thursday with a super special, which was quite a fun little stage around the city of olbia. And that was one by Tyrion Neville, who had it into Friday with a lead, but then we had the first proper gravel stage, and this was sort of, I believe, 7 a.m. in the morning. So very early for the guys, but the issue here was such was the tight schedule that the guys were facing. The organizers had gone to three minute intervals between the cars, which was clearly not enough because the dust hanging the air was causing all sorts of visibility issues for those behind. It was actually the only point that rally where Kelly Robin pair had an advantage really because he was first on the road. And didn't have to face any dust, but it will honestly from the vision and the onboards incredible how they all got through that without crashing, because you just couldn't see beyond the bonnet, really. It was that tough. So rightly so the drivers were not happy about that. A lot of choice words, but the right words too were directed at the organizers and on Saturday. A resolution was found and four minute gaps were introduced to the first two morning stages so that that issue didn't come back up again. So that was good..
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"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"And we all hope that there will be another round of the fight that we saw in Monte Carlo because that was sensational. So let's just hope let's hope they live up to the billing. But again, they may find it really tough to actually compete with some of the guys at the moment. So it'll be interesting to watch. Yes, so rally Portugal will be the event that the WRC has chosen to celebrate 50 years of the world rally championship. So it's going to be quite exciting event so there will be a lot of activities going on. There will be a lot of pasta and obviously current world champions. There to celebrate this unique milestone for the championship. So yeah, there's going to be a very exciting rally and hopefully we'll be able to bring the best bits of everything that goes on to the viewers. Awesome. And we're looking forward to being there as well. Tom, thank you so much. Make sure you are glued to our socials at autosport, at motor sports at Tommy Howard as well. You can see what Tom's putting on his personal accounts. If you want to first hand a view of what it's like because Tom's heading to, I think pretty much every event this year, if not every event, which is absolutely wonderful. Well, thank you very much for listening today. A reminder, that if you'd like to go and see all of what we've been talking about in the flesh, you can go to motor sport tickets dot com and check out their latest office. Motor sport tickets provides a range of experiences covering the diverse WRC calendar from the ultra fast tarmac of Croatia to the.
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"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"So if there is going to be a time where perhaps the hybrid box might get knocked about a bit. That could be the telling. There could be some issues there, but I obviously touch wood that I hope there isn't. One of the big incidents that you want to talk about from rally Croatia that we haven't covered off yet. Yeah, I guess we'll start with a lot of it's all about and I feel sorry for him because he had a really good rally. He'd never been to crystal before, so this was completely new to him. And he drove really, really well. And up until that moment, which was on stage 9, he was sitting in 5th position, had been very smart about it because the conditions remember were extremely challenging wet, foggy, to be honest, I don't know how they do it. It's genuinely impossible. I think Craig breen actually said, these are the worst conditions I've ever faced. You could only see ten meters in front of you. And when you're going through rows like that with trees, either side of stuff at speed, that's quite frightening, but although he actually said, I quite enjoyed it, which is just a classic rally driver response. Anyways, this is the worst conditions ever. But yeah, I quite enjoyed it. But anyway, go back to Oliver. He had a big lose coming into a left hander, just got a little bit caught out when the over a crest and the car had gone a bit light. And is spun the car around quite fast and gone reverse into a grass bank. The crew absolutely fine, they got out of the car, fine, and then suddenly the car ignited the exhaust on the car had caught caught the rear of the car a light. So it's nothing to do with the hybrid or anything like that. It was just a classic case of hot exhaust. Catching a car on fire eventually did get put out, but Oliver was like, yeah, it was quite hard watching the car. Up in flames and there's nothing you can do about it until the fire truck arrives is quite hard to watch, so they didn't rejoin. So that was the end of their rally. Moving on, I guess, then to perhaps the most bizarre accident was actually in full mode on stage three on Friday where he ended up in someone's garden, which is not a sentence or ever written before. What happened was he caught out, got caught out on a wet patch just that complained the rear of the car sort of spun round and he fired through a hedge. And then landed in a sort of farmer's garden and