Rally-eMag 021 August 2014

Issue 21, August 2014

Capito, Nawarecki, Ogier, Latvala, Meeke, Neuville, Sordo, Hirvonen & Evansall discuss the future of the WRC

Hyundai’s first

barum

germany

ERC:

WRC:

Elfyn evans’ Road to the top

the panzerplatte has been the main venue for the adac rallye deutschland for years now

Image: Bas Romeny

talk of the town was the new toyota gt-86 r3

Image: Bas Romeny

kris meeke had a great opportunity...

Image: Bas Romeny

but thierry neuville eventually put up a hypnotizing performanceImage: Bas Romeny

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Rally-eMag August 2014 / Contents

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Who made it?

Publisher: Rally-eMag

Words: Steven van Veenendaal, Harry van Veenendaal.

Photography: Bas Romeny, Timo Anis

Who helped?

Logo design: Minse Blom

Backcover artwork: Dam Charles

Distribution: Issuu.com

Who we thank!

PR Photography from: Peugeot Sport, Hyundai Mo-torsport, Citroen Racing, FIA ERC, Volkswagen Motorsport, M-Sport.

How to reach us?

Email: [email protected]: www.rally-emag.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/emagrallyTwitter: @emagrallyIssuu: www.issuu.com/rally-emag

featurethe future of the wrcWhat do the drivers think?

Page 32

ercBarum RallyCzech Party

Page 49

WRCADAC Rallye deutschlandHyundai’s firstPage 11

elfyn evansRoad to the top

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This month

Rally-eMag August 2014 / News

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This month’s wrap up

This week just before the start of the first race in the FIA Formula E Championship in Beijing the WMSC had their meeting. In this issue you can read a lot about the New WRC and the expected proposals, however no decisions have been made about the most controversial subjects like the running order or the PowerStage. So we will have to wait till the next meeting in early December in Qatar.

Things that have been decided, according to the FIA website include: the penalty for missing a stage before restarting in Rally

2 will be increased to 7 minutes. Missing the last stage of a leg still means a ten-minute penalty. Group N4 cars all over the world will be renamed R4 in order to in-tegrate them into the rally pyramid. WRC Teams will be permitted a one-day test for each competition it nominates.No surprises on the calendar front for 2015. There are still 13 events, still with Poland and without Greece. The only change being the date swap between Ar-gentina (19 April) and Portugal (24th of May in 2015) More in next month’s issue of Rally-eMag.

World Motorsport Council

We never met him nor saw him compete live, but to us he was a legend. He was the first World Rally Champion ever, true but we know him from his challenges in Africa and especially the ones driven in a Mercedes. Between the Escorts, the Fiats 131 and the Lancias Stratos of the era, the Mercedes 600 (or was it 500?) SLC was quite an eye catcher. And it was this car I had to think of when I heard that Bjorn Waldegård had died. Many years ago I built a model of that car in the tiniest details. It looked very nice until my son found it. I told him it was only for static display and that you couldn’t play with it. But he couldn’t resist it and did play with it. The model of the Mercedes did not survive, but its driver was one of my son’s first rallying heroes. In a way you could say that the gentle Swede was at the cradle of this magazine as my son is now the chief editor of Rally-eMag.

The photo was kindly given to us by Gérard Wolthaar the founder of the World Rally Mu-seum that we will feature in a future issue.

Björn Waldegård

ADAC Rallye Deutschland / Rally Review

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Based in: Trier

Date: 21-24/08/14

Number of stages: 18

Shortest stage: Arena Panzerplatte, 3.03 km

Longest stage: Panzerplatte Lang, 42.51 km

Total stage distance: 326.02 km

Surface: Tarmac

ADAC Rallye deutschland

ADAC Rallye Deutschland / Rally Revieww

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Germany: Hyundai’s first!

Deutschland is Volkswagen’s home rally. Still it’s one of the few rally’s they never won. Just like last year the German squad was poised for the attack. Though last year things went wrong quite drastically, they were very con-fident and relaxed. And secretly the champagne was somewhere in a cooler waiting to be undone for the championship celebra-tions. The others more or less accepted their fate and settled for the breadcrumbs, until…

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

Images: Bas Romeny


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Germany has always been (in-) famous for it’s ever-changing cir-cumstances. One of the things that did not change during the whole history of the German WRC round was the winning carbrand. Since the first edition in 2002 Cit-roen won every rally. They used three different drivers, but the brand did not change. Many peo-ple thought that in it’s home rally Volkswagen would try everything to change this and they were the top favourite. But as a somewhat rusty saying says: To finish first, you first have to finish. Many people experienced the truth of this during this year’s Rallye Deutschland.

Volkswagen dominance The German manufacturer won every rally in the WRC since Germany 2013, when Citroën won their final victory to date. The fight for the championship is clear. VW defends an enormous lead and Jari-Matti Latvala was in a good form after having beaten his teammate Ogier in a straight fight in Finland. Ogier of course wanted to beat JML again. But there were some other people who would gladly prevent one of the Volkswagen drivers from win-

ning. First there was last year’s winner Dani Sordo. “It’s a good rally and I had a good feeling dur-ing the tests and shakedown,” he told us. But last year’s run-ner up, Thierry Neuville, also in a Hyundai, would me be more than happy to take revenge. He tuned down expectations however. “It’s the first time on real tarmac with this car, but I had a good feel-ing so it could be an interesting weekend.” And then of course there was Kris Meeke. He drives the car that had won all WRC events in Germany since the very beginning of Rallye Deutschland. So at least he drives a very well suited car. “We will see on Sun-day where we are…” he said.

Shakedown scare In a rally like Germany, shake-down usually is a formality. This year it appeared to be no different. Two runs of the top drivers in the beginning of the session. But then at the end of the priority 1 session, the seeded drivers all came back and were actually trying to set best time. So the fight was on. One of the drivers trying to his best was Thierry Neuville; he went very fast but missed a corner. He then bar-rel rolled his car into a vineyard

The historic centre of Trier is host to the ceremonial start and finish of the ADAC Rallye Deutschland.


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and stopped between the vines. His car did not look fit to start the rally the next day. However at the ceremonial start the Belgian team was present. But unlike the other teams hey passed the start-ing ramp at the famous Porta Nigra in the centre of Trier on foot. A large crowd applauded them there. In the service area not very from the start, the Hyundai team was working frantically. Large greyish screens prevented probing eyes from look-ing what was happening. But team manager Alain Penasse was quite clear: “Thierry will start tomor-row.” The top three in the shakedown held no fur-ther surprises. Latvala, Ogier and Mikkelsen gave Volkswagen it’s first triple of the weekend. Meeke and Sordo followed.

The first skirmishesIn changing weather conditions Ogier resolutely takes the lead, but Latvala doesn’t falter and re-taliates. These skirmishes take place during most

of the first day, until Ogier makes a rare mistake. Seven kilometres into the second passing of the Moselland stage he slides off the road. Before the start there was an incident with a non-competitive car that ran before the competitors carrying VIPs. This caused the stage to be delayed for the better part of an hour. All competitors now had to tackle the stage with cold tyres and brakes. If this was the reason for Ogier’s off did not become clear. “It was my own mistake,” said the reigning world champion. I braked too late and we went off”. In the Mosel vineyards that usually means you either hit a wall or slide off a slope. This was what hap-pened to the Frenchman. After some time he was reported to be on the move again, “but in the wrong direction,” the reporter said. So after sliding off the rally route he ended up on a road lower down the slope. But it was impossible for him to come back onto the stage. The damage to the car was minimal so Rally 2 would be no problem. But the almost 10

minutes gap to new leader Latvala would be a bit to ambitious for Ogier to bridge. At the end of the day all favourites (apart from Ogier) formed the top of the leaderboard with Meeke and Sordo in two and three.

NeuvilleThe surprise of the morning was Neuville. His car looked almost immaculate after the heavy beating it took during shakedown. The service crew had worked overnight and virtually built a new car. Even their rivals were impressed and so the VW mechan-ics applauded their colleagues when Neuville left the service park. Still there were one or two issues that delayed his steady progress. His biggest prob-lem was the handbrake. Apparently something had been overlooked during the repair process. How-ever halfway the day this was corrected and the young Belgian could start his fight for a first WRC victory. Which still looked quite far away.

