It’s a huge moment for the WRC. Some say it’s the championship’s most vital effort yet to reclaim the worldwide popularity it enjoyed in the fabled Group B era of the mid-1980s.
In 2017 we will have new rules, more powerful and more dramatic cars, and different driver combinations.
This could be the most exciting, vibrant season for many years. And a great deal is riding on the new car/driver combinations.
It’s like Malcolm Wilson told me some months ago: “If this doesn’t work then I don’t know what will or how long it can carry on!”
New cars
The new cars sure look the business. With more power, active centre differentials, bigger and better aero, deeper splitters, side-skirts and rear undertrays, they are edgy racers.
For this writer – and many others – they are indeed the nearest thing we have seen to Group B since that era was abruptly cancelled by then-FIA chief Jean-Marie Balestre 31 years ago
And, amazingly, they achieve all that while remaining pussy-cats environmentally compared to their 1980s forebears. I don’t expect to stand behind a Ford, Citroën, Toyota or Hyundai World Rally Car and be totally overcome by exhaust fumes as happened to me more than once with Group B machines! No, their fuel, while not pump-petrol grade, is nothing like the exotic blends in use back then.
However, what they do have is the benefit of three decades of development. Over any WRC stages that remain the same in 2017 as in 1985 the Group B records still standing will be shattered. That’s what happens with progress!
New team/driver partnerships
There are also some intriguing driver/co-driver switches for this upcoming season.
M-Sport Ford
Chief among these has to be M-Sport’s brilliant stroke in signing reigning world champion SÄ—bastien Ogier. From the moment VW took the pusillanimous decision to quit, Wilson set his heart on snaring Ogier for 2017. The M-Sport boss went out on a limb, called in every favour and twisted every arm he could and did the deal.
For some years M-Sport has produced competitive cars but has not had the services of an A* grade driver. Sure, there have been Jari-Matti Latvala, Petter Solberg, Mikko Hirvonen and so on… They're all top men, but none quite has 'Oggi'’s rage to win.
Well, now Wilson has such a man and if the latest Fiesta is anything like up to scratch then Malcom must be in line for at least one of the two big championship titles.
Wilson also has Ott Tanak and (glory be!) Elfyn Evans on his books. Tanak is a born winner waiting to happen and Evans is a whole lot tougher cookie than he was before being demoted to driving R5 cars. There’s nothing like a swipe of hardship to inject steel into a driver! Just ask Tanak: he suffered the same fate but bounced back.
Citroën
Citroën would like to think they too can lift one of the two biggest prizes. Its biggest weapons are the 18 months they have spent developing their 2017 challenger and their #1 driver. Yes, that’s Kris Meeke, who has spent half a lifetime getting to this position. And he’s sure not going to let it go without a fight.
Already, in 2016, he has taken victories in Portugal and Finland – the latter to the astonishment of the Finnish rally mafia – and he has developed the new DS3 car to his spec. As a qualified engineer as well as premium grade driver he must start 2017 with a significant advantage. It is easy to see Meeke and Ogier going at each other like olde worlde prizefighters this season. Citroën’s other two drivers are Stéphane Lefebvre and Craig Breen. They’ll drive in turn until a third car is ready. For me, Breen is gold dust and has determination to match it.
Hyundai
At Hyundai we have Thierry Neuville, Hayden Paddon and Dani Sordo – for many the best all-round line-up in 2017. Neuville shone throughout 2016, eventually beating Andreas Mikkelsen to the WRC runner-up spot, and has comfortably regained his spot as team leader. For many he is the one driver who might upset the Ogier/Meeke axis in 2017.
Paddon is still learning but obviously has a major talent for racing rally cars, while Sordo is the Mr. Reliable who can anchor the team.
Toyota
Over at Toyota there are Jari-Matti Latvala and Juho Hanninen, with Esapekka Lappi later in the year. Latvala endured a desperately poor season in 2016 and, by his own admission, all his motivation went missing. To many observers he was extremely lucky to be picked up by the Japanese team.
The inside story would surely reveal that Finnish driver overlord Timo Joukhi had a great deal to do with Jari-Matti getting the gig. Latvala says now that all his motivation has flooded back. Indeed, at the Toyota launch in Helsinki he was searingly honest about last season and bouncy about future prospects. No doubt this has something to do with getting out from under Ogier’s shadow!
Still, no-one expects too much from Tommi Makinen’s team in its first year. Hanninen’s place is another surprise to me and his place must be due to loyalty from Makinen after all the older Finn’s testing work. Nevertheless it was fairly astonishing that he wasn’t replaced by Mikkelsen.
But some weren't so lucky
Mikkelsen is the main casualty of the driver musical chairs brought on by VW’s departure. It’s weird that a young driver with three wins to his name and who has finished third in the WRC standings three years running can’t get a front-line drive. As it is, he’s been somewhat rescued by Škoda to drive an R5 car and is putting a brave face on it. Mind you, I wouldn’t be that surprised to find him replacing an under-performing first team driver later this year.
Overall the FIA decision that two drivers in each team of three can score points this season is a very good thing, whatever team managers think. At least it means the blockage when competitors near the top of the sport has been eased somewhat and the likes of Evans, Breen, Lefebvre, Tanak get a good shot at glory.
2017 calendar
This year’s WRC calendar remains largely unchanged from 2016, except that Corsica has been shoehorned into the first quarter of the year to break up a row of gravel rallies. Thank God the embarrassment of China will not be visited on us again in 2017, though there is still talk of 2018.
There are also rumours of a round in India that year. Why anyone should think such a disorganised country could run a WRC round is beyond me. India couldn’t even sustain an Asia-Pacific round some years ago! Neither has there been much talk in recent months about WRC promoter’s “list” of a dozen or so countries which want a WRC event.
Mainstream media attention still required
The championship’s television footprint is steadily growing with Red Bull TV kicking off this year. But sadly I can’t see much attention yet from Fleet Street or the major continental newspapers.
The modernists will all say that no-one reads newspapers any more: that internet-based media is everything today. But the fact remains that for all big-time sports the cross pollination between TV and major newspapers is the engine that drives their popularity.
For us Brits, the best thing that could happen this season would be for 'Meekanen' to become world champion. That might just get us noticed once again.
The Monte Carlo Rally opens the 2017 WRC season and begins with Wednesday's shakedown.