the car pulled up just avoiding a statue of a concrete duck. Which was just you sitting there at the media room and I'm watching this and I'm like, is this real? Yeah, it's real. So yeah, the cars pulled up completely, yeah, big damage to it. Luckily, the crew okay, we can laugh about it, but it would have been a pretty scary incident and the crew were okay. But yet a car chassis damage to they couldn't repair it. So that was the end of his rally, but again massive disappointment because that's three retirements in a row now and you just you do have to wonder what is going to happen there because he really needs a result, but I don't know what how you get over some other that's quite tough, tough character building sort of situation he's in at the moment. But yeah, so it was just to sort of end that story the owner of the property that the car ended up in. Some sort of local farmer who actually understand found it all quite hilarious, really. But an offer, I think he offered them some cheese to have before they went back. As you do, Assad Assad incident, we can make light of it, but it's actually for the team that prepare that car. It's a lot of work that goes in there that's gone up quite quickly and ended quite quickly. So yeah, you feel for the team and the driver because it's just one of those ones. Thierry actually had a moment at the same corner but saved it. But Adrian didn't. And that's interesting. So it's just one of those ones like a bit of experience, but again, if there's a river of water run across the road, I'm not quite sure how you meant to react to that without it's just one of those ones. It's quite difficult. And let's talk about neuville. Where do you start with Thierry? He had another event or rally. It just seems as though everything that could possibly happen to him happened to him. It just seemed like this happens quite a lot, which is quite an interesting one, but I guess we'll start off with the fact that he was on the pace and on Friday, second fastest to rob from pere. He was, in fact, the closest until what talent did on the final day he was the closest to Robin pair at any point, I think he was 12 seconds, 12 and a half seconds behind after stage four. So he was genuinely on Callie's pace. But then, as I said, stage forward, all unraveled for him because the alternate filed on his I 20. And it meant that the car stopped on a road section outside the service park and pull Thierry and Martin Vida ger the co driver had to push the car by hand. 800 meters to get it into the service park on a road. I was actually in the media zone when they came in and we could hear the noise and kerfuffle..
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"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Left the dummy. Tom there, he just seems to be taking it all in his stride. He's absolutely amazing. Yeah, again, I mean, he was extremely emotional at the stage end when the reporters came to him and you could see he was physically shaking. I don't think he quite believed he could do it and pull that win back that seemingly was lost. They cut to the Toyota camp and the highlander camp and their faces were just like dumbfounded. How has he done that? Like no one can explain how he did this, which is one of those sort of weird moments. But yeah, Callie, what a superstar. He really is something else and I think we will. It's a big, big call this, but already he's got a 29 point lead in the championship, but I think we will see if he carries on like this. He will win this championship and we will become the youngest ever champion, which will eclipse, Colin McRae's record, and he was mccray was 27 when he did it and Callie's only 21 at the moment. And how about having less of a reference point for the roads because of crashing out on the first stage in 2021. So it's not like he had loads of experience under his belt to call upon. Absolutely, he would not have been a favorite coming into this rally. Simple as that, yes, he had obviously some testing beforehand, but last year as we all know he had a big crash on the first stage. He's rally was 5 kilometers, so he has no knowledge of the rest of the stages. So to do what he did, he actually praised his seat is his note making crew for the rally because they really obviously delivered him some great information on the stages to be able to do what he did. But yeah, going into a rally, you would have said, yep, he could have got a podium, but the win, you wouldn't have said he would his favorite because that is a tough rally at the best of times, and to do it with the wet weather and all the mud on the roads that happened. Yeah, phenomenal achievement. Latvia even said that on Friday it was the best ever performance Callie had ever done in a WRC car and you have to say it's his best ever rally. There's no question about it. It was phenomenal. So he's won on snow on tarmac on gravel in mixed conditions. Is it now time to start talking about odds and things like that? Look, it's a season where it's so much is going to happen and we've got drivers coming and going as well. But do you want to make an early prediction so that if you're wrong our fans, like I just mentioned can say, but in April, you said this. Yeah, I've fully happy to be shot down, but if, as I said, if it carries on like this, if he carries on