All is well that ends well, Thierry Neuville can confirm that.Ogier didn’t have the rally he expected. “My mind was on other things, like the WRC and its regulations and I found out that’s dangerous, so from now on 100% focus again ”


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Ogier againOvernight it had rained quite a bit, but it was rath-er sunny the next morning. This is very tricky as large chunks of road were completely dry, so with good grip, but in shadowy parts the road was still wet and muddy. Ogier, opening the road on Satur-day soon found out. On the Stein und Wein stage he got a warning when overshooting a junction. But he only lost three seconds to stage winner Kubica and could continue. On the next stage he was not so lucky however. After a crest he braked a bit late and couldn’t control the car anymore. He slipped through an armco barrier and landed in the vines. This time the car was beyond overnight repair, especially because the roll cage had been

compromised as a FIA representative later con-cluded. This made the road clear for Latvala to further build on his lead. And so he did. Although Meeke showed consistency he could not prevent Latvala from inching away from him. At the end of the day he was facing a gap of just under one minute. Meeke was philosophical: “This gap is to big. I have to settle with that. Unless something very strange happens we can’t grab him.” Behind the frontrunners another fight was developing between the two teammates Neuville and Sor-do. Neuville had been charging all day and had passed the Spaniard and even created a 25 sec-ond gap between them. He even found himself within striking distance of Kris Meeke (+ 4.3 sec)

Dramatic finaleEveryone settled for a nice finale and the specta-tors went to the stages for some additional view-ing and cheering their favourites’ route to glory. Then suddenly the news filtered through: Latvala off! Although a lot of people did not believe it, the pictures of the Finn’s demise came over the so-cial media. In a way a similar thing happened to Latvala that earlier in the rally happened to Ogier. He lost grip and slid down a slope filled with vines. Only in Latvala’s case, an iron fence stopped his slide. It prevented him from getting back onto the road where the stage was running. An absolutely devastated Latvala initially was speechless. “This will never happen to me again,” he said later.

When teammate Ogier faltered, Latvala took over as leader of the rally. As the drama continued, Meeke took over when Latvala crashed out!


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“This will never happen to me again,” he said later. “Now there are still four ral-ly’s to go and all I can do is to do my best. My pace here shows I can beat my team-mate so nothing’s been lost. For Meeke a miracle seemed to be happening: He was leading his first WRC event and the Citroen dominance here would not be broken! Only three stages to go! Un-fortunately he did not make it that far, as on the next stage he went a little wide hit a wall and broke a wheel. A new sensation was born. The third leader of the day (after two stages!) was Neu-ville; yes the same one who almost wrecked his car dur-ing shakedown. Dani Sordo inherited the runner-up posi-tion.

Hyundai’s firstNeuville did not slow down. On the Grafschaft stage, lat-er to be run as PowerStage, he grabbed a scratch and later on when this stage ac-tually was the PowerStage he grabbed two extra cham-pionship points by fishing second on the sage only 0.9 seconds behind Elfyn Evans in his charge to pass Mik-kelsen. The last Volkswagen driver however kept half of his original advantage and

could salvage something of the Volkswagen honour by at least finishing on the last step of the podium. The first two steps however had been reserved for the same drivers as last year only this time it was Neuville who was on the highest step and Sor-do on the second. A dream comes true for the Korean team and their star driver who won the first rally in his career.

A dream came true for the Korean team and also for its top driver. Neuville gave Hyundai its first win and Dani Sordo completed the party by finifshing second.

Image: Steven van Veenendaal

ADAC Rallye Deutschland / Round-up

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Round-up

This was going to be Volks wagen’s event. It is their home event and they still have to take their first win here. Still the pres-sure wasn’t overwhelming. Everyone at the team was confident and relatively re-laxed. His hard-fought vic-tory in Finland had given a boost to Jari Matti Latvala’s self-confidence. Ogier was still smiling after his recent marriage and his only con-cern seemed to be the ex-tra weight of his wedding band. But Volkswagen’s confidence got a serious blow when Ogier went off and had to retire for the day. Then the next day proved Germany has sim-

ply not been Ogier’s rally the last two years. Luckily Latvala was there to take over the number one spot. At the end of Saturday he was already anticipating his first tarmac win. But it wasn’t to be. A little mis-take in the German vines cost him dearly. In a way it would have been good for the championship if he had won, because it would have brought him much closer to his rival. On the other hand a non Volkswagen victory brought a lot of extra at-tention and in the end it will probably no problem for VW’s double championship at the end of the season.

Again the majority of World Rally Cars in Germany came from Cockersmouth. Apart from ‘the usual bunch’ this time we found Dennis Kuipers among the entrants. He joined the team for a two rally stint and chose to drive a full spec M-Sport car rath-er than his own Fiesta. N eighth place was not bad for the Dutch driver coming back after a 1.5 year absence on this level. The results of the main team ere not too bad. Elfyn Evans produced a career best 4th place and showed some real fighting spirit by winning the PowerStage. Mikko Hir-vonen did not make live easy for his young teammate but again couldn’t convince the rally world. When we talked to him before the rally, he characterized his season up to now as ‘shit’ and after this rally we tend to agree with him. Malcolm Wilson would not phrase it like that, but said that, if M-Sport can continue, Elfyn Evans is a sure pick for next year. For the rest everything is open he confided quite openly.

M-Sport World Rallyteam

Volkswagen World Rallyteam

Martin Prokop’s rally did not start well as during recce, a bee trapped in his racing glove stung him. He was taken to hospital for treatment of an allergic reaction and could resume recce four hours later. He couldn’t however find his rhythm on Friday and lost some two minutes. But all is well that ends well as the Check driver must have thought: “Friday was horrible, but then it got better and better. I am very happy to have scored some world champion-ship points.”

Jipocar Czech National Team

ADAC Rallye Deutschland / Round-up

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When in Poland we asked Alain Penasse for his goals for this year, he said: “we already have some scratches, some podium finish-es, now we would like some more podium fin-ishes and three cars at the finish without Ral-ly2. Next year we aim for a victory”. Well mis-ter Penasse: You have it already. Of course the rally started with a big scare, but the team proved it is working well

and Thierry Neuville showed his maturity by recovering from his off and by developing a good speed during the whole rally. His fi-nal win may have been a bit lucky, as some of our colleagues indi-cated, but we think this result is well earned and shows the team’s progress. We suspect a Volkswagen challenger for next year!

For Citroen, Germany 2014 must have been a bitter disappointment. Robbed from a vic-tory that was handed to Meeke by Latvala’s demise. A small mistake blemished a good overall performance for the Northern Irish-man. Mads Østberg’s performance was mediocre. The Norwegian claimed to miss something. What it was did not become clear but he couldn’t in anyway match his teammates pace. Now that contract chang-ing time is there his recent results may be bothering him. His sixth place in Trier will not help him very much to tip the balance.

Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT

Hyundai Shell World Rallyeam

This time it was a mechanical reason that ended Kubica’s battle. Two scratches were not enough to make it a satisfying weekend for him, because on day one he slid of the road and couldn’t continue. Ku-bica was resigned to his fate: “sometimes you make a mistake, and sometimes the car breaks down.”

As we said before the speed is there, especially on tarmac, but the consistency is not.

RK M-Sport World Wally Team

Deutschland was not a happy rally for Bryan Bouffier. The team appreciated the enormousamount of testwork he did. Especially in as-phalt set up. Unfortunately he couldn’t convince us yet. After hitting an Hinkelstein and the later Sliding off in the last stage of the rally.However jis team gives him the beneit of the doubt by handing him another WRC drive in Spain.

