car numbering question

[woong69]

How do they decide what numbers they put on their cars?
Is it according to the result of the previous round?
or is it according to their driver's standings of the previous year?


I'm a new fan of rallying, so this might be an obvious question for everybody else....

[jonkka]

Certain cars have fixed competition numbers. These are Manufacturer entered cars nominated for scoring in championship, reigning driver's champion always is in car number 1, his nominated team mate in 2. So it's Loeb in #1 and Sordo in #2 (or if Citroen changes their nominated driver, he gets #2 and Sordo, if he drivers at all, gets another number). After that, numbers are assigned in twos per team in manufacturer's championship order (the previous year). Because Ford won manu title in 2006, they get #3 for their lead driver (Gronholm) and #4 for his team mate (Hirvonen). Then it's #5 for OMV (Stohl) who does not have a team mate in some rallies, that's why #6 goes unused. Then Subaru's Solberg #7 and Atkinson #8 and so on with Stobart (#9 & #10) and Muchi's (#11 & #12). Number 13 is currently never assigned to anyone and FIA has reserved fourteen and fifteen (Suzuki?).

Then there are fixed numbers for Junior and Production Championship contenders who always have numbers from 31 to 60. Logic is similar.

Others (ie. privateers) are assigned numbers either between manufacturer entries and J/PWRC entries for FIA seeded drivers or after J/PWRC entries if non-seeded drivers. This means that first seeded privateer gets number #16 and that goes up to #30. First non-seeded privateer gets #61.

It's important to note that competition number is NOT starting number, crews start at seeded order.

[woong69]

Thanx for the reply-
but your answer brings me to some more questions-

in 2006, I see Petter Solberg carrying #5, and Atkinson #6
but the 2005 manufacturer standings were as follows
1. citroen
2. peugeot
3. ford
4. subaru
....and so on

so in 2006, shoudn't Petter carrying something like #7?

[Corny]

Thanx for the reply-
but your answer brings me to some more questions-

in 2006, I see Petter Solberg carrying #5, and Atkinson #6
but the 2005 manufacturer standings were as follows
1. citroen
2. peugeot
3. ford
4. subaru
....and so on

so in 2006, shoudn't Petter carrying something like #7?

The factory team of Peugeot stopped after 2005..

[jonkka]

And if you go backwards, you'll see that these rules have been different over time. Teams were able to use three car teams in 2002-2003 so numbers were 1-2-3 for first team, 4-5-6 for second and so on. Before 2002 it was like it is now, having changed that way in 1995. Before that it was a system that was based on previous result of the rally, so that last time's winner was in #1 unless winner wasn't entered.

[woong69]

Thank you Jonkka and Corny
for your kind replies.

[jonkka]

You're welcome.

[White Sauron]

14 and 15 were, as far as I know, reserved for Mitsubishi "works" team when they were going to enter with the support from Arab sponsors... But then their plans failed, so...