like this, there'll be no stopping him because a 29 point lead already, that's already a rally, is an important. So yeah, you did it. There won't be trouble in the air. There's no way he'll go through a season. And it'll be perfect. It's just not done, but if he carries on the level of performance like this and what is important here is the maturity that he's showing that he's driving because he's only 21. But what he was doing in Croatia was quite quite phenomenal. Yari mati actually said that at his age, there was no one on the level like Kali is right now. All right, he is doing something that we haven't seen before, which is he's just got this maturity of knowing when to cut corners and not in it, and there's an art to that. Which sort of takes years to learn, really. And Callie is doing it right now at the age of 21, which is a bit of a worry for the rest of the field, because if he's doing this now, he's only going to get better. Imagine what he's going to be like at 25. Like what are we going to see here? Is he going to be? He could well be the next lobe or auger. There's no question about it. So you caught up straight after the rally as well, with Toyota, WRC boss Yara Matty. Latvia and he had this to say..
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"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"To him now. I did my work experience there. I basically John steals wife, worked with the school. I went to. And she said, you know, you obviously just the guys would you like to go, yeah. And that's how we're working experience together. And then they were moving from Malcolm's house to building. So they came back to me after I did my work experience and often in a job basically. It's obviously most important for us as journalists. It's always described as quite a glamorous role, but it's actually, it's not always like that. It is quite hard work, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, the likes of today, the sunshine and feel free to really finish, you know, get to dinner inside. You do get easy days. It's not a job if you want to sleep is it really basically there are a lot of long days early mornings late nights. Yes. I mean, in Monte Carlo, the first service on the outside. The first day, we obviously had a few issues. So it was a bit too and fro and there are problem solving, but it basically meant that we delayed the start of the class service for as long as we could before we have to have them checked into our family. But that meant that our tiny bed was about an hour and a half. That evening before battlefield doing the long day again. So yeah, you know, that's just one example of how little time you can't get in, but you do it because you love it, right? It's still doing all of it, despite some ups and downs, but yeah, obviously. I haven't left, and I think I find it very hard to do something. Else. It's been a part of my life for longer than I went to school. So yeah, I don't know any different. But it's still exciting. How many years have you been at school? This year has 22, so a long time. I guess, had you had ambitions as a child to be in a much more mechanical, what did it come from? I didn't have ambitions as a child to be a motor sport mechanic. To be honest, it didn't know about what was wrong until I actually got into the job of the most white technician. But I did have an interesting cars and more vehicles and landing through that noise for that. So the background tool was there, but it just got pushed in the right direction. One of the classic cases of seeing from the outside everyone sees the running mechanics is pretty superhuman really because you can change so many things so quickly explain how that works and I guess a lot of the best scenarios was in 2015 it makes it go where he's gone into a Lake, which is probably the worst case scenario. Yeah, I mean obviously the car is designed and built around being quick and you can't always have the flexibility to change everything easily but we do try and have a try and take into account a little bit that we are gonna change gearbox UI when I change from arms suspension and bowling this blah blah blah. You know, so there is a little bit of emphasis on not when we design a car, especially from the mechanics point of view. So to try and make it effective in all areas at the end of the day, it's great, big fast on stages but if you was at a time in service in then count rocks, what you trying to achieve but yeah everything sort of made to be changed. I took us through that character because I guess like as a viewer involved in that project what a recovery. Yeah, so obviously we're in the first mine Friday. I spend a bit of time in the container watching the stage times and stuff. And basically it all went a bit quiet. Nobody seemed to know what had happened. It was an accident, but then when the next guy got to finish line was asked if it's in him. No, no, we've not seen him. And the helicopter was out and they couldn't see it. And then I think it was probably a very short period of time, but it felt like a lifetime before we actually knew the cars went in late, but they are actually both out of the garden, okay? Obviously, we thought, well, you know, that's it. We're never gonna, I mean, will we even see the guy again, he was the first so I think we're gonna get it