Hyundai Motorsport N team

ADAC Rallye Deutschland / Results

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Final Result

1. Neuville-Gilsoul Hyundai i20 WRC 3:07:20.22. Sordo-Martí Hyundai i20 WRC +40.7 3. Mikkelsen-Floene Volkswagen Polo R WRC +58.04. Evans-Barritt Ford Fiesta RS WRC +1:03.65. Hirvonen-Lehtinen Ford Fiesta RS WRC +1:10.5

6. Østberg-Andersson Citroën DS3 WRC +1:22.77. Prokop-Tomanek Ford Fiesta RS WRC +4:52.88. Kuipers-Buysmans Ford Fiesta RS WRC +9:18.19. Tidemand-Axelsson Ford Fiesta R5 +11:35.410. Tanak-Molder Ford Fiesta R5 +11:37.2

Manufacturer standings

1. Volkswagen Motorsport 305 points 2. Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT 138 3. Hyundai Motorsport 1314. M-Sport WRT 128 5. Volkswagen Motorsport II 109 6. Jipocar Czech National Team 42 7. RK M-Sport WRT 21 8. Hyundai Motorsport N 12

ADAC Rallye Deutschland / Standings

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Championship standings (Drivers)

1. Ogier 187 points 2. Latvala 143 3. Mikkelsen 110 4. Østberg 74 5. Neuville 73 6. Hirvonen 73 7. Evans 57 8. Meeke 54 9. Prokop 37 10. Solberg 26

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Rally-eMag / Interview

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In last month’s issue in our series about the “New WRC”, we talked to two team man-agers. In this issue we con-tinue the series with the other two team managers, Marek Nawarecki, team coordina-tor of the Citroen Abu Dhabi World Rallyteam and last but not least Jost Capito team principal of Volkswagen Mo-torsport. What do they think of the “New WRC”?

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

Images: Bas Romeny


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You are behind many of the new ideas in rela-tion to the “New WRC”. Can you tell us what the new WRC is going to be in your opinion?

I think it will be very exciting, but also very under-standable for the general public. In our view it is very important to have live coverage at the end of the rally. Something that everyone can under-stand and feel excited about, even when you’re not a rally specialist. But on the other hand we should keep the rally spirit, because rally fans still have to recognize what they know and what they love: rallying. I think that in the discussions with the manufacturers, promoter and the FIA, we now found a good solution that will be dis-cussed in the World Commission and then go to the FIA. But I think it will be very exciting and the fans will love it a lot.

Can you tell us anything about it?

I think it is a bit too early, as long as this is in progress, but I think it should be published re-ally quickly. For a long time, people have been speculating about a lot of ideas, which I think was not good for the discussion because there was a lot of criticism of the proposal. I now get a kind of picture of what it is going to be like, and I think it looks more or less like a sensible plan.

If I say there is going to be a PowerStage, where people can earn extra time so they can win the rally. Is that still your idea?

I think what it was, I brought an idea in 2007 be-fore I left WRC and at that time it was really radi-cal. But I think now, in time it developed so it is not exactly the same, but it is going in this direction. More thoughts, more fine-tuning and I think we can find a system that is sensible for everybody.

And all stakeholders agree to it?

Yes, one hundred percent, all the stakeholders.

Recently WRC+ was launched, what do you think of that?

I think it is a fantastic step in the right direction. Especially for the core rallying fans, they can fol-low the rally even better. And this is important. The Internet is the right platform and WRC+ is fantastic. The fans can follow the cars, not only on the stages but also on the road sections. And after the stages they compare driver to driver. I think it’s fantastic.

Jost Capito

Jost CapitoIs: Team Principal of Volkswagen Motor-sport

“I think WRC+ is a fantastic step in the right direction. Especially for the core rallying fans .”


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In our review about it we couldn’t find any major flaws in it and it is good for the core rally fans, but what about the general public?

Of course you have to do something for general public but you also must not forget the core fans. I think there was a lot of criticism on the promoter, but WRC+ has shown that they have really done a good step forward now and understand rallying. And it really shows, this is what the core fans want to see and if they can do something that the core fans want to see, they have to understand the sport. So for me this is a real sign that they understand the sport now and go in the right direction.

Did you have to educate them?

Yes of course, they were new, but they were willing to listen, they were searching to be educated. So it is not that they came in and said ‘this is what we want and so this is the

way we are going to do it’. It took some time to get aligned, but now it is common understanding, common trust.

So is it fair to say that WRC+ is a good example of co-operation between the different parties?

Yes, think it shows how the cooperation and communication has been working. The promoter invented it but always with the input of the manufacturers and the teams.

How important are the core fans for you?

The core fans are just as important as the general public is. Without core fans you could never attract the general public and the other way around. If we wouldn’t get the general public interested, we wouldn’t get a return on investment. So this is why you have to do both, it is not one or the other. You have to have the core fans that are coming to the stag-es and you need to attract the general public as well.

“ they have really done a good step forward now and un-derstand rallying”

You said you are considering doing a long term in WRC with VW. Is this a step in the right direction and if so what other things do you need to decide to continue?

Yes I think it’s a good step. But I also think we need the format to change so that the general public gets interested and can follow it. And the other thing is that we also have, say stable, technical regulations. Before they approve eve-rything that we don’t do radical changes that will cost a lot of money and don’t give any value. So I think all these discus-sions are going in the right direction.

What do you think about the new car, what kind of car should it be?

I think we have really great technical regulations and we should have consistency. These cars have not been going on for too long, so we don’t need big changes. So no GT’s or something.

Oliver Ciesla wants different kinds and shapes of cars. But that would not be something that you are thinking of? It’s more likely to be a Polo or that kind of car?

Yeah that’s what I think. These are the cars that the manu-facturers want to promote and that works in WRC. If they would ask us to run cars that don’t work for the manufac-turer, then we wouldn’t be here. So that is pretty simple.

And a 400 bhp engine?Yeah I think that could work.

Is that something that is being thought of?Yeah it’s one of the tings and also with aerodynamics. That’s what we can do to make the cars look a little bit different, and a bit faster. These are the normal things we should be talking about and that is what we do. I’m very confident.

“we need the for-mat to change so that the gen-eral public gets interested and can follow it. .”


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Since a few months Marek Nawarecki is the acting team manager of the rally branch of Citroen Racing. He is in charge of the Citroen ral-lyteam and as such is respon-sible for the team’s idea’s about the ‘new WRC’Words: Harry van VeenendaalImages: Bas Romeny


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What are your thoughts about the new WRC, like for example the PowerStage, is that some-thing you think is good?

Well, it is something we are not against because all ideas to improve the show that we can have on the last stage, especially the live broadcast are good to improve the audience’s interest in rallying. Most important for us is that the rally format needs to keep it’s DNA. For us that means the spirit of rally-ing. All the fans have known this for many years so it’s very important to keep it. Anyway I think some ideas that we saw about the Powerstage and about the future format of the WRC rallies, they keep this rally DNA and they are in the line of the spirit of the rally. They could improve a little bit by the show on the last stage but we need to see how it works and then it will be easier to say. From our point of view the main thing is to keep the rally spirit to be close to the current format. Apart from that we have to try to reduce the cost a little bit, for example regarding the number of days the teams are involved during rally week.

So the rally format stays mainly the same?

Well I don’t know what will be decided, but I think the current format is not bad, so we need to keep it,. It would be good to have the same timing in each rally, when the rally begins and ends, because the fans need to know the schedule to be able to follow the rally properly and to know when they should expect the results. For us that is the most important

aspect of the global championship. But after that each and every idea to improve the show for the PowerStage is welcome because it’s important to have a lot of live broadcasts, especially at the end of an event.

Do you think, as a manufacturer, that this will attract the number of spectators you need?

For us it’s the same as it is with other manufactur-ers. We need to have a large enough audience to prove that the investment that our company, our brand is doing in WRC is worth it. So I think the most important thing to us is to improve the TV cov-erage, and to find the good broadcasters and to raise the audience.

Do you think for WRC+ could be the kind of coverage you want or is it to exclusive?

It’s still early days as we discovered it just in the Rally Finland, but it’s a very nice tool. It’s a very, very good thing to follow the rally for the rally fans. They know the rally very well and so for them It’s a very nice tool I think. The fact that you can find all the on board cameras and that you can compare the cars it allows you to understand what rallying is all about, what kind of challenge it represents for the crews and so on.

Marek Nawarecki

Marek Nawarecki

Is: Team manager Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT

“...the current format is not bad, so we need to keep it...”


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someone asked me: Is it better to do something to make it for free or not to do anything because it costs too much? I would say it’s better to this and maybe in the future I don’t know. it’s up to the busi-ness promoter and maybe they will find some spon-sors to make the reduce the cost a little bit.

Let’s move to the new regulations regarding the cars. What would be your best car?

