Sunday drivers tarnishing WRC title race
The World Rally Championship’s (WRC) new point scoring system has devalued the 2024 title race, making it hard for contenders to close points gaps on a severely lopsided reward scale.
The title race this season is led by perennial WRC bridesmaid Thierry Neuville, who sits 27 points ahead of “disinterested” part-timer in the form of eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier.
Ogier was again critical of the points system after his win at Rally Finland – his third victory of the year to go with three runner-up spots in six events – saying that winning the championship “is not my priority”.
Ogier won his third rally of 2024, but he couldn’t appear any more disinterested in winning the WRC title if he tried
The new points system – which was designed to keep things competitive on Sundays when a rally might seem a “fait accompli” – rewards anything up to 12 points for winning the day and the power stages.
Extra points are also available on the Saturday, only if the competitor finishes all the stages on the Sunday.
As a result, there has been two occasions this season – in Sweden and Portugal – where the second and third placed competitors have absurdly scored more points than the winner, with both Tanak (2nd, Sweden) and Neuville (3rd, Portugal) having benefitted.
This season, the Belgium Hyundai driver that leads the way has had one victory and three podiums, yet has stretched out the championship gap, with the other full-time contenders in Ott Tanak and Elfyn Evans a further 31 and 36 back respectively in third and fourth.
Aside from Sardinia (41st), Neuville has been otherwise consistent in nine rounds with a total of seven top-five finishes, but if it was on last year’s points system (which promotes a fair fight in closing a gap) he would only hold a five point advantage from Ogier (who has not contested three rounds).
And under the same system, a recently erratic Tanak in his own i20N machine in 2024 would be in fourth place instead of third, with Evans above him and nine points better off.
To clarify a point, Neuville’s season to date certainly does not point to him holding a lead that’s going to be a challenge to haul in.
There are many things to concern a devout rally fan regarding the health of the WRC in terms of both the present and future, and this year’s title legitimacy should be one of them.
Six of the nine events this year have been taken out by part-timers Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera, with Ogier a genuine chance to take his ninth title if he competes in the remaining rounds – which is something Toyota are very interested in him doing. It appears that he may do so, but only to appease the manufacturer, and not himself.
Winning this year’s title would see him with equal compatroit Sebastien Loeb for the most of all time (nine), and you could bet your bottom dollar that if he does it, that there won’t be any over the top celebration in tying the record.
After winning in Croatia earlier in the year, Ogier (who is never short of an entertaining comment) told DirtFish Media that the system was a “joke”, and that it devalued the championship, comparing it to a children’s show.
“I think everybody feels strange today (after Rally Croatia) because it’s the third weekend after four rallies this weekend where nobody understands what’s happening with the points,” Ogier had said.
“It’s completely devaluing victory and devaluing good results. In France, we have a show called L’École des fans. It’s for kids. You give points to everybody, like always give them a 10 because you want to make them happy. That’s basically what happened in WRC.
“It’s unbelievably wrong. It’s really a pure joke.”
The next WRC outing is the Acropolis Rally Greece on September 5-8.
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