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The fast road out of the slums: F1 and Motorsport 2019

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    Silverstone 19 = DOPE

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      Well the German Grand Prix was eventful.

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        Yes - it was fun

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          Bugger:

          https://twitter.com/MSportLtd/status/1155824316786851840?s=19

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            Absolutely gutted for him, heard him interviewed on the Absolute Rally podcast last week and he'd worked so hard for the opportunity. Really disappointing.

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              Time to watch the highlights on My5. I've avoided all reports so far, so looking forward to this.

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                  Oh God, 22 year old Anthoine Hubert has been killed in a Formula 2 crash at Spa. Thoughts with his family.

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                    Wales Rally GB starts on Thursday - and the ceremonial start (ie autographs, photo shoot, roll slowly over a ramp with some local dignitary standing looking bemused with a flag) is 500 yards from my office, in front of the Liver Buildings! I'd normally avoid that sort of thing like the plague, but it seems like I'd be missing a trick not to go along.

                    Hoping Hurricane Lorenzo swerves us though, as two days standing on the Welsh uplands would definitely be more enjoyable if they were sunlit, and I didn't have to dodge falling timber.

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                      So Lewis Hamilton = Jim Clark, John Surtees, Graham Hill and James Hunt, combined.

                      I'm sure it says more about my faded interest than the sport itself, but it's remarkable that one of the all-time great records (in any sport) has made less impression than an array of one and two-time winners. They'll need to make a decent movie, take a few liberties, add a killer soundtrack.

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                        He's done all this in an era of strong rivals too: initially the likes of Button, Alonso, Webber, and then Vettel, Raikkonen, Rosberg and has even bested Verstappen, Leclerc, Bottas et al so far. He's had a superb team behind him, no question, but he's also earned every single one of these titles. Phenomenal racer.
                        Last edited by Kevin S; 04-11-2019, 09:21.

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                          But what with half term holidays a little while back I missed Tanak claiming his maiden rally world championship. Really chuffed for him, it's been coming ever since M-Sport got him in the headlines. But there once again seems to be more WRC standard drivers floating around than seats for 2020. Would dearly love the VW group to re-enter; in my mind a Seat Cupra Ibiza WRC would be awesome and probably have more marketing potential then the Fabia or Polo in terms of where rally is popular. We can but hope. New calendar is certainly interesting..

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                            Final round of the WRC cancelled. Was never going to be feasible to run it in NSW in the midst of the horrendous bush fires going on in the region.

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                              Well I know the thread is trundling towards its conclusion now but that Brazilian GP was superb. Some wonderful drives, comical mistakes and an unlikely podium.

                              When was the last time none of the top three had a Ferrari or Mercedes engine?

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                                La Gazzetta had managed to come up with seven different pieces on the Vettel/LeClerc nonsense the last time I checked.

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                                  How many of them conclude that they need to ditch Vettel?

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                                    Eight out of seven

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                                      I've cycled round the Abu Dhabi F1 track, by the way. It's nowhere near as fast on two wheels.

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                                        8 hours of Bahrain TV stations in case anyone fancies it:
                                        https://www.fiawec.com/en/news/where...f-bahrain/6572

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                                          Been meaning to write stuff about rallying for months, but don't seem to have found the time.

                                          WRC 2020 calendar has already taken a hit with Chile cancelling their event due to the political unrest in the country. Lots of chat about a replacement but the vacant slot in the calendar, the fact that it was situated close to Argentina for logistical reasons and the length of time it takes to organise an event on WRC scale mean that that the series will probably run one event short.

                                          Driver line ups still not publicly finalised, even though we've passed the cut-off date for entries to be lodged for the opening round.

                                          What we do know is that Toyota will have Ogier, Evans and Rovanpera doing all events, with Katsuta doing all the European rounds plus Japan, and J-ML doing Sweden, Finland and hopefully a couple of other European rounds if he can raise more private funding (reputedly 300,000€ per event to hire a 'factory' WRC car).

                                          Hyundai have their dream team of Tanak and Neuville, with part seasons again for Sordo and Loeb. Breen has got some sort of role with the team (testing and developing their new R5 car) but whether that leads to WRC entries is unclear. There's been talk of a B team entry for him and Mikkelsen, but the rules for that would preclude either of them stepping up to the A team for events that Sordo or Loeb didn't do, and where they could help with manufacturers championship points - so it's all a bit blurry...

                                          M-Sport have Suninen contracted to do the full season and Greensmith will definitely do 'some' events... but whether Gus steps up to be the no.3 driver and does a lot of events is not certain. Meanwhile the no.2 slot seems most likely to be filled by Citroen refugee Lappi, but again there is no white smoke coming from Cumbria to confirm this.

                                          Meeke has said that he's not doing WRC in 2020 but will pursue 'other interests'. He's big into off-road bikes, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see him try something endurance based in that field. Paddon has said he's sticking with Hyundai NZ to do other projects, including development of an electric vehicle, and will obviously be desperate to snag a WRC seat for NZ when it returns to the calendar. Ostberg is doing stuff with Citroen, but rumours that he'll run a private team with the C3 WRC look improbable. Citroen had tested an improved aero package on the car late in the season but don't seem to have been able to homologate it before they withdrew, so although the cars are available if anyone wants to run them, they'd probably have to run with the old aero which was proven to be fairly shit for a number of events.

                                          Elsewhere, Pirelli have won the tender to be sole tyre supplier for all WRC categories from 2021, British ERC Champion Chris Ingram is trying to find the funding to step up to WRC2 or 3 - the support series' having been renamed for 2020 with WRC2 PRO now being called WRC2 (for manufacturer teams), and privateer R5 crews now competing in WRC3 (formerly WRC2). Rallying really doesn't help make itself easier for the public to understand sometimes....

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