I think the cars we have now are quite good. I also think you can see that because all the manufactur-ers are cooperating very closely including the new ones like Hyundai We all think that the regulations are not so bad, we can just imagine to maybe have a little bit more power but that ‘s for the future and also this is something that needs to be discussed with FIA. But I think we have a good base of the car.

Bearing in mind costreduction, is it possible to have more horsepower?

Of course if you would apply more power you would have to redesign different things, in the transmission, the gearbox and so on. You cannot say that is not ex-pensive so it needs to be reasonable, but I think if we do some improvement on the basis if the current regu-lations and we change just a little bit or step-by-step, it could work. Of course but it should remain not too ex-pensive. If you would do a revolution of the regulations which are very wide opened than it would become too expensive

Drivers say we want more powerYeah you can understand that and for the show it’s good also and I think this is always the same in mo-torsports but we need to keep it reasonable…

“If you would do a revolu-tion of the regulations it would become too expensive”

But don’t you think five Euros is too much for the normal fan?

Of course if you have to pay it’s not as open as if it was free of charge but regarding the production cost and what it brings, the price you pay for this application is justified. It’s always better to have things for free but at this stage I cannot imagine that if

In the last issues of Rally-eMag we started a series about the New WRC. We talked to promoters, team managers and last but not least, to the drivers. Showing you the different views of some of the most important stakeholders. But what did we no-tice, talking to all these people. Shortly before the World Motor-sport Council will decide on future developments in (amongst others) the World Rally Championship.

The first thing we noticed was that everybody agreed on one thing: Something has to be done! Though we have a very nice sport, it seems to be difficult to attract the big crowds. So that is one point of agreement, but then the consensus more or less stops. The promoter wants to make the sport more attractive, the team managers want return on investment and the drivers want more horsepower and consistent rules that apply to everyone.

All these wishes don’t have to collide. Still a total agreement between all parties needs to be carefully managed. One thing

we found was that the ideas about the promoter seem to shift a bit. Jost Capito gave us the reason: With the introduction of WRC+, the promoter showed they understand the sport! This trust that was also expressed by others may eventually be cru-cial. If the parties concerned trust each others than one other point of agreement is relatively safe. The DNA of rally should not be affected.

We can’t tell you what the outcome will be, but in 2015 we will have a final day stage that is slightly different and that will bring some extra excitement. In 2017 we will have new rules for cars. They will probably not be very much different from today. But there will perhaps be some extra power and some extra aero-dynamics. Not also for the aerodynamics but more for the looks! The cars can be recognized as mainstream cars, but will look more aggressive. Jari Matti Latvala proposed a flame throwing exhaust bypassing the catalyst. We’re afraid this proposal will not make it into the final proposals. In next month’s issue we hope to give you an outline of all the new things.

“Jari Matti Lat- vala proposed a flame throwingexhaust...”

The new WRC

Rally-eMag / Feature

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New kids on the block

The fans at Rally Germany were treated to two new spectacular cars. Toyota launched the rally version of its remake of the classic GT86 while Tuthill Porsche debuted the Por-sche 911 RGT on the world stage.

ToyotaFor months people have been speculating about a possible WRC return for the Japa-nese brand. Testing is well underway for the Toyota Yaris WRC but in Finland rumours turned to the GT86. Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda

took the passenger seat in a Tommi Mäkinen built four-wheel drive version of the GT86. This led to the question whether Toyota was contemplating bringing a GT car back to the top level of rallying. The answer is no for now. In Germany we saw the debut of the GT86 CS-R3 with Isolde Holderied at the wheel. Although the Germa-ny car was only a prototype it is obvious that the finished product will compete at R3 level, not WRC. Still, it will be very good to see a GT back on the stages, especially given the fact that it’s rear-wheel drive, allowing for some sideways fun.

Porsche“It has been been nearly thirty years since we last saw a Porsche finish a WRC event”. At least, that’s what the ever-enthusiastic Richard Tuthill told us. Passion for the brand is oozing from Tuthill as he is determined to bring it back to top flight rallying. It’s easy to understand why that is. With current WRC cars becoming more and more similar, the Porsche 911 GT3 really is something else. “In the standard trim it has 400 bhp, but we have to run a restrictor here. The sound is good too, but as ever these days we have to be quieter than we’d like. But we have a me-dium exhaust so that makes a bit of a noise.” So a standard car that has to be tamed down to be eligible for rallying... sounds like a good start. As it’s a new car in a new category it’s hard to say how fast it will be, Tuthill thinks it will be somewhere between Group N and R5, adding that: “I think on the right road with the right driver, and I’m a rusty driver who hasn’t done any driving for a long time, it will be very quick.” No matter how fast the car is, it will almost certainly score top marks

in the fun division. “It’s not a normal car, at least not something you often see on a rally stage and it’s the coolest car in the carpark tonight. And hey, who doesn’t want to drive a 911 on rally stage? I am a lucky guy…” We couldn’t agree more.

GT Revival


Drivers on the future

The future of the WRC is surrounded in- mystery and a lot of rumors are currently floating around on how the championship will look from 2015 onwards. In the last two issues of Rally-eMag we talked to the WRC Promoter, we talked to the team managers and now it’s time to hear what the drivers have to say.

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The first thing Seb points out to us is the uncer-tainty everyone is facing at the moment. “I think we don’t really know what is going on for next year. There was a lot of discussion going on for sure, but we don’t know yet which decision will be tak-en.” He does realize that change is imminent, and necessary though. “We are facing a difficult situ-ation and I completely agree that it would be nice to have something to add a bit more excitement to the end of the rally in order to attract more fans. It would also be good to have a regular timing so that people can get the habit to follow us because they know ‘Sunday at twelve, it’s rally!’”

“It is also true that at some rallies everything is played out before the final stage and there isn’t much suspense left. So we have to find a solution for this as well. I am not against the shootout stage. But we have to make sure that we don’t change for the sake of changing. The TV coverage has to be involved to show what is changing and use the change, otherwise it would just be stupid.”

Don’t you feel it is unfair if you win a rally just be-cause of the final shootout stage? “Sure there will be some rallies where you think it is not completely fair. But it is just that the rules will be a little differ-ent. I think we just have to forget that the rules were different before. In a competition there are always rules and as long as they as they are the same for everyone you just have to make the best of it.” What about the starting positions?

“I think that has always been a problem in rallying. I am not the first to address this, all the champion-ship leaders like Loeb or Sainz were complaining about this because it really is a huge disadvantage to run first on gravel. Sometimes you hear it is a ‘natural disadvantage’, yeah but then I would much rather carry an extra 50 kilograms in the car and run last on the road. I think the best sporting solu-tion was what we had last year with the qualifying stage. But they wanted to change it to give the best a disadvantage. You know how I feel about these rules, but that’s just the way it is.”

The car specifications are also under scrutinee at the moment, what would you change in the current cars? The cars are pretty good at the moment. There is an idea at the moment to be more in line with the WTCC regulations, which would mean a larger turbo restrictor giving us an extra 40-50 bhp. That would be nice. Everything on the cars has improved so much over the years, the brakes, suspension and grip levels, that at some tarmac stages or the really fast sections in rallies like Finland are not as exciting as they could be with a little extra power. I think it would be nice for the show without disturb-ing the safety.

Are you, as drivers, being heard by the people in charge of the decision-making? “All changes are done in cooperation with the teams. They are working together with each other and the FIA to be stronger as a whole.

sebastien ogier

Several WRC drivers

Are: Drivers at the factory teams in WRC

“...a larger turbo restrictor giving us an extra 40-50 bhp. That would be nice. ...”

Words: Steven van VeenendaalImages: Bas Romeny


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Us drivers though… we are not listened to so much, but maybe that’s our own fault. I have often been thinking about creating drivers association like in F1 or DTM. It’s probably a good thing to do and has always come highly to my mind to make it. But to be honest, I never took the time to actually go and do it. Maybe it’s something we have to think about for the future.

As a driver, what do you think about all the things going on at the moment regarding the new regulations? “Nothing has been finalized yet. The teams have been given proposals and it’s now the FIA and the promoter who will decide what will happen. Let’s say it this way: of course something needs to be don, because nowadays we have many differ-ent exciting sports. Rally has been going with the same format for a long time and lost some interest.

To bring back the interest of course you have to change something a little bit. The most important thing is that you do it in the right direction and I think the teams together with the FIA hat a good proposal, but we will see.

