Dakar is up and running, with Alonso safely through stage one in 11th. And WRC Monte Carlo is only a few weeks away. Time for a new thread.
Starting with the WRC, we've got the world champion we've been waiting for in Ott Tänak, who took pretty much every race by the scruff of the neck last year - never looking to ease his way into a rally, Tänak attacked from the off and forced his rivals to chase the whole weekend.
However, we have issues. Ogier has left Citroën for Toyota and so the Citroën WRT has packed up. Tänak is at Hyundai now with Neuville and Sordo/Loeb while M-Sport have a youthful trio of Greensmith, Suninen and Lappi. Ogier's Toyota team mates include Evans among others.
So a lot of WRC standard drivers don't have top level drives. We may see some very competitive R5 action this year as a result I suppose.
Also missing from WRC 2020 is Rally Chile. Due to unrest, the calendar is currently only 13 rallies long. However the good news is that this includes the return of Safari Rally Kenya and a Japanese Rally.
In F1, there are about as many changes to the calendar as to the grid. Only two driver changes with Ocon coming back - replacing Hulkenburg at Renault. Williams have let Kubica go and bring in Latifi. There's one team name change as Toro Rossi are now Alpha Tauri, named after Red Bull's clothing range. Not to be confused with Alfa Romeo of course.
There is to be a Dutch GP at Zandvoort and a Vietnamese GP on a Hanoi street circuit. Neither captures the imagination from a sporting perspective unfortunately but fingers crossed. Only Germany has gone so we are up to a whopping 22 Grands Prix this year.
Starting with the WRC, we've got the world champion we've been waiting for in Ott Tänak, who took pretty much every race by the scruff of the neck last year - never looking to ease his way into a rally, Tänak attacked from the off and forced his rivals to chase the whole weekend.
However, we have issues. Ogier has left Citroën for Toyota and so the Citroën WRT has packed up. Tänak is at Hyundai now with Neuville and Sordo/Loeb while M-Sport have a youthful trio of Greensmith, Suninen and Lappi. Ogier's Toyota team mates include Evans among others.
So a lot of WRC standard drivers don't have top level drives. We may see some very competitive R5 action this year as a result I suppose.
Also missing from WRC 2020 is Rally Chile. Due to unrest, the calendar is currently only 13 rallies long. However the good news is that this includes the return of Safari Rally Kenya and a Japanese Rally.
In F1, there are about as many changes to the calendar as to the grid. Only two driver changes with Ocon coming back - replacing Hulkenburg at Renault. Williams have let Kubica go and bring in Latifi. There's one team name change as Toro Rossi are now Alpha Tauri, named after Red Bull's clothing range. Not to be confused with Alfa Romeo of course.
There is to be a Dutch GP at Zandvoort and a Vietnamese GP on a Hanoi street circuit. Neither captures the imagination from a sporting perspective unfortunately but fingers crossed. Only Germany has gone so we are up to a whopping 22 Grands Prix this year.
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