Official 2007 WRC thread

[redbaron]

I also ike this season so far. It is good to see Mikko Hirvonen beating both Grönholm and Loeb. I think Subaru will have a better pace with their new car. Don't forget the Impreza WRC2006 is build to perform on Pirelli tyres, not BFs.

I think there could be some surprise from an M2 team. The pace of the Stobart Focus WRC 2006 is very good. Henning Solberg and Latvala are really fast! Also never forget the Kronos team, they have the car and the drivers to drive comfortably in the points. Then there are Galli and hopefully Gardemeister who also like to surprice me with their driving. I truelly hope Gardemeister will find a budget to compete in more WRC events and maybe a better car. And there is also the debut of the Suzuki SX4 WRC.

Maybe Sordo will win his first asphalt event this year?
I think this will be a good year of WRC.

[racingfreak]

The new Subaru to be seen in Mexico is said to be completely different, and more suited to the BF tyres. So if they're performing quite decently so far with the old car, I bet the new one should be on par with the Focus

I also think the new subaru is going to be better, BUT its still going to be the old solberg that makes pointless little mistakes that cost him races. Although the car hasn't been that reliable the last couple of years there were a couple of races that he could have still scored some points but got careless eg. drove into the trees in japan...

[redbaron]

Suprising WRC news:

Pirelli will make the WRC control tyre for 2008, 2009 and 2010. That will mean that Pirelli is the only supplier of WRC tyres for those years. I though it was already a won game by BF Goodrich, because they are the only tyre supplier for all M1 and M2 teams at the moment.


:arrow: www.wrc.com:

Pirelli wins FIA tyre race Pirelli has won the battle to be the official tyre supplier in the FIA World Rally Championship for the next three years. The Italian company saw off a bid from American rival BFGoodrich at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris today (Tuesday). The decision means Pirelli will supply a control tyre for all four-wheel drive cars in the championship from the start of next season. All six teams registered for this year's world championship run on BFGoodrich tyres, although several private teams use Pirelli. Two-wheel drive cars competing in the FIA Junior Rally Championship run on BFGoodrich rubber. BFGoodrich and parent company Michelin have between them won more WRC events but Pirelli has a heritage which includes wins in 140 world championship rallies to date. With the FIA banning deflation-proof mousse inserts in tyres from the start of 2008, big changes in tyre activity were already planned. The decision to move to single supplier tyres extends the revolution further. Mario Isola, Pirelli rally tyre manager, said: "This new agreement with the FIA changes the way in which we will operate. The single supplier agreement means that development can be directed into new areas, notably placing more emphasis on product reliability than sheer tyre performance. "In addition, for Pirelli it has been a chance to widen the way we can help to promote the sport worldwide, not only through the world championship but also the IRC and the national championships as well. Pirelli also has a new young driver talent development programme. It was a disappointment for Pirelli not to be active with a registered team in the 2007 series, but today's decision by the FIA has given us new motivation," he added. Subaru ran Pirelli tyres until the end of last season while Ford last used them in the WRC in 2002. The Citroen Xsara of Gigi Galli is running on Pirelli this year. Seven of the 17 teams on the opening round of the Production car WRC in Rally Norway, including the cars which finished first and second, used Pirelli rubber. The development timetable for Pirelli is to make 2008-specification tyres available in June or July 2007, ready for testing from September.

[redbaron]

New Impreza 2007:



more pics at http://www.swrt.com/gallery/gallery.html. If anyone has them high res, please post them!