What is the proposal? It is something with the change in format of the final day but I can’t really say more than that.

Do you think the people that make the decisions listen enough to drivers like you?Look at this rally (Ed: Poland) for instance, the driv-ers made some comments and they really have done changes to the format. So overall I think yes. But of course, the best thing is when can all work together. And nowadays they more or less are do-ing that. The FIA teams and drivers, all work togeth-er. That is the best solution. And of course for me it’s good and important if the drivers’ opinions are asked.

“Us drivers though… we are not listened to so much, but maybe that’s our own fault.”

Jari-matti latvala

Then we have the starting order?For me the current system is good at the moment.

You think it’s fair at the moment?For me it’s fair now yes.

So we should keep it like that?Yes.

New regulations are coming for new cars, what would you want to put in that car?Looking at the spectators I have an idea for the new car: Now we have the catalysator in the exhaust pipe, I would like to do a bypass over that so that when you put the car in stage mode, you engage the bypass. And then you would get the flames from the exhaust! That is the kind of you entertainment you need! You know like group B and group A cars in the old day. That would be really spectacular. It would also change the sounds of the cars a bit. Because nowadays, the sounds are so much the

same. The sound is the thing what you need most.

And sideways rallying?Well I think if we want to do more sideways rallying, the way to that would be to limit the suspension travel which is not ideal for the driver, but I am still okay to go for that. It would not be the nicest way to go for that but it would be one solution to bring back some spectacle.

And more power?It would be nice to have some power. But for me this is also a very sensitive subject in that sense that if you increase power it will always bring more tire wear. So for me that means some-thing else needs to be changed for next year. Nowadays we have four spare tires at every fitment point, I would like to in-crease it to five at every fitment point so that we can always have one spare. Now we have to use used tires and this is not ideal. If you increase the power you need extra tires as well.

“And then you would get the flames from the exhaust!”


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Thierry NeuvilleWhat do you think about the proposals?“Honestly I don’t know and it’s changing all the time. Of course there are a lot of rumours about new rules for next year, this PowerStage or run-ning order. The thing is you have to find the good solution for the beginning and the end of a rally.

It’s true that the championship leader is running in first position everyday It’s OK for me but then you will not be the leader the whole season. At some point you will be on a better or less good position. But you can fight back all the time. This could be something nice and then of course it would make the PowerStage more exciting as on the second pass you can score points. So the guy who’s been opening the rally the whole event could still get some extra points so…”

So you wouldn’t mind if things stayed the same as they are now?“It would be better if the leader of the champion-ship would be opening every day of the rally. It would be a big handicap but the second of the championship would be just behind you. And if

you don’t win for sure the next rally you will not be leading in the championship anymore and you will be second or third and you have a better road position on the next rally.

But next year you’ll be one of the front run-ners“Yeah but it’s like this of course if you are running first in Sardinia for example is a bigger handicap than running first in Poland But that’s like this, that’s rallying.”

Does the promoter talk to you?“No it’s difficult to talk to them of course we talk to our teams But I have to say I asked many times for meetings with all the drivers co-drivers and the FIA and nothing’s happened… “

“It would be better if the leader of the championship would be opening every day of the rally.”

You would like that?“Yes but I know VW always wants to push down mine. I tried to talk tp Jost Capito but it wasn’t, so I just give all my information to the team and then let’s see what finaly they decide. I can’t do more than this.”

We heard Ogier talk about a driver’s associa-tion is that something?“We should do something even if it’s two or three times a year. I think we are the ones who know best what could be important and interesting for the championship but if nobody wants to listen… I’m sorry”

What would you change to the car?“Of course we need more power. This is some-thing that FIA is already discussing I think…

Something like 400 horsepower would be more interesting, more spectacular for the people. Maybe a change in aerodynamics could be nice but otherwise I think the cars are quite good. We really should work on the format of an event. It should be more or less similar every rally be-cause it’s easier for people to understand. Yeah running order and PowerStage are things to dis-cuss. Finally what would I change in the cars: nothing. We need more power, that’s the main thing.”

And why do you need it?“Because it’s more spectacular for the people. We could reach more speed. It would be more spectacular especially on tarmac because on tarmac we are driving like on rails and even in the hairpins we are not able to put the car side-

ways because we are missing power. You would have to drive very cleanly with the car to be fast, because a small mistake without the power, you easily lose some time.”

He seemed a bit surprised by his own success...Neuville made his Korean boss a very happy man.

“I think we are the ones who know best what could be im-portant and interesting for the championship..”


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Dani SordoWhat do you think about the changes in WRC?I don’t know what changes…

For example the PowerStage shoot out, what are your thoughts on that?For me it’s OK like this you know… I don’t care about many things in championship because I only do six rallies of which four on tarmac so at the moment I don’t care about it.

Yeah but you would like a full championship?Yeah of course…but I don’t know the changes for the PowerStage. OK I think now you can get some extra points but only this. If you are fighting the rally for four days and after that only stage counts for the final re-sult That Is not good.

Do you think the running order Is a good system now?Yeah for me it’s good, I was in the back now. No but it’s not bad the fastest is on front. Cleaning the road because he is the fastest

So you think it’s a fair system at the moment? I know Ogier is not happy, but I think that is normal

What would you change on the cars?Well a little bit more power, because it is faster and it’s

nicer. And when a car is faster t’s more spectacular for the spectators

Does the FIA listen to the drivers?Yeah I hope…

But do you feel it?“I never speak aloud with the people. I think it’s more other people like Ogier, cause he is more important than me this moment. And if they don’t listen to Ogier, they certainly don’t listen to me…”

mikko hirvonen

What do you think of the new regulations in WRC?“I don’t know what the hell is going on. But looking at the new proposals concerning the PowerStage, I think it is the sort of thing television needs. But it has to be rallying, for me the current ideas are the end of rallying as it used to be. But it’s not completely stupid; it really depends on the way the calculation is done. Perhaps we should also try finding some other ways to make the finish of rallies more interesting for TV.”

Are drivers, consulted about the changes in WRC?“Normally they don’t really involve us. Everybody has his or her own opinion and we have to try the find the best solution that works for everyone. At the moment TV is dictating where we are going with the sport.”

What do you think about the starting order?“I think it is good the way it is. Ogier has to start first all the time, but he still manages to win a lot of those rallies so I think it makes things more even.”

“I only do six rallies of which four on tarmac so at the moment I don’t care about it.”

What would you like to change to the car?“You know at the moment, it is, maybe not easy to win, but the cars are quite easy to drive and the pace is very high. If we could add more pow-er to the car that would make it a bit more difficult and I think you would see some bigger gaps be-tween the drivers. It would only be a lot faster on the straights but not so much in the corners. But more power means more sliding, which is more spectacular to watch.”

How about rear wheel drive?Rear wheel drive would be fun but the thing is, it is the fastest to just drive as straight as possible. So even if we started using Escort BDA’s, we would still be trying to go as straight as possible.”

Elfyn EvansWhat do you think of the new proposals?It’s very difficult to say because it’s fair to say that the sport isn’t as active or as popular as it used to be years ago. I think the speed now is incredible. The way the cars have come on, the speed that’s carried is fantastic. For me, if it’s captured in the right way, there is not really a lot wrong with the sport. I think it has a lot to do with how we are putting the sport out there. I think there are really good bits within the sport. I realize it is a commercial world we live in and it’s not all as easy as it was. So we have to look at change. I am very much sitting on the fence with the changes that have been proposed. I don’t know if they are necessarily right or wrong. For me the format has a lot of very exciting bits in it

and if we work maybe a bit harder at leverag-ing those exciting bits. There may be need for less change. It seems there is a need to go for change immediately, so it is difficult to say. But either way, looking for the long term stay in the sport, it has to be strong whatever happens.

What do you personally think about some-thing like the shootout powerstage?I mean yeah for sure it would force drivers to go, but rally has traditionally been somewhat of an endurance event. You lose some of the heritage of the sport by throwing results down to one stage Are we going to be too much like rally cross? I don’t really know. When you are in a position where you had bad luck and you may be able to gain two places at the end of the day. I would say you look at it in a positive light. But if you have had a really good event and you have a puncture on the last stage and you lose two places then you’ll be pretty pissed off I would say. So it can go both ways.

