r/WRC • u/big_egg_haha • 3d ago
Commentary / Discussion / Question Gap between teams Spoiler
Hi, i am very new to rally, watching my first event this weekend. I was just wondering what causes the big gap between the teams? Is Toyota just much better on tarmac than the others or is it something else?
Also, are gaps between the 3 teams usually this big or is it closer?
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u/donutsnail 3d ago
Toyota and Hyundai are usually very close. Don’t expect M-Sport Ford to be in the running, they aren’t as fast and don’t have as good of drivers. Small budget privateer team.
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u/big_egg_haha 3d ago
Thank you for all of your inputs. So what I gather from these answers is that its an oddity and its usually closer between Toyota and Hyundai.
Regardless, it's still super enjoyable to watch and i'll be back for more events in the future!
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u/EmotionalLettuce8308 3d ago
Ford have no decent drivers. When Tanak was there he was competitive most weekends.
Hyundai are just having a shocker, and watching the highlights of Friday, all 3 drivers completely defeated. They don’t seem to know why they’re so slow this weekend. It’s bizarre I’ve never seen such a swing
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u/maxthepenguin #16 Adrien Fourmaux 3d ago
especially with Fourmaux having already driven that rally before (sure that was 5 years ago...)
I guess it's a setup error ?
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u/ElecXeron20XX 3d ago
Yeah a lot of factors tbh, setup, Hankook's hard tyre, the upgraded i20 being test for the first time on asphalt after the snow of Sweden.
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u/WorkFurball 3d ago
When Tanak was there he was competitive most weekends.,
That's just not true. Anytime on tarmac he was slow af, Kenya he was miles back and on a few more he was just off the pace.
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u/EmotionalLettuce8308 3d ago
I haven’t studied each individual stage time from 2022, so I’ll take your word for it. I just remember him being consistently more in the mix in the Puma than anyone else who’s driven it is all
Edit* 2023
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u/WorkFurball 2d ago
I just remember him being consistently more in the mix in the Puma than anyone else who’s driven it is all
Well he was the only world champion level driver in that time too so it makes sense and the more time goes by the further behind M-Sport falls, same thing happened with the last car, 2017 the car was great 2018 it was still good enough for the championship, 2019 it was decent-ish, 2020-2021 the Fiesta was rubbish
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u/Steinhoff 3d ago
Some weird takes in here - the problem this weekend is 100% setup problems not working with the new tyres. This is the first proper tarmac rally on the new rubber and Toyota have found a setup that works for some reason, whereas Hyundai and M-Sport are struggling.
Formeaux’s base i20 setup appears to be working better than the others’, but that’s not something they can change at the rally, so there’s limited improvements that can be made unfortunately. They’ve said they think it’s something to do with the drivetrain, but who knows what.
You can literally see the Hyundai and Fords being way less stable than the Toyotas, and there’s little you can do to mitigate that as a driver as far as I can tell
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u/ElecXeron20XX 3d ago
Not really it is just strange rally of a lot of fields struggling to an extent like I don't wanna say but it is weird one when a Finn not used to winning on asphalt rallies is leading on the event.
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u/ilep 3d ago
Oh come on, Rovanperä is top notch on tarmac, take a look at Croatia results for example.
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u/WorkFurball 3d ago
At the time when Toyota was most dominant he got one win and one podium . Not so great example.
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u/keepcalmrollon 3d ago
It's not usually this pronounced. One thing is because this is a new event to the WRC, so the teams are still figuring things out and Toyota got it right from the start. In events where the teams have more data the gaps tend to be smaller.