The biggest body changes I see at the first sight are:
- No roof spoiler
- Exhaust through the rear bumper
- Air exits at the bonnet to the sides instead of the centre

:arrow: http://www.swrt.com/news/viewarticle.html?id=1222

REVEALED: Subaru's new World Rally Championship contender 02 March 2007 The Subaru World Rally Team has today unveiled the latest evolution of its rally challenger, the Impreza WRC2007, which will make its competitive debut on Rally Mexico (March 9-11) in the hands of Petter Solberg/Phil Mills and Chris Atkinson/Glenn Macneall. As with previous incarnations of the iconic rally car, the Impreza WRC2007 is the result of a close collaboration between the teams of engineers and designers within Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd and Subaru Tecnica International (STI) in Japan and the Subaru World Rally Team in England. The creation of the WRC2007 is a sign of Subaru’s ongoing commitment to the World Rally Championship as a way of proving the superior performance, reliability and safety of the Impreza model. Although the latest World Rally Car is outwardly similar to its predecessor, a number of key engineering improvements have justified the production of a new car for the remainder of this season. Steve Farrell, director of engineering for the Subaru World Rally Team, explains: “The targets were to produce a car that has a more responsive front end with better traction and more balanced tyre wear, particularly on longer stages. To achieve that, we have applied a different philosophy into areas such as weight distribution, suspension geometry and differential set-ups. We also have new dampers to improve road-holding and traction. “The car also has a different radiator and intercooler pack. We made an evolution in the middle of last season and, with the benefit of the new homologation, we’ve been able to make a further step on that. We have simplified the layout, which has improved the air flow, made the front end of the car easier to service and lost some weight. “Externally, the differences are relatively subtle. The front bumper has been restyled to suit the new radiator pack and the bonnet vents are different – we have twin side exits on the bonnet this time rather than one central one.” Richard Taylor, Subaru World Rally Team managing director adds: “Since the latter part of last year we’ve worked very closely with Subaru in Japan to look at certain specific areas of the 2006 car and bring the new version to fruition as quickly as possible. This season we have started to work with BFGoodrich and Mexico will be our first gravel event with its tyres, so we still have a considerable amount of learning to do in that respect.” As the basis of a rally winning machine, few cars can match the competitive pedigree of the Impreza. First launched in 1992, the road car has developed in tandem with its rallying counterpart and over the last 13 seasons, the Impreza has scored 46 WRC victories and lessons learned on the rally stages have been fed back into the production model. Like the road-going Impreza, at the heart of the rally car are two key parts of the Subaru philosophy, namely the Horizontally-opposed engine and the trademark Symmetrical AWD (All-Wheel-Drive). Through the work of STI and the Subaru World Rally Team, Subaru has established a two-way feedback process which complements both the road and rally car programmes. Shigeo Sugaya, manufacturer principal, engineering, for the Subaru World Rally Team, says: “The collaboration between Subaru in Japan and England has worked extremely well to deliver the WRC2007 in a very short timeframe. Last autumn, engineers in Japan and England shared the idea before actual work started on both sides. Then development work was initiated as a joint project between the two teams. “Our engineers in Japan are responsible for two main areas: the first is designing the bodyshell, including aerodynamics, and the other is improving the power unit. The engine itself contributes to further improving drivability in the middle to low speed range, which worked effectively in the Impreza WRC2006. As with previous designs, the engine is an all-aluminium construction, but the further use of light-weight materials means it is even lighter than before. “On top of that, we work very closely with the Subaru World Rally Team engineers on specific projects and offer general support as and when it is needed. We also set up smaller groups including engineers from both Japan and England to develop areas such as the suspension or aerodynamics. The groups communicate directly, while my role is to oversee the success of each project. The WRC2007 does not represent a radical change for the team, instead we have made small evolutions in several areas.” The team has used the WRC2006 for the first three rallies of the 2007 season and has scored points on each outing. In parallel, the new car has been undergoing testing on gravel roads in Italy and Spain. The two Subaru World Rally Team crews will drive the Impreza WRC2007 for Mexico and the subsequent 12 rounds of the WRC. Today two Subaru Impreza WRC2007s were due to set off from the Subaru World Rally Team’s headquarters in Banbury, England to embark on the 5000-mile trip to Mexico in preparation for their debut in the World Rally Championship.