What do your think about the new cars? “I definitely don’t want a rear wheel drive car be-cause I would be lost! (ed. haha) I think for the spectacle it has to stay four-wheel drive. But it also has to stay close the form of the WRC or that type of car. I don’t think it should go to R5 to be honest. I think we need a classic top that is above, what is considered to be prepared of controlled. I think you should have something. At the same time, if you make it too open, people with big budgets will be too strong. I think we have control and I think that what we have now is not too far on. One thing I do think we need is

better noise, that’s for sure. For me the cars are great to drive, I just wish we had better noise, that’s the main thing for me.

Kris Meeke

What do you know about the new regula-tions?Very little, only what I read in the press because we are not involved so much in the decision-making. The decisions are all taken by the FIA. But from what I do understand is that there’s a common ground that we need to make it a bit more spectacular. Possibly a bit more horse-power, which is a very cheap thing to do. And make the cars look a bit more aggressive and a bit more different. So there are things that are easily done that don’t take a lot of investment. Possibly a bit more horsepower, which is a very cheap thing to do. And make the cars look a bit more aggressive and a bit more different. So there are things that are easily done that don’t take a lot of investment.

“I definitely don’t want a rear wheel drive car because I would be lost!”

Rally-eMag / interview

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The thing is that if you start to get into things like Formula 1 with KERS and all different hy-brid systems, yes maybe it follows road cars but it’s so expensive for the teams to invest in that technology and at the moment I don’t think we’re in the position to force teams to invest millions and millions in systems that ultimately don’t help performance. So for me, try and get back to the roots, a bit more horsepower, possibly a bit less aero from the rear, to allow the cars to slide a bit more. Be-cause at the moment we have a lot of down-force at the rear, well not a lot, but what we do have really makes the cars high speed. But maybe, for me more horsepower would be nice.

And if you say you want to slide a little bit more, is that also something you would like to do? Sliding a lot is nice to see, but not the fastest way.It’s not the fastest way, we would like to go fast. But if you’re a spectator now, stand-ing and watching a tarmac rally like Catalu-nya, the car just brakes-turns-goes, brakes-turns-goes, it’s like a Scalextric track. There’s not much movement in the car and maybe we could do something with that. But that’s the nature of Catalunya, it’s only one rally per year and it’s still exciting to watch because the speed is high. But for me just a little bit more power.

If you’re looking at the PowerStage ideas, you already said, it’s necessary to get a little more excitement. Is it something you

would like?No, for me I’m totally against the idea of de-ciding the rally order on the last stage. For me that gets away from the grass roots and the DNA of what rally is all about. Can you imagine in Finland, Jari Matti drove the rally of his live and then somebody can take that away from him on the last stage… For me that’s not the way the sport should work. We have the most exciting sport in the world. We don’t need to play about on the last stage of the day…. We just need to package the tele-vision coverage. We have so many technolo-gies now in television; we need to use them to make the sport… to capture what we have. We don’t need this messing about on the last day.

Did you have a chance to look at WRC+ for example?Yeah for me that’s fascinating. I’ve been call-ing for that for many years. The technology is available, why not ramp it out even further? You have your Internet channel and you can sit and click the red button and you can watch any driver, watch the live on-board, live road sections, anything. Let them watch the cock-pit, anything that’s happening in the car. For me, for the real rally fans that is something spectacular to see.

You were saying initially that the FIA does all the decision-making and they don’t contact you. Is that true, you don’t get any chance?Well we do a little bit. I have had a few dis-

cussions with a few people. But to be honest, the decisions are ultimately made by the FIA. We as drivers don’t make decisions. Yes we can have some input, but the decisions are made by the FIA.

Wouldn’t it be good to group all the driv-ers together so that they form some kind of power. Is there any movement in that direction?Maybe, for certain things in the sporting side of rallies and like certain things they do in the organization of things. Maybe there’s certain where we as drivers can say no. For us it needs to be done this way. Maybe there is a case for that. But the thing is at the end of the day we are employed by manufacturers so we have to respect the manufacturer’s di-rection.

“For me that gets away from the grass roots and the DNA of what rally is all about.”


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road to the top


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In this section we take some time out to sit and talk to the young talents trying to make their way to the top. First up is a guy who made the leap to a full works drive this season:Elfyn Evans.

We meet with Elfyn at the pre-rally Germany M-Sport ‘Happy hour’. Just a year ago we first met Elfyn here for the first time when he got his first opportunity at the hands of an R5 Fiesta. Things can change quickly as a year later he already has half a season under his belt in a fully blown WRC car. Before discussing his current ‘office’, we take a step back and look at how it all started.

“I didn’t get the chance to drive a rally car until I was seventeen actually. I got to a sort of test in a car, something my dad (ed. 1996 BRC winner Gwyndaf Evans) had organized obviously. From then on I sort of decided I wanted to go rallying, although my dad was not massively keen on the idea, probably because he knew how much things cost! But there was a junior series in the UK called ‘Junior 1000’ or ‘Formula 1000’, which was basically for Group N, 1 liter, Nissan Micra’s. So we bought the first car for 250 pounds. I had put a new roof skin on the car because some vandal had put an axe all the way through the roof. So the first job was to put on a new roofskin. Basically I had to build my own ral-lycar.”

So you were the mechanic of your own car?“Yes, my dad wanted me to learn I guess. So I had

to build the majority of it myself. Of course with the help of people from the dealership, which was a big, big help, and it certainly proved to be a mas-sive part of me being able to go rallying. At the time I don’t know if I would have been allowed if I were simply asking someone else to do all the work. I don’t think he would have entertained that option at all to be honest! So the facilities were all there for me to do it and at the same time I was doing bits and bobs in the dealership, you know in and out of school. So I would spend time there to learn how to do bodywork, mechanical work.”

That’s how I started off and it was something like a six round championship and we ended up doing eight rallies, all on gravel. That was that and I think we finished second or something in the champion-ship. Really then, when it started to get a bit more serious I joined the Fiesta Sport Trophy UK with the Fiesta ST and found some backing to do that. And really that was a grounding for many years really. Because I ended up doing 2007, 2008, I was a year out in 2009, back to the Fiesta in 2010 in the British Rally Championship. Won the Junior Champion-ship there and also won a Pirelli Star Driver nom-ination and managed to win that shootout at the end of the year, which then granted a full drive in the British Championship in a Group N Subaru the following year. And then with the prize money and everything I managed to accumulate from 2008 to 2010 I managed to build a Fiesta R2, sell the ST and we managed to do three World Championship rallies in 2011.

Elfyn evans

Elvyn Evans

Is: Driver at M-Sport World Rally Team

“...some vandal had put an axe all the way through the roof...”

Words: Steven van VeenendaalImages: Bas Romeny


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Which were Finland as the first one, France and then GB. That was with the view then to go and do the cup, or WRC Academy as was called then in 2012. So we managed to do the WRC Academy in 2012 alongside doing selected British Cham-pionship rounds to keep fresh and have mileage and basically the rest is sort of all fallen into place since. Since winning the WRC Academy obviously I had the chance to do five rounds in the R5 with M-Sport. You know it was pretty hard last year, to try and learn as much as possible and interact with the team. And it sort of paid off with this drive for this year, which had obviously allowed me a great opportunity to learn the rallies.

How important were the cups that you’ve entered, in helping you progress in your career?I think it was important because it gave me a sense of direction, of what I had to do. You know I was

sent to the most popular championships in the UK and Ireland. And basically I knew, or you know it was put to me that, if I couldn’t be at the very min-imum competitive or really win at that level, then there was no chance to progress to the other levels. So I think that was something that kept me very realistic about my goals. I knew that I had to tackle every level if I wanted to progress to the next. And I think that at that point there were good prizes that were available from M-Sport to compete in those championships and they proved stepping-stones to go up. And I would say that without the champion-ships that provided prizes, I certainly would have done a lot less rallying and probably would not be in the position I am in today.

Did you receive any special training from these programs as well?Not so much. I was involved with the MSA team UK

“I knew that I had to tack-le every level if I wanted to progress to the next...”

from about 2010 onwards and they helped with all the media training, and the physical training. Of course when we then joined the academy that was a different story. There was a bit more training and ¬overall support then. To be honest a lot of the guid-ing and training and focus came from my dad. At every level as soon as it got more serious he was clamping down on me. As I progressed more the less he had to guide me because I knew what had to be done by that point. And it’s still the same now, he always asks the questions, but ultimately I know what has to be done. Still he likes to check up on me every now and again.

