What an ass.

"TheTurbochargedSquirrel" (thatsquirrel) 08/08/2016 at 13:22 • Filed to: None

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Anthony Miller > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 08/08/2016 at 13:28

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This is a real hot take.... (not your take, Jost’s)

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 08/08/2016 at 13:43

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He’s right about the running order rules though. The starting order used to cycle. The first two or three cars on gravel are basically sweeping it for the following runners.

Dusty Ventures > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 08/08/2016 at 13:49

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What do you mean the starting order used to cycle?

Dusty Ventures > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 08/08/2016 at 13:50

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“This fight [in Finland] was over on Friday lunchtime.

“Look how close the fight was for the bottom step of the podium, wouldn’t it be better if this was the fight for the win?”

Right, but all the times Ogier had it locked by lunchtime Friday the past three years were totally okay.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Dusty Ventures 08/08/2016 at 14:08

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The championship leader didn’t start first every stage. IIRC, they’d start the first stage first and then it would be based on the event standings after that, or at least it was years ago when I was still bothering to pay attention to WRC.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 08/08/2016 at 14:59

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Jost was never one to mince words.

I also seem to keep buying cars right around the time he leaves a company. I bought my SVT Focus in 2006, and he left for VW shortly afterward.

I bought my GTI in January, and he’s leaving for McLaren soon.

So, the takeaway here is that I like cars Jost has had a hand in developing, and when I finally buy them he leaves.

Hmm...

Dusty Ventures > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 08/08/2016 at 15:05

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You’re right, up until the end of the 2011 season the points leader started day 1, then the following days were by position in the rally. They did away with that because of what became known as “road order tactics.” Drivers would intentionally slow down in the final meters of the last stage of the day to ensure they weren’t first on the road the next day.

Next came qualifying in 2012, where the fastest driver in qualifying got to choose what position he started in. That was terrible because everyone effectively knew who was going to win before the rally even started. Loeb netted a personal best of 9 wins in 13 events in this format in 2012. Ogier gave an identical performance in 2013.

In 2014, because qualifying had been so turrible, they switched to championship order on day 1 and reverse rally order for the following days. This proved also terrible because it penalized those who were already struggling and gave the best position to whoever was already at the front.

In 2015 they switched to the champ starting first on both day 1 and day 2, with reverse rally order on day 3. Caveat to the rule was that any car that retired during the day had to start first on the road ahead of the championship leader the next day.

This year they stopped putting the retired cars at the front of the field. I’ve argued in the past that, while not perfect, this is actually the most fair format we’ve had. There’s no road tactics being played, rookie drivers and privateers who need to have a decent performance to stay in the sport aren’t being punished with terrible road position, the drivers opening the roads are the ones best suited to overcome the handicap, and each competitor’s closest rival(s) in the championship have near-identical road position (case in point, despite not winning since the second round of the season, Ogier was able to increase his points lead over second place for the first six events, and was in position to increase it in Finland as well until he caught a ditch). But there’s no denying it does unfairly handicap the champion.

My vote, and the vote of many, is to go back to the way it was at the start of the cycle: Champ on day 1, rally leader on day 2. Since drivers can no longer get the stage times and split times in the car they can’t play road tactics anymore, so the one big drawback the format previously had is no longer possible.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Dusty Ventures 08/08/2016 at 15:14

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I kind of like mixing it up more, but I can see it presenting a logistical challenge and also there’s still a huge element of luck of the draw with regards to stage length, but I guess it is now anyway. Championship leader starts the first stage first, then the second stage second, third stage third, etc. The problem then becomes cycling someone to the front. If it’s whoever’s last, then they could be completing the last stage when the next one’s starting and could also end up slowing down the leaders over a longer stage.

Dusty Ventures > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 08/08/2016 at 15:24

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Yeah, there’s never been a point in rally history where they changed the road order between stages on a day. It would be a pain in the balls to manage, and moreover it would delay the starts of the stages (and by an unpredictable amount). It would also cause traffic jams at the stage starts as cars start piling up waiting to be put in the correct order (this itself presents an issue as often there isn’t room for cars to easily get around each other in the start area).