[TopGearNL]

It doesn't look that different but it is actually, most changes underneath obviously. Now lets see how they perform on the stages! Go Petter! 8)

[redbaron]

The official results

1. Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena - Citroen C4 - 3:53:33.1
2. Petter Solberg/Phil Mills - Subaru Impreza WRC - +3:13.9
3. Dani Sordo/Marc Marti - Citroen C4 - +5:05.3
4. Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautiainen - Ford Focus RS - +5:37.1
5. Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen - Ford Focus RS - +7:08.1
6. Daniel Carlsson/Denis Giraudet - Citroen Xsara WRC - +8:13.2
7. Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchni - Citroen Xsara WRC - +9:39.6
8. Jari-Matti Latvala/Miika Anttila - Ford Focus WRC - +10:44.9
9. Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor - Citroen Xsara WRC - +12:46.0
10. Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene - Ford Focus RS04 - +13:51.6

All Fords got a 5 minute penalty because of too thin side windows. The rules state that the side windows on a World Rally Car should measure a minimum of 3.5mm, instead of 3mm, which was what the Ford windows measured.
I believe the Ford Focus WRC 2006 already has these thin windows for a long time, because all 6 finished cars had them.

[TopGearNL]

^^ Ah that sucks about Ford..

Will it have consequences for the earlier results that were set?

[redbaron]

^^
I don't think it will. I think the problem started with the damaged car of Grönholm at the second day. Grönholm's car was discovered to be underweight. This was a result of the missing parts because of the damage. At the service park, the BP-Ford team then started to collect spare examples of the missing parts, and found these collectively totalled around 6kg, more than the amount by which the car was underweight.

No problems at that point. I think one of the damaged parts was a side window and a too diligent steward found out that the windows were 0.5 mm thinner than prescribed by the rules. I think Ford did not have a big advantage of the thinner windows, it is probably a safety issue. In the end rules are rules and they are there to be broken, but when you get caught you have to live with the consequences.

[TopGearNL]

^^ Yeah there goes Ford coming so close to Loeb..

[redbaron]

Originally Posted by dani_d_mas These rules are utter bullshit. Really. They do not affect the performance of the car. They do not affect the handling neither. So? what's the point in giving a 5 minutes penalyty?? IMO that's just to fucking much. I know that rules are rules... but a freakin 0.5mm?!?!?!?!?! :fist:

OK, this 0.5 mm does not give any difference, but they do not agree with the rules. If you tolerate this, what will be next? I believe they "only" got a 5 minute penalty because there was no advantage in performance. Normally a not legal car leads to disqualification. Just remind to the plastic part in the water pump of the Peugeot 307 in Cyprus 2004. That part also did not give any performance advantage but they were disqualified.

In the end, this time penalty is much better for the championship than a disqualification.

[silentm]

Originally Posted by dani_d_mas These rules are utter bullshit. Really. They do not affect the performance of the car. They do not affect the handling neither. So? what's the point in giving a 5 minutes penalyty?? IMO that's just to fucking much. I know that rules are rules... but a freakin 0.5mm?!?!?!?!?! :fist:

i guess it's more a security issue and maybe that's the way they justify it (first thought that came to me). but i don't know i'm just speculating.

[redbaron]

^^

Yes, this one is stupid. Just like the mudflap incident of Solberg in Greece 2004. These rules are for the nit-picking stewards

[TopGearNL]

Also Juhoo Hänninen, Finnish rally driver was disqualified last years Finnish rally, because of the wrong type of underwear

Is that true? :shock:

[dutchmasterflex]

I still think the Citroen team had something to do with this!

[racingfreak]

BTW - did you hear that an argentinian driver run over 3 people killing a woman? worst thing of all is that it happened on open road

If anyone watched the rally and saw how close the people stood next to the road they would understand why something like this was bound to happen, the spectators should start thinking for themselfes! You cant stand on the outside of a 60mph corner and expect to be 100% safe!