How did he help you, what kind of tips did he give you?You’d think with his background it would be more on the driving, but actually it was more on preparation and more on analyz-ing the results, all those sort of things, not necessarily on how to drive and doing lots of testing together. It was more about analyzing what I had done, looking at the on-board camera and looking at results. To find out where I was strong and where I was weak and discuss how I could progress.

Can you mention some of the biggest challenges you faced as young driver trying to get to the top?I don’t know, I think the biggest challenge is trying to find budg-et, although I was very lucky that I had support from my family and my team. I have a manager as well who was willing to in-vest in me at that time along with the family and some sponsors. It’s always a struggle to find the budget. And also the balance between working and rallying, I didn’t stop working full-time un-til the end of 2012. I still worked as a service manager in the dealership when I was doing my JWRC year. So that was a busy year, trying to fit everything in. I’m in a way busier now but maybe there is less stress.

You can now focus on one thing?Yeah I can focus on one thing while back then I had a lot of things to focus on. I think it helped in some ways to realize the value of what I had and that both sides helped to build me as a person.

Elfyn’s performance at the 2013 Rally Germany was key to making the step to the WRC level.

“I think the biggest challenge is trying to findbudget...”



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Then you won the academy and you got to drive the R5, the first ‘fast’ rally car. How was that change?That biggest step, was probaly coming to World Rally Championship rallies for the first time. Be-cause when you’ve been going in your home en-vironment for so many years, it is very easy to get complacent. You sort of know where you are going, you know where you can and cannot push. And then coming to new and very difficult events was a big step. And then the second step was coming in a fast car, which is obviously the R5. Yeah I think challenges are obviously adapting to the car. There were some rallies I found a lot easier than others to be honest. Like here (ed: in Germany) I seemed to settle in very easily to the R5. That was really my debut on tarmac in a fast

car and after the first couple of stages it all start-ed to come together pretty nicely. And maybe the fact that I didn’t have any expectations probably helped in that I didn’t overthink things. I let it all flow naturally and it all just came together. And other events, like Finland for example, took a bit more time. I think the most difficult event and the biggest adapting; the biggest shock maybe, came in Sardinia in the WRC. A lot of people put that down as a fantastic result to finish sixth. And it is a fantastic result, but ultimately I was looking at the times of the leaders and quite frankly the gap was massive and that was a massive wake-up call. It was adapting to the speed of the world rally car that was the biggest thing. That was re-ally when I realized what was necessary to suc-ceed at the top level.

This season Elfyn got the chance at a full season in a WRC car. Starting in Monte Carlo, we can imagine easier conditions.

“...the biggest shock maybe, came in Sardinia in the WRC...”



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Was it difficult then to not push too hard, when you noticed the gap being so large?Yeah it was a difficult event because it was a brand new car, brand new rally, brand new co-driver, so it wasn’t an easy rally. The instruction was to finish and that proved a massive help this year when we did the event

And then at the end of the year, Malcolm gave you a call. How did that happen?Yeah, well it was more like I called him. I think it was just about being in the right place at the right time. You know I had obviously moved to live at M-Sport last year and I think the work I put in and the dedication I showed, proved that I really wanted to do it. I think a couple of really positive results, here in Germany and my pace on some of the stages in France and my pace in

GB probably earned me the opportunity. There was a sort of gap in the market and Malcolm was willing to give me the chance. And you know to have an opportunity like this is very rare and I’m really lucky to be honest.

How did your role change within the team now you’re a full time driver? It ultimately means I’m a lot lot more busy and I’m not home much. Last year I was able to support M-Sport in a lot more ways. I would be able to help with the tests, help with the shakedowns, I’d be happy to span around tests that sort of stuff. But now I’m so busy that I have to be home pre-paring for rallies and really I have no free time. Well it feels like no free time, but I do have free time, but it’s very very limited because I try to dedicate all my time to preparing for the events.

Having run Sardinia in a WRC in 2013 as well, it’s clear to see how much experience does for a driver. In 2014 he recorded a solid fifth position.

His best result so far came in Mexico where he finished fourth. In Germany he equalled that performance.

“I try to dedicate all my time to preparing for the events”


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What does that mean, are you for example look-ing at on-board footage?Yeah for sure, anything I can get my hands on real-ly. It’s a massive help if you’ve got a set of notes or video footage from previous years. When you are going to an event for the first time it is a lot more difficult to look at an organizers DVD because it is often from a different camera angle to what you’re used to. You’re trying to just get a feel for what to expect more than try to remember everything. It is very difficult if you haven’t got any note referenc-es to make. So yeah it’s just a case of being as prepared as possible. I think now the events in the second half, we’ve been to, are even more busy because we have the notes and I can spend a lot of hours looking at them. Also they’re a lot closer together so the second half is very busy.

And when you say, busier is that because you have more events, or are you busier at the events?A combination of both, a big part is now testing as well. We had very limited testing last year, we did only three tests actually before an event. Now we pretty much test before all the European events which means that you are away from home auto-matically an extra three days. So I mean it is a lot more busy automatically that way.

How happy are you with the year so far?To be honest the year has been up and down. It is important to remember that it is a learning year. In the beginning you can accept that it’s a learning year but as the year goes on you want to see im-provements. The improvements in a way become more and more difficult as you come closer to the

faster times. Let’s say when you are two seconds a kilometer behind, like we were in Sardinia, it is easy to get within a second a kilometer. When you want to find that final second maybe it is easy to find half a second, but for that final half a second you certainly realize that you have to push pretty hard. It gets more and more difficult the closer you get to the top. Certainly there has been a big re-alization of the jump in speed between the WRC2 and the WRC, that’s for sure. There have not been any massively strong results yet, but we can cer-tainly analyze in the data that there are certainly times at testing and split times at certain stages that are looking very positive. If I can keep building and string it all together, then the results will come.

How does the future look for you?I really don’t know. I had a great opportunity with the security for next year with the team. I am really lucky to have, very few people get two years, a first year to learn and then a second to put it all into ac-tion. So yeah, it will all be down to me delivering next year where I go from then on.

“…it will all be down to me delivering next year…”

ERC: Barum Czech Rally Zlin / Review

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Based in: Zlin

Date: 29-31/08/2014

Number of stages: 15

Shortest stage: Malak 8.82 km

Longest stage: Trijak – 22.82 km

Total stage distance: 236.84 km

Surface: Tarmac

barum czech rally zlin

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The Czech round of the European Ral-ly Championship has been around for decades and always attracts an im-pressive starting list. This year was no different with, obviously, Skoda repre-sented in their home event and many of the ERC regulars competing. The question was if the Peugeots would fi-nally end their technical woes or if the Skoda S2000 still had a final trick up its sleeve.

Czech party

Words: Steven van Veenendaal

Images FIA ERC



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Lappi and Wiegand defended the traditional red and white Skoda colors, donned by the team to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1974 Skoda RS. The Fabia S2000 is nearing the end of its top-flight rally live. But not to worry Skoda fans, Jan Kopecky ran a Fabia with a 1.6-liter turbo-charged engine, which will form the base of the brand new R5 version. Peugeot was out in force too with Breen and Abbring, supported by priva-teer Bruno Magalhaes. Vaclav Pech ran the sole Mini John Cooper Works S2000 while there were Ford Fiesta R5’s for Kajetan Kajetanowicz, Rob-ert Barrable and last round’s winner Ott Tanak.

SurpriseThe first surprise of the event came on the quali-fying stage when Jaromir Tarabus set equal fast-

est time with Esapekka Lappi. This granted the local ace an excellent opportunity as he got to pick second for the starting positions. Opposite to gravel events, on tarmac it’s usually an advan-tage to run first on the road, throwing mud onto the road rather than driving through the mud your rivals put there.

Running in the darkThe opening stage of the rally took the crews on a blast through the city of Zlin. To add to the spectacle the organizers had decided to run the stage on Thursday evening, as night had fallen. Unfortunately though, the sun refused to set and the stage was delayed by about an hour to make sure it was actually run in the dark! All entrants ran in reverse order meaning there was no ad-

vantage yet for the qualifying stage winners.

