Sebastien Loeb won his 9th WRC title in a row this weekend. Does it even mean anything anymore? Only 6 drivers have actually taken part on each round of the championship this year, presumably due to lack of funds in the sport. Seems a far, far cry from the late 90’s/early 2000’s when there was a much deeper pool of talant and manufacturers involved.

It’s a damn shame that WRC seems to have died on its feet in recent years. Stupid driver rules, works teams disappearing etc have all made it a shadow of its former self. Loeb is a class act, but even he must be thinking of calling it quits.

Well since 2003 he’s won 50% of all of the rallies that have taken place and only retired from 10% so he’s been amazingly consistent. Given other team managers have been saying he’s the best rally driver of all time (not based on stats but ability), I think you can consider the 9 in a row significant 🙂

Loeb is a class act, but even he must be thinking of calling it quits.

He’s doing a partial programme in 2013 so someone else WILL win it next year and then he’s off to touring cars.

WRC went wrong when they changed the format to please TV.

Just find it a bit dull these days,

I was an avid fan in the 80s/90s but WRC became a TV sport to satisfy sponsors.
Then as ‘altaz’ posted Loeb is going to be part-time WRC in 2013 before a stint in World Touring Car in 2014

Rallying is dull to watch, its just a time trial for cars.
The same bloke winning all the time is dull.

Hence WRC is about as dull as it gets.

It used to great, channel 4’s coverage in the late 90s was superb and there were factory efforts from Peugeot, Citroen, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Toyota, Skoda, Ford etc etc….it seemed to be in rude health. I think the tuning limitations turned a lot of the factories off, what’s the point in sinking a ton of money into development if the rule makers limit the engines to 300bhp (or whatever it is/was)….no factories means ultimately less money.

I felt I was late to the party when I rallied in the 80s. The heyday was in the 60s when a works Cooper S was beaten by a standard showroom model up the Valence hill climb. It would be easy to bring rallying back to life:

1300cc, two-wheel drive, based on a four/five-seater model, no turbos, standard exhaust system, emissions test at scrutineering, standard suspension apart from springs and dampers, standard brakes except pads, no lighter than the standard car and ballast if used to be steel plate welded/bonded into the roof.

Forgot it still existed – seems to have nothing like the PR it used to have in the Colin McRae era.

Yawn…

used to love WRC but now it seems it the ‘Sebastian Loeb Show’ and i’ve switched off, paying no or little interest. No one can keep up or consistantly get near him. Thankfully he’s going part time next year so it may give someone else a chance (Petter Solberg!) to win a championship. Knowing Loeb though he’d still win being part time. Cracking all round driver, but WRC is just a tad boring with him winning virtually every rally! New WRC Manufacturers next year , VW WRC car and Hyundai should hopefully make it more interesting too.

Who? What? WTF…?

Red Bull taking over the promotion of the series may improve things, if there’s one thing they’re good at its promotion!

Toyota are also supposedly making a return.