WRC: Rally Monte Carlo (2014)

Steve · Jan 19, 2014

This guy is all over the place. I keep looking for a deranged wheel or something but I don't see it.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_fRp6RNSUA]Rally Monte carlo 2014 passage de sanglier Ford Fiesta nÂ°34 by Ouhla lui - YouTube[/ame]

Steve · Jan 19, 2014

Nice writeup.

MAXRALLY Monte Carlo wrap (MaxRally.com)

by Anthony Peacock / 19th January 2014

All you need to know about the Monte Carlo Rally, as seen by our correspondent Anthony Peacock.

Would Paddy Hopkirk â€“ the winner in 1964 â€“ recognise the Monte Carlo Rally now? Probably not, if only for the simple reason that half a century earlier, huge swathes of Monaco werenâ€™t even built yet. At the time, the royal family were still looking at land reclamation projects as an exotic project for the future, and there were only a few, comparatively modest, skyscrapers dotting the skyline. A far cry from the Beverley Hills-on-Sea that the Principality has become now.

Hopkirk started his rally from Minsk in Russia (now Belarus) which he described as a â€œmassive adventureâ€. As Paddy put it: â€œwho wouldnâ€™t want to go there?â€

We can supply him with a list if heâ€™s still wonderingâ€¦

Since the concentration run was abolished in 1996, the rules are very different, but one thing remains the same: Monte Carlo is still the toughest event on the World Rally Championship, because of its duration and sheer unpredictability. To some extent the current event is fettered by the usual FIA regulations regarding distance and format: the reason why it split from the WRC to join the Intercontinental Rally Challenge in 2009, returning to the WRC in 2012.

But part of the charm of the Automobile Club de Monaco is the fact that they have always done things their own way (very much like the quintessentially French Automobile Club de lâ€™Ouest, which controls Le Mans).

So Monte is an event like no other. There is a pastis bar in the press office, for example, open from the early hours of the morning, and the staff uniforms throughout the rally are impeccable: there are more blazers per square kilometre than you would find in Jermyn Street: the tailoring capital of London.

Thatâ€™s why winning it feels very special, and itâ€™s testimony to how easily Sebastien Ogier has assumed the mantle of power that the fact this was only his first Monte win actually feels surprising. Undoubtedly it was one of the Frenchmanâ€™s greatest wins yet, given that he had to fight back from ninth place at one point on day one to achieve it.

The reason behind his tribulations was the usual Monte dilemma of tyre choice, which is capable of gaining and losing competitors those enormous chunks of time that are never seen anywhere else. Play the system properly and it will work to your advantage, even if you start off with comparatively modest resources. No wonder there is such a commonly-made analogy to the roulette wheel in the Principalityâ€™s famous casino.

The perfect example of this situation was Bryan Bouffier, who maximised every opportunity that came his way to claim another podium, off the back of his IRC win in 2011. Or Kris Meeke, who hadnâ€™t even seen the event since 2010 (when he went off on day two) and finished a remarkable third for Citroen, silencing his doubters.

The seed to their successful performances was actually sown on the first day, when Bryan and Kris were the only people to take winter tyres whereas the others took slicks. â€œI didnâ€™t actually realise Bryan had the same choice as me,â€ explained Meeke. â€œI knew that we had absolutely the right tyre for the conditions and I thought we could do well, so I just stayed cautious because I thought nobody else had the same choice. Had I known Bryan was on them too, I might have pushed a bit harderâ€¦â€

But Monte is full of â€˜had I knownsâ€™. Had Xavier Panseri, Bouffierâ€™s co-driver known that the road looped round the other way in the middle of SS11, he would not have missed out five kilometres of stage in their pace notes. They only realised the mistake once their gravel crew had been through the stage a few hours before and noticed a considerable discrepancy between the scenery in front of them and what was written down in the pace note book. Cue some frantic ringing round to make alternative arrangements. In the end, the crew got hold of Dominique Savignoni (Francois Delecourâ€™s co-driver) who was able to dictate the missing five kilometres of notes down the phone to them. That still cost them 30 seconds thoughâ€¦

The best way to avoid making mistakes of course is to try and avoid making too many decisions for yourself, which is why Elfyn Evans had exactly the right attitude in cheerfully admitting that he was largely doing what he was told when it came to tyre choice. To wheel out a tired clichÃ© (but clichÃ©s are only clichÃ©s because they contain fundamental truths) a star was born in Monte Carlo in the shape of the young Welshman.

Elfynâ€™s sixth place in Sardinia last year was astonishing, but he proved it was no fluke by matching that in Monte Carlo. It wasnâ€™t just the result that marked him out: it was the way he achieved it. Diligently, intelligently, and humbly.

Malcolm Wilson said that he was very, very pleased by what he saw. Something really quite special. The boss wasnâ€™t quite as bowled over by the performance of Mikko Hirvonen, but to be fair, neither was Mikko himself. Elfyn was ahead of his experienced Finnish team mate by the end of the first day, but the young Welshman wasnâ€™t getting carried away by that â€“ one of the reasons why he is so highly rated.