Sidewalks lining the stage meant there was lit-tle or no room for error making this one of those typical “you can’t win the rally here, but you can certainly lose it”-stages. Most drivers were obvi-ously cautioned and opted to take little risk, but apparently no one had told Kevin Abbring. The Dutchman blasted through the stage and took an early lead. We have seen Abbring take an ear-ly lead many times this season but so far luck hasn’t been on his side. Technical difficulties pre-vented him from taking his maiden win in Greece and Ypres. Would the Barum prove to be third time lucky?

Jaromir Tarabus was spectacularily quick on the qualifying stage. No stopping Kevin Abbring in the dark. The Peugeot driver snatched an early lead.


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Day two continued right where day one had stopped, with Abbring setting the pace. The first two stages went the Dutchman’s way as he opened up a ten second lead. Behind Abbring, Lappi was fighting Breen for second. Local hero Roman Kresta announced his retirement some time ago but decided to make a one-off come-back in his country’s biggest event. Clearly the old master still has what it takes as he started to make his way up the leaderboard and was pleased to find himself in fourth, just 15 seconds behind leader Abbring. Early surprise Jaromir Tarabus found it difficult to maintain the pace of the front-runners and was down in eighth. An-other disappointment was Ott Tanak. The young Estonian crowned a solid season so far with an inspired win in his home country’s ERC rally last month, but was nowhere near the pace this time

around, all the way back in seventeenth.

Stage 4In rallying sometimes things can change quick-ly, but what we witnessed on the fourth stage of the Barum Rally truly defied all odds. Both offi-cial Skoda’s hit trouble when first Sepp Wiegand broke a wheel rim and was lucky to continue. There was far worse to come though. Esapekka Lappi went of the road just five kilometers into the stage, severely damaging his Fabia S2000. He had to retire as a result meaning the entire Sko-da assault was wiped out of contention in a sin-gle stage. Their French rivals fared even worse. Leader Kevin Abbring once again suffered a technical failure on his Peugeot and was forced to retire while leading, a scenario unfolding just a bit too often for him this season. With Abbring

out, Peugeot’s hopes were aimed at Craig Breen who should have inherited the lead. Breen made a mistake though and went off the road, smash-ing his car into a tree after a long slide through the grass. He made it to the end of the stage with heavy damage to his car but was unable to com-plete the next stage. Exit favorite number three. All the havoc up front promoted Roman Kresta into the lead, although this would be a short lived one too. On the very next stage Vaclav Pech over-hauled him. Another stage later Kresta retired from the event as well, due to a cracked exhaust manifold. It is well known that the Barum rally is a tricky event, but nobody could have expected such a rate of attrition.

Formally retired, Roman Kresta made a one-off return to rallying and briefly led.Once again Kevin Abbring found himself forced out of an event while leading.


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After all the drama on the first full day, there was an overall consen-sus among the remaining teams: make sure you make it home in on piece. Up front Pech had a large enough lead to indeed take it a bit easier and drive to finish. Behind him, it was a whole different story. Sepp Wiegand was second after the opening leg, just over eighteen seconds ahead of Thomas Kostka in a Fiesta R5. Rather than driv-ing home safely Kostka decided to attack and kept nibbling away at Wiegand’s lead until with just two stages to go he overtook him to move up to second. Although Ko-stka had been faster than Wiegand all day long the young German dug deep to find some additional speed. However while mounting his charge on the penultimate stage of the ral-ly he was (unintentionally) slowed down by Robert Consani. As a re-sult the angry Wiegand only man-aged a fourth fastest time (though this was shared with five(!) drivers, including Kostka).

Eventually it all led up to a final stage showdown between Kostka and Wiegand. The Czech ace held a slender three-second lead over the German and had been faster throughout the day. Betting wasn’t a wise decision though on this year’s Barum Rally. Wiegand pushed as hard as he could and set another fourth fastest stage time. It was enough though as he managed to

pass Kostka with just 0.2 seconds separating the two.

The reason that Wiegand and Ko-stka had not been setting the pace despite both pushing to the limit was the fight behind them for fourth. Ka-jetanowicz was in fourth going into the day but behind him both Tara-bus and Orsak were on an absolute charge. Using their local knowledge to the fullest they both rapidly closed in on Kajetanowicz. On the very last stage of the rally the Pole dropped from fourth to sixth as both Czechs passed, albeit with just 1.6 seconds separating the three of them. After all the drama with the retirements on the fourth stage and the sensa-tional fights on the final stage of the rally, this was truly an event with some serious competition!

After a long and hard battle Kostka came up just short, to finish second the best of the Skodas, Sepp Wiegand.

ERC: Barum Czech Rally Zlin / Result

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1.Pech (CZ)-Uhel (CZ) Mini JCW Super 2000 2.16.28.7 2.Wiegand (D)-Christian (D) Skoda Fabia Super 2000 + 51.5 3.Kostka (CZ)-Houšť (CZ) Ford Fiesta R5 + 51.7 4.Orsák (CZ)-Šmeidler (CZ) Skoda Fabia Super 2000 + 1.12.8 5.Tarabus (CZ)-Trunkát (CZ) Skoda Fabia Super 2000 + 1.13.6 6.Kajetanowicz (PL)-Baran (PL) Ford Fiesta R5 + 1.14.4 7.Tänak (EST)-Mõlder (EST) Ford Fiesta R5 + 2.41.5 8.Vlček (CZ)-Lasevič (CZ) Skoda Fabia Super 2000 + 5.30.2 9.Tlustàk (CZ)-Kučera (CZ) Skoda Fabia Super 2000 + 6.05.8 10.B. Magalhães (P)-C. Magalhães (P) Peugeot 208 T16 + 7.07.3

Final results

ERC: Barum Czech Rally Zlin / Standings

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Championship standings

1. Esapekka Lappi Skoda Fabia S2000 1232. Sepp Wiegand Skoda Fabia S2000 1043. Craig Breen Peugeot 208 T16 704. Vaclav Pech MINI JWC S2000 63 5. Kajetan Kajetanowicz Ford Fiesta RRC 636. Vasily Gryazin Ford Fiesta RRC 537. Ott Tanak Ford Fiesta R5 448. Robert Kubica Ford Fiesta R5 399. Robert Consani Peugeot 207 S2000 3910. Kevin Abbring Peugeot 208 T16 38

ForMyFriends / Rally-eMag

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Bas’ ForMyFriends Bas Romeny travels the world to watch the WRC. Between his eyes and the rest of the world he usually holds a camera. You can see the results of that throughout this magazine.

During events he often he sees ‘other things’ than rally cars going over crests. He decided to send a selection to his rallyfriends. And this section he shares them with all his friends at Rally-eMag. Here he shows you his observations and his thoughts atthe moment he took the pictures.

NONONO, I am not like the girls on the poster!!

Service park Trier. Along the Mosel.

Modern way of showing rally cars the right place to stop in

the media zone.

An unexpected move from a police

woman.

Sophie: Oi, what’s happeningthere?

La vie est belle..Oh, I am blushing.


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Some very convincing German breakfast.

Sordo and Markus in Nicoletta’s shades.

‘Recalcitrant’ is not an unusual word in the vocabulaire of aphotographer. Some even think ‘out of the box’..

The picture of the Polo in the advertisement, seems just about to lose it. AndHyundai wins, when they lose it..

Quite a wild lunch!

Shhh, we have a new plan..

Ok, so on Sunday I haveto really push to the limit.

Hey Pssst, it didn’t work..!

But keep it secret, will you?

Daniel the Networker.


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On the road: just wondering what ma-chine poops out these drops of paint.

Ciao, Bas...Never a dull moment with Bodo.

Just after a hairpin, this corner came, and I thought I was 100 % at a safe place. Its me, onthe right. I was send away by a marshall..

A hundred meters from the corner

on the far left, as you can see from the broken traffic sign and slid marks,some cars went straight on

It took the marshals some cars toreact on the guy and the kid.

For the kitchen?? Hase =Hare. The fastest Staubsauger(=vacume cleaner) there is.

The ice bucket challenge is very popular at the moment. No ice though.

see you next time...

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Rally-eMag 021 August 2014