Rally
WRC. Before the start of Rallye de France Sébastien Loeb was concerned about not being able to show high results during the upcoming week-end due to his seventh start position. Basing on the current regulations the pilots of the asphalt WRC round start according to their positions in the World Championship. As the multiple World Champion completes a partial programme this season — only a few rounds — and finishes his rally career by taking part in home races, he is not the first to start. Loeb was worried that the first contestants would be “cutting” corners and drawing mud from the roadsides and it would definitely make life more difficult for those who started after them. According to the weather forecast it’s going to rain this week-end in Alsace which makes the situation even worse. However the leader of the current season, Loeb’s countryman and namesake, Sébastien Ogier, who is planning to win his first championship title, said that maestro should not be grumbling. He had been first to start so often that it was time to waive this right. In addition to that the barriers installed this year inside the corners would not let cutting them that much, so one shouldn’t be expecting a lot of mud on the track.
Meanwhile by winning the first power stage on Friday Ogier swept the World Rally Championship title by being 0.7 seconds faster than this closest competitor Thierry Neuville. The pilot of Volkswagen will continue the race as the winner of the season.
ERC. Being left behind in the World Championship (the 2014 calendar has the Rally of Poland instead of the Greek round), the Acropolis Rally is quite possible to settle in the European Rally Championship. In 2014 the Rally in Greece will be celebrating its 40th anniversary and it would have been really sad to be left without any “status”. As noted by the promoters of the Rally in Greece, it was a pity that FIA abandoned their track as it has only happend twice since the beginning of the World Championship in 1973 when no races were held there: in 1974 due the fuel crisis and in 1995. But the Acropolis promoter Pavlos Athanasoulas said they were closely watching the European round: “The ERC is a very strong championship and we are in discussion about next year with them.”
DTM
Hungary and Spain might become the rounds of the German Touring Car Masters in 2014. The Hungaroring and the Circuit de Catalunya have already hosted DTM races. The event was held once in 1988 on the track in Budapest and the Spanish rounds had been taking place since 2006 till 2009. It is worthy of note that both circuits were used for test races by the participants of the series. But due to the economic crisis additional rounds will put more strain on the teams. And not everyone would cope with it. Nevertheless it was stated by teams’ representatives that it was very important to conduct rounds in those countries with the markets potentially interesting for the participating brands. Together with the new rounds there comes one departure. It is the round in Zandvoort, Netherlands. Though the pilots really fancy and value this round, its circuit does not meet the modern security requirements and has an outdated infrastructure. Eric Weijers, COO of Circuit Park Zandvoort, said in his interview to Motorsport Magazine that he was not losing hope that DTM would come back to his circuit and meanwhile the staff would throw all their efforts to reconstruct the racing complex. The 2014 DTM calendar will feature a race in China which will be held either on the city track of Shanghai or in Guangdong (and it’s no wonder as China has the fastest growing car market in the world). It also features the Russian round held on the Moscow Raceway which is scheduled for July 13.
Formula 1
Alain Prost, the Ambassador of one of three engine suppliers for the Royal races — the Renault Company — forecasted issues with the new 6-cylinder turbo engines which might take place in the beginning of the next season. Four-time World Champion stated that it was an inevitable part of implementation of new technologies on a mass scale. Prost predicts that the problems will start coming out during the first pre-season tests in the end of January. “We all need to accept that sometimes it is going to be a problem. Reliability is always an issue. It's an issue because you have the engine and the turbo, but there are electrical parts, wires, different systems. Even if everything is OK, you then have the integration with the car and different aspects like temperature and vibration”, Prost told AUTOSPORT.
According to the preliminary version of Grand Prix calendar, the race in Sochi will take place a bit earlier than planned before. FIA appointed the Russian round to be held on October 5. The promoters of the race in Sochi were not surprised and mentioned that they had suggested such variant to the Federation as the weather would be more comfortable and the calendar interval between the races would be more convenient. Oleg Zabara, who is responsible for the organization of Grand Prix, appeared confident that the circuit would be completely ready for the upcoming event.
Pirelli remained the exclusive tire supplier for the Royal races in 2014. But according to the “Concorde Agreement” if the company plans to continue the cooperation during the next season, it will have to take part in the tender. FIA president Jean Todt also stated that teams’ opinion would be determinative when choosing the winner in the next tender. What concerns the rumours regarding appointing single supplier in the fuel category, those are only rumours and such decision had never been planned, was also noted by Todt.
Photo: rallyedefrance.com, dtm.de, f1fanatic.co.uk
