WRC 2023

This will be a big test of the hybrids. Should be interesting.

 

Just a question without any kind of chauvinism :
Is Ogier the greatest driver of all time ? ( legit question in my book )

 

Nothing against Loeb and Ogier, but rallying nowadays is nothing like it was years ago.

Endurance and reliability have been taken out of the sport; now it's more like rallysprint.

 

Indeed, Ogier won with three different marques which is why I asked your opinion.
To my modest opinion, yes he’s more impressive compared with Loeb.

 

Nop, Henri Toivonen is!

 

He was a great driver for sure,
Pedro I believe you have some kind of fascination for drivers with tragic fates !
( Gilles, Henri Toivonen..)

 

No, it's not about their death, but about their lifes, and the fact that they were both the fastest and the most spectacular drivers the worldhad ever seen....and they probably would have been champions the year they died.

 

I knew I should've been a racing driver...

 

Yes, but also now stages are cancelled in bad weather (!), there are hardly any night stages, or even night liason. Rallies are shorter (up to 5 days in the 60s), driving time per day is limited, stages are shorter, there is hardly any navigation, etc ... I did rallying in the late 60s, and 70s, and remember when the crews did most of the spanner work and the cars carried many parts. Now drivers wreck the cars on stage and mechanics rebuild them during assistance. Cars were closer to showroom. It's a completely different ball game.

 

James Dean too, I guess.

 

It never occured to you that maybe they pushed too much ?

 

No, just that their limits were diferent than the rest.....and i guess their balls too

 

Yes, it's true that some drivers are faster because they chose to have narrower margin of error.
So they enjoy more success than those around them and look invincible for the spectators.
That's not necessarilly a good thing for survival.

 

I wouldn't say it's a matter of choice, i really think it's a matter of talent. Stroll doesn't chose to be slower than Alonso because he wants to, he simply can't handle the car the same way.

 

True. But the cars now don't allow anyone to drive on the edge (and beyond) like Villeneuve was doing. At least I don't see it.
Some drive better than others, that's obvious, but I don't see the tightrope balancing act that Villeneuve was doing anymore.
In fact many time he went over the limits and paid for it by wrecking his car, but without harm to himself.
But it took only one set of circumstances to stop him.

 

True, Gilles took an unecessary risk xnd it costed him his life, i don't think it was all his fault, nor fo i want to blame Mass, ih was just a horrible set of circunstances coming together.

 

The aluminum chassis of the 126C2 was not the best protection for Gilles and Didier this same year..

 

For a start, they were not crash-tested as they are now !!

 

Yes, Chassis safety was horrible, By Pironi's time it had already improved a bit, but no car at that time would have protected the driver in those accidents.