Doubts over Robert Kubica’s future in rallying aside, the talk at WRC Poland was dominated by speculation over how good Hyundai’s new-for-2016 i20 would be. Would it provide more of a challenge to the dominant Volkswagen Polo than the odd non-VW podium finisher like Ott Tanak’s Ford Fiesta and even one of Hyundai’s works drivers. Although at Poland, Thierry Neuville’s plate was full recovering from a frightening crash and Haydon Paddon could manage no better than fourth.
Mads Ostberg’s bid to finish the season as the only non-VW driver in the top three of the championship standings took a slight hit as he finished ninth. Fortunately for him, Jari-Matti Latvala’s inconsistent form meant that a crash and resulting damage put him outside the top five in sixth. So at least that gave Citroen’s Ostberg some margin for error.
Back to the subject of whether Hyundai could give WRC fans what they were hoping for when Sebastien Ogier switched from Citroen to VW, though. Reports in the media suggest that the new i20 will not be as compromised as the current version due to fitting the bill technically a lot more as far as WRC’s technical regulations are concerned. But does Hyundai have enough in terms of driving firepower in order to take down Ogier, Andreas Mikklesen and even Latvala? In Neuville and Paddon, Hyundai have two fast, but relatively inexperienced drivers as compared to Ogier and Latvala. Dani Sordo’s experience as a long-time Citroen number two driver comes in handy in terms of car development but VW has the advantage of having that responsibility lie on the shoulders of drivers who are younger and probably faster.
Although both Neuville and Paddon – 27 and 28 years old, respectively – are at the stage of their careers where they have put most of the rawness as drivers behind them and will come into their own as fixtures on the WRC stage. Paired with a car that has reportedly impressed in testing, VW should at least be kept company on the podium a lot more by another factory outfit. As both Mercedes in Formula One and Citroen in WRC will attest to, domination by one team may be a stamp of greatness for them, but tends to dull excitement among fans of globally popular motorsport championships.
The 2013 season could have been a classic. However, Loeb’s campaign comprising of just four rallies for Citroen before retiring gave us just a taste of what could have been. Loeb and Ogier finished in the top two in three of those rallies with Loeb winning twice. Hopefully Ogier and Neuville can give us that all year in 2016.
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