Three rounds into the 2022 World Rally Championship season, we’re still yet to get an accurate gauge on which of the three manufacturers has the best car.
While it seems crystal clear that 21-year old Finnish driver, Kalle Rovanpera, is the fastest driver out there, it’s yet to be determined if his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 is the main reason for this.
So far this year the WRC has had two events on tarmac and one on snow, and none of the rallies have been even remotely like the other.
Monte Carlo provided snow, ice and wet and dry tarmac on mountain roads, Sweden its traditional winter wonderland, and Corsica a minefield of thick fog, heavy rain and puncture providing tarmac.
So, it’s with much anticipation that the rally world looks forward to the Rally of Portugal in two weeks’ time, where the new hybrid cars will hit the gravel for the first time.
Yet, even with a fourth surface type under the Rally1 cars’ Pirelli tyres, the vagrancies of road positions and road sweeping will again mean that the best car may not necessarily win.
Then again, with Sebastiens Ogier (Toyota) and Loeb (Ford) back for Portugal and with decent road positions, maybe it will.
From the opening three rallies we can certainly confirm that both M-Sport/Ford and Toyota came out of the blocks with all wheels spinning, while Hyundai were trailing badly. The eight-week gap between Sweden and Corsica did, however, allow the Korean make to close that gap significantly.
The new-for-2022 cars have been as exciting to watch as we had hoped, and on the famous Portuguese stages that will go up another level.
On gravel and with 100 brake horsepower more on offer, the cars will almost certainly be Group B-esque.
That extra power is delivered at certain times on stages, including off the start line, but it could also mean that tyre wear and rubber preservation is the key factor to be considered on dry gravel.
The new hybrid systems have been impressively reliable so far this year, with only Hyundai’s Ott Tanak and Adrien Fourmaux’s Ford suffering a rally-ending failure.
That reliability will be further tested in Portugal when the cars will face dust, mud and rougher roads. It will be the greatest test yet for the new formula.
Don’t be confused either. These Rally1 cars are not an R5 or AP4 car with an extra electric motor. Far from it.
They may have less aero and are missing an active centre diff and paddle shift that the World Rally Cars that we were blessed with since 2017, but rest assured they were ‘something else’’ to watch.
Perhaps similar to a V8 Supercar, the Rally1 machines are virtually a lightweight bodyshell over a purpose-built subframe that has taken the performance and the safety of the cars to a whole new level.
By the time the WRC circus gets on the plane and heads down under to New Zealand in late September, expect the Rally1 cars to be fast still, and even more exciting to watch.
It might have been 10 years since NZ hosted the WRC, but it couldn’t have picked a better year to come back!
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