back, are we gonna see it? Let alone did we ever think that we'd even attempt to try and super Elliot. But as the day went on, the rally obviously went on and the center divers in to get a car. Miguel and Matthew, they went out to the gangs. They went out to retrieve the gap with the divers. So they were there. And eventually. After 8, ten hours, if you got recovered and so it was obviously getting on day, I think. He was quite late by the time he died and made it back to the service but the boss basically said like we're going to have the goals. We're going to have a go with Silk Road and if everybody's up for it. So that's what we did. Obviously, when we got the car in the bay and stands and stuff and we set off so after work on it, we saw about a bit of it a bit of a base plum of where we'd what would need to do. But that obviously changed as we went along the biggest we found with the problems like we took with top plates off the fuel tank and the fuel tank was full of water so then we had to change the fuel tank. So that wasn't really in the plunk. We thought that might happen, but we were a 100% sure. So then it was like right fuel tank out. Okay. We've got three hours, but basically we had a semi stripped car because there was no interior left in it. There was no cooling package on the front with the ball, the charge system off the turbo. It was basically the reminisce of what that engine left in the shell, and that was basically it. So yeah, it was it was a fair challenge that actually turned out pretty good. Is that the biggest thing you've ever had to deal with in terms of trying to repair? There's been some big repair jobs, but to bring someone back from ten hours at the bottom of the Lake is definitely up there with an achievement. So an amazing set of stories there from Gary Barker senior technician at M sport. That wraps up the interviews that you've did well,.
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"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Ogier and Loeb are going to be probably inundated with people wanting to talk about that rivalry in Monte Carlo, but as you finally get back into the actual atmosphere, what's going to be your the first thing that you want to do is it just to get a layer of the land and walk around and just chat to people. So let the listeners know about what you're doing. As soon as they get on the deck there, I think the first thing I'll do is make sure kind of a look at all three of the cars. Just have a little nose about see what they actually look like in the flesh because I've only been and seen the puma, but that was before it had its spectacular purple livery shall we say that lit up social media last weekend. Which is great and it's awesome for the sport to see stuff like that because it's great to see fans get excited about livery. You know, it's often teams tend to go with the same thing year on year out. The fat M sport were very bold, went out there with a purple car and as I said, I said to my colleagues that surely they've got to do a deal with Cadbury because like this is just perfect for them. If they get Capri boost bars on the side of that car with a hybrid boost, it's a marketing opportunity gone missing. So anyway, but I think it's a genius. I think the first thing I do is go go down and have a look at these cars because I think it'd be interesting just to see them up close just to see how the three teams have tackled it, which way they've gone. I'll be very keen to do that first up and then have a chat with the drivers obviously you hit on their auger and load, which we haven't talked about yet is the other exciting element to this Monte Carlo rally is that the two greatest WRC drivers are potentially going head to head again and these two have 15 Monte Carlo wins between them, so it's quite a bit of dominance between the two sets. So yeah, lobe will be in a fourth puma. It's only for one event at this stage, whereas auger will be doing a partial season. So yeah, it's going to be spectacular. They're not short of headlines or storylines, so I think I'm going to be very busy over the next few days. Certainly, I cast my mind back to the start of the podcast when you said in theory, OGA won't be the world champion this year, but there are so many unknowns. This is gonna be a season you do not want to take your eyes off. Don't miss it for a second. That's the start of our 2022 coverage here on the gravel notes, podcast, we'll certainly be here with every preview and review and as you and I have been talking about if there is some really interesting things happening mid event. There's no reason why we maybe you or both of us won't pop up on this channel. And have a chat about things for the podcast listeners because it's going to be suck it and see this season right? Absolutely, yes. Yeah, I can't wait. It's been a long time since we've gone into an event where we'd simply don't know who is going to win. So yeah, and the fact that we will potentially have three teams going at it with some lovely looking new cars. Yeah, can not wait. Make sure you follow us on our socials, check out auto sports Tom last year what you did in terms of the weekend coverage was just brilliant posting some fantastic highlights and some great retweets of some fan videos and stuff looking forward to doing. Seeing.