â€œTo be honest, itâ€™s only happened because Iâ€™ve gone with the conservative tyre choices and Mikko has tried something different,â€ he said at the first service halt in Gap. â€œI wouldnâ€™t read too much into it.â€

The wider point weâ€™re making here is that despite the loss of their established 2013 stars, both Citroen and M-Sport have plenty to be happy about. Itâ€™s going to be a very interesting season where consistency will pay off, because at some point, Ogier and Volkswagen will slip up â€“ itâ€™s happened before. Mikkoâ€™s retirement will sadly have far-reaching consequences for him: heâ€™s played his joker already.

And what of Hyundai, the new kids on the block? They made a bold statement with a huge investment and a motorhome that has not just moved the hospitality game up a notch, but changed it completely. A bit like Jaguarâ€™s entry into Formula One in 2000, for those of us old enough to remember that, and everyone knows how that ended.

The real work goes on behind the scenes though and it seems that Hyundai has everything it needs to succeed. The one thing they couldnâ€™t quite control was the mentality of their number one driver. Team principal Michel Nandan admitted that when he saw the first split on stage one, he knew it was too fast. And these things can happen when you push hard, is basically what an insouciant Thierry concluded afterwards.

Compare and contrast with Robert Kubica, who won the first two stages to build up more than a half-minute lead and then crashed on the first stage of day two from fourth place. Robert was completely mortified, but had absolutely no need to be. Thierry could learn a bit from that.
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Crashton · Jan 19, 2014

Steve said: ↑

This guy is all over the place. I keep looking for a deranged wheel or something but I don't see it.

Rally Monte carlo 2014 passage de sanglier Ford Fiesta nÂ°34 by Ouhla lui - YouTube
Click to expand...

If you watch as he comes around the turn into view, looks like he has a broken tie rod. One wheel wants to steer its own way & the other he is steering.

MCS02 · Jan 20, 2014

All three days are posted if you want to download them.

http://wrc.mirafiori.com

Steve · Jan 20, 2014

For those interested, there are a bunch of pics posted on Kris Meeke's site. All watermarked, unfortunately, but still pretty good.

Steve · Jan 20, 2014

More of Kubica's rally ending crash.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swcBzhMjvXc]Crash Kubica rallye Monte Carlo 2014 - YouTube[/ame]

Steve · Jan 20, 2014

Some good footage in this one.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltowzL3kkNU]Best of WRC Montecarlo 2014 | Drift, Crash & Maximum attack [HD] - YouTube[/ame]

Crashton · Jan 21, 2014

Excellent video.

Love the slicks on snow, not the fast way down the stage. Maybe they should get 4x4 pickumups..... :wink:

Steve · Feb 2, 2014

A little interesting background on Bryan Bouffier (finished 2nd this year).

Manâ€™s best friend (MaxRally.com)

by Anthony Peacock / 2nd February 2014

Bryan Bouffier may have gone off on the first morning of Rally Liepaja but with good friends around you, most disappointments are surmountable.

And itâ€™s said that the most loyal friends of all are of the four-legged variety.

In Bryanâ€™s case thatâ€™s probably true â€“ because his dog helped to net him the major sponsor that makes his rallying possible. Or rather, his dogâ€™s prodigious appetite did.

In 2005, Bryan acquired an enormous 80-kilogram dog that looked a â€œbit like Scooby Dooâ€ and had a seemingly bottomless appetite. The dog was christened â€œAtchoumâ€: French for â€˜Sneezyâ€™ (as in Snow White and the seven dwarves).

Atchoum was certainly no dwarf though, and soon started eating Bryan out of house and home. To make things worse, Atchoum eschewed conventional dog food in favour of premium chicken.

â€œIt was not so easy for me as I had to keep going to the local supermarket to buy chicken and it was costing me a huge amount per month,â€ explained Bryan. â€œThe supermarket got the chicken from a specialist poultry company called Royal Bernard. So first I gave the company a call to see if they would sell me chicken at a low price. First they said no, but then I went to meet them and the boss agreed. During that year I saw him many times as each month I was there to collect the chicken.â€

Fast forward to 2012, when Bryan was all set to do the Monte Carlo Rally. Inevitably, part of the budget was missing: the perennial problem facing most drivers on a tediously regular basis. The solution normally consists of knocking on every door imaginable: including, in Bryanâ€™s case, the chicken man. A meeting was duly arranged with the big boss, and Royal Bernard ended up being one of Bouffierâ€™s biggest sponsors ever since.

â€œThe man was not really involved in motorsport: he had some race horses, but he followed the rally and after our first Monte Carlo he told me it was a very good experience.â€

In 2013, Bryan was fifth overall and the best non-works entry on the Monte. This year, he was second overall. They were both performances that were finger-licking good, according to the French equivalent of Colonel Sanders.

So Latvia wasnâ€™t quite as successful, but there were still nuggets of success to be savoured, so who gives a cluck? (OK, weâ€™ll stop now). And itâ€™s all down to a very large mutt with gourmet tastes.
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