The World Rally Championship heads to Germany this weekend for the first proper tarmac rally of the year. This is a big event. First, Skoda is debuting the new Fabia WRC. While the team admits they are a bit ahead of schedule to release the car, they also feel it’s better to treat this rally as just another test for the car in hopes it will be fully competitive in a month or so. If all went well for the team, at least one of the new cars would make it through the rally (which is quite possible, since it is a tarmac rally, which are traditionally easier on the cars than loose surface events).

There is also the ramifications of the new third driver rule that will be established next season. Several teams (Peugeot and Citroen) cannot keep their current lineups under the new rule (a team’s third driver can’t have a podium place in the previous season). That means that Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz, Richard Burns, Gilles Panizzi, and/or Harri Rovanpera will be with a new team next year. The current convential wisdom says that Sainz will stay with Citroen, and Burns with Peugeot, though neither driver has a new contract. If Burns stays at Peugeot, neither Rovanpera or Panizzi can stay. If Sainz can do well this weekend, Citroen will surely keep the Spainard, who is only a point adrift of Burns in the drivers championship.

On to the rally….

Germany is a bit of an odd tarmac event, with each day’s stages taking place on very different surfaces. Many of the roads are very rough, and the stages through the military range on Sunday have large cement blocks along the sides of the road to take out unsuspecting drivers. Panizzi is always a favorite to win a tarmac event, but he had a bad shunt during testing last month here, so he’ll have to get over that to perform well. Seb Loeb is the obvious choice as winner, as he won here last year and he keeps up the tradition of speedy tarmac aces from France (see Panizzi, Giles and Auriol, Didier). Marcus Gronholm and Richard Burns should be quick as well. Subaru would like to see a good result from Petter Solberg to keep his title hopes alive, and Tommi Makinen might just like to see the finishing ramp on Sunday. Makinen still hasn’t decided what to do next year (retire or stay with Subaru), and a postive rally this weekend might convince him to stick around.

This is also an important test for Ford. The new Focus has proved to be quick, albeit a bit fragile, on gravel, but this will be its first tarmac rally. If it is quick, Markko Martin could still be a championship contender this year. If not, well, it will be a long fall for the team, with a string of tarmac rallies approaching.

Don’t expect Freddy Loix or Armin Scharwz to be a threat in this rally. The attrition rate should be fairly low, and that means the Hyundai Accent will be struggling to keep pace.

My top 5:
Sebastien Loeb
Gilles Panizzi
Petter Solberg
Marcus Gronholm
Richard Burns

Posted on 23 July 2003