The Autosport Podcast
"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Don't really want to be in cost things very much because it was. Somebody's trusting and counting on the country. Think about it much because I know that probably been what I can do is try to do my best to achieve results, but myself because it's over there. So when you get off the phone to him, that was a bit of a politician's answer he gave. He knows he knows the game, a bit of a non answer, which is yeah, it's nice, but hey, we'll see. Almost a racing drivers have kind of got that answer non answer. Do you reckon he really knows though he's got he's got a good opportunity. I think he's being clever there because he doesn't want to put any extra pressure on himself and let's be honest he's still very young. He doesn't need to have that extra pressure on there. So he's very being very clever there, but there's no doubting the talent that this kid has, because he got his first two rally wins last year for the first time in Estonia and then he obliterated the field in acropolis, which is not a place you go and do are certainly on your debut at that event as well. So this reason why arie flatten and said that because the guy is going to be a superstar. There's no question about it. He will be I'm sure he'll be a world champion at some point. And he's got plenty of years in the bank to still be the youngest because Colin McRae did it when he was 27 and so Callie's got a lot of time to do it. For me, he could well be, he could well be the championship. There's no question why couldn't if the car is good, he does exactly what he's done last season and built on that. He's going to be a formidable person to beat. And then you also spoke to and put to him. That perhaps last year was frustrating, but also this year could be wiping the slate clean and here's what he had to say. The performance side and the car improved, but we just didn't manage to put the package together, but now we have the blank page. So we have a good chance to work through everything and.
The Autosport Podcast
"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"And this is what he had to say. On your break and then you're like a boost and then you straight away and then obviously once that's been once that's been used, you have to regenerate enough again on your next breaking zone and you just constantly get this constantly trying to region as much as possible to allow you to get as many of these bulls as possible. Okay, let's talk about that a little bit actually what Craig just said. Now I have two or in our household, my wife and I both drive electric cars. So her electric car is a little Renault Zoe. So the way that the Renault Zoe works is there's very little regen when she lets off the throttle. It's Blake, it's brake blended. So when she puts her foot on the brake, the motor starts to slow down the car and it puts energy back into the battery and then at some point if she were to break very hard or when she gets down to 5 miles an hour, friction breaks kick in. I drive an MG zs EV. It doesn't do brake blending. I let my foot off the throttle and the car starts to slow down sometimes if it's in, you know, version like regen three mode quite a lot. And so I'm aware when I'm driving until electric cars are maybe more popular and more people have them. I tend to slow down for a red light or around about sooner and I'm laying my foot off the throttle, but of course the car is then slowing down at a slower pace, but the brake lights don't come on and people are following me closely and I'm aware that actually I've changed my driving style so that I'm not on the brakes because the minute I push the brakes in mind the friction brakes kick in. So that's a very long explanation to ask you have you spoken to any of the drivers we heard Craig mentioned there about how region works. Do you think this could possibly change driving style? Because you explained at the start of the podcast, it's only going to recharge the batteries under heavy braking. There's no chance that when they go out on the first stage, they're going to all be driving totally different to what they've done before, but will the drivers have to adapt in terms of thinking, well, I need to go into a really heavy braking zone here to get more energy back into the battery because I want more power boost. What do you think? Absolutely. And a lot of the drivers have already said that they will have to their driving stars because it is hybrid power because how it works is crucial. If you come in out of a slow corner and you haven't regenerate enough to get that extra boost, that will cost you valuable stage time. You could even lose a stage from that, not having that acceleration. So it's massively important as Craig was saying there that you've got to think differently, which is another interesting aspect to this whole championship that the drivers have now have to completely sort of turn on its head what they've done before in some respects because they will need to make sure they get the regeneration to get this extra power boost because if they don't, it's going to cost some valuable time on the stages. It's a really interesting concept as Alfred Evans also said that it will be a massive difference if you don't get these accelerations. So it's going to be a lot of focus on making sure they get the regeneration complete. It's going to be an interesting concept. I'm not quite sure how the rule go into cope with it, which is just another intriguing prospect. The other thing about hybrid that we should say, is that when they do regenerate this power, it's used as soon as they touch the throttle pedal. So they can't just pick and choose where they deploy this power. As soon as they touch the throttle pedal again, so it's so crucial. It's going to be an interesting situation. Also with hybrid, we should obviously point out that the FIA will on each event determining how many kilometers or miles will be used in EV mode, so electric only mode. For Monte Carlo, we're only actually going to have, I think it's 2.27 miles of full electric mode. Now, I'm sure this will increase as the season gets on and they understand how to use it all. But again, if you forget to go into electric mode, there's going to be penalties for doing this if you don't do it. There's also other factors that are coming to play. The reason for this, obviously, is to showcase a bit more of green environmentally friendly future for WRC, but also they are also want to plan to use EV mode when the cars are going through towns and cities to sort of lessen the noise and the pollution or whatever that disruption shall we say that these cars have. So there's a lot of thinking behind it, but again we will see how it's executed, but what's the rally begins? What do you think about how it might or might not affect the show? And what I mean by that is I'm a huge fan of Rallycross. And part of that is just the visceral experience and the madness and that partly because the races are short and appeals to the TikTok generation. And it literally is a made for TV sport literally. But watching the electric version of that this year is going to be different and I want to have an open mind and the cars are still going to be spectacularly fast. But I drive to electric cars, right? So I'm all in with a lecturer. But my racing, I don't know, man, it's a place to burn stuff like if I'm going down the shops to go get a pint of milk. I don't mind driving electric. That makes sense for the planet. Have you spoken to people drivers team bosses about the show? Because the testing so far from my perspective, I haven't seen it in person only on video. Seems all right? Yeah, I think the WRC is actually found a nice blend between both worlds because let's be honest on the stages, the cars won't sound any different because when the hybrid powers engage, there's still the internal combustion engine. So it's still kicking out the usual nest sound, which we all love. We're the only difference you'll see is genuinely when the cars are in service park and when they're driving through the EV zones on the road section, so they will be obviously a lot quieter in an electric.
The Autosport Podcast
"wrc" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Solberg spoke to you about Oliver and you called him to ask about these new hybrid systems. And he said this. So it will be different for everyone also. So I mean, it's a lot to learn a little bit. That's still, but I feel good and I have it in good way of using it. And I think I just need more of my little. So his point there, I need more mileage, he says. So does that kind of play into what you just said in the last thing he wants to do is day one, big shunt, lose mileage. Is it possible that we'll see the drivers that maybe 95 98% of their capacity just because they want to learn? Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there. I think that's exactly the case. But in Oliver's situation, it's a slightly different because this is his first year in the big time with a factory drive for Hyundai sharing the third car with Danny sawdust. So he's not going to want to throw off the road on his first day at school, so to speak. So for him, young guy got a lot of talent, a lot of potential for him, he just needs to have a claim rally. But for the others, yeah, it's so difficult to know what your strategy is because we just don't know a lot of it is really a voyage into the unknown. We don't know who is going to be able to master these cars better. Like for example, the younger drivers might get to grips with this hybrid technology better than the older drives. We just don't simply know that hasn't been enough testing to know where everyone stands. So yeah, I guess because Monte Carlo is such a specialist rally as well. It's some like any of the others. Maybe there is a case to be said that's just go 90%, not a 100% and just bank points because we don't know how valuable that's going to be coming the end of the season. Now, you also spoke to Craig breen ahead of the season to talk about driving style and particularly the region and this is what he had to say. On your break and then you're like a boost and then you straight away and then obviously once that's been once that's been used, you have to regenerate enough again on your.
Gravel Notes with David Evans
"wrc" Discussed on Gravel Notes with David Evans
"After subaru sort of was out of the championship quite a while and came back in that year so for yet it was a bit of a a Yet dream stop to the program and to be able to continue on on with them with yet. Pretty pretty cool feeling and i have a great relationship with subaru and they really feel like my my second family. Yes i remember that. Phone around at cobb saban thinking it was it was a close because we were still trying to work out the just knowing you had done it it was. It wasn't wasn't easy but failing to actually achieve it. Larry that's kind of it wasn't we never thought because we were still running car in group in stick way sort about regulations allowed full freedom so it was never really the the intention to to win because we didn't think in the group had cobby wanted to prove has good tau was it has a production level. But you know it wasn't going to be the fastest out there side which is about yet consistency in just getting getting some good solid results in you know it's kind of i guess that boring shy about finishes and consistency wins championships. So yet the end it was still coming into the final round. Wasn't really what we thought would happen. In just the way you know everything went with with others having problems and Yeah it just the. The points ended up that way. It was a bit of a surprise to be honest in a good learning experience for me as well in in championships in driving professionally. I suppose in the job that you'll they had to do and making sure that you're doing your job in how Yeah sometimes you obviously want to drive as fast as you can bet driving smart. He's also really important part of the job to say. Obviously rallying is in the blood..
The Autosport Podcast
Australian Rally Car Driver Molly Taylor on Extreme E
"Today's show. We're joined by one of motorsports leading female talents in mali. Taylor for those unaware molly has burst back onto the global rally saying in extreme either this year as one half of nico rosberg victorious rosberg ex racing outfit while extreme e has propelled molly back into the spotlight the and has rallying in her blood competed in australia and europe. In two thousand sixteen molly became the first woman to win the australian rally championship and this year. She has returned to the world rally championship with a three rally program in rally. Three ford fiesta. Welcome to gravel notes. Molly thanks for having me. I haven't spoken to you for probably a couple of years now. I think the last time. I spoke g was a winton when you're doing. Tci australia so a lot's happened since then. Just fill in about what. What's been going on since then look into then. I guess we had all had locked locked down again. But during that time the extremely project. I guess started to gather a bit of momentum and got involved with suspects racing extremely and also we managed to put together these three ramps wwl three program a rally three program. Here's wildlands yes. Auto kind of went from doing not much at all to looking like twenty twenty one while he's a very busy busy year
Geeks Under the Influence
Latest Game Releases For This Week
"Out this week. Let's start off with a game systems. We already own. You have thirteen for the ps four xbox once which in pc assassin's creed valhalla for the xbox one pc and ps four destiny to beyond light for the ps four xbox one p. c. yakuza like dragon. Ps four xbox one p. c. Just dance twenty twenty one for the xbox one p c switch impious four. Call of duty ops. Cold war for the. Ps four and the xbox one and the kingdom hearts melody of memory for the ps four xbox one and switch the xbox series x which henceforth referred to either as by the xbox x. or the exit. We'll have a bunch of bit games coming out. Some of these will be repeats of games that have already come out you have assassin's creed valhalla. Dirt five devil may cry five special edition the falcon near fief twenty one. Fortnight fuser gears tactics madden. Nfl twenty one marvel's avengers nba two k. Twenty one observers system redo effect connected watchdogs legion. Wrc nine and yakuza like a dragon for the ps five which is coming out on the twelfth. You have the assassin's creed virola astros playroom demon's souls deconstruction all-stars devil may cry five special edition. Fortnight god fall madden. Nfl twenty-one marvel's avengers men eater nba two k. twenty one observer system redo sack boy the big adventure marvel's spider man miles morales and watchdog legion.