[WRC] Ueno Rally del Paraguay 2026

[focus206]

That's why I said before the rally, having those 7 consecutive gravel events without a break is tough...and before you say, "but Neuville won it in '24", he had the different scoring system which he took advantage of, this year he's 7th....not quite what you'd expect from a world champion.

How was Neuville benefitted by the (atrocious) 2024 points system compared to other drivers? The driver who scored the most Sunday points (PS excluded) in 2024 is Tanak, not Neuville. I can only think of Neuville finishing 3rd in Croatia but scoring 18+1 points because he was 1st at the end of Saturday, instead of 15+1. Meanwhile, Ogier in Acropolis rolled the car on Sunday and still got 13 points instead of 0. Neuville won the championship with 32 points gap, to put things into perspective.
But I agree that the calendar is stupid.

Neuville is 7th this year because Hyundai is trash in most rallies and his driving style is too different from what the car requires, apparently. In 6th there's 9 time champion Ogier driving a spaceship.

 

[focus206]

Good job by Pajari, he's a serious contender now.
Great showing by Paddon, got the maximum he could. I would call him back for Saudi, if it will be held.
Sad for Fourmaux, he was unstoppable this weekend, one puncture less and the win was his.
Expected more from Evans. Ok taking it safe if he wasn't confident, but now with 20 points advantage, he can't afford much more safe driving.
Ogier and Katsuta basically out of the championship race.

 

[speederbee]

Rally finishing position again meaning next to nothing for the overall points. It's still so wierd

I like the points system this year. It rewards points to drivers who actually race on Sunday, like Fourmax, Ogier, and Solberg

 

[GigiGalliNo1]

Ogier has words then has to retract them.

https://www.motorsport.com/wrc/news/sebastien-ogier-apologises-for-out-of-line-interaction-with-fia-president-mohammed-ben-sulayem/10850894/

:rolls eyes: emoji

 

[flat_right]

Flat_right, all I'd meant was a punctured tyre still needs to be changed to finish the rally and mousse won't prevent retirements. Think the original point was about mitigating timeloss on a stage - saving a rally competitiveness.

Of course. Back then, the system was called "Flexible Temporary Support" (ATS) and there is no chance that a damaged tire is as fast as an undamaged one. But it was useful. In the same Makinen link he says that "If we could add mousse back to the tyres, this would get rid of this problem. I remember when we had it before, we could drive over everything with no problem." Which means, even if you cut the tire, they were sure that after the Mousse was deployed, the loss of performance was greatly reduced. He doesn't say that tires were so strong that cuts didn't affect the tires but they could keep pushing even if there were some cuts but Mousse was deployed.

Your Makinen link, I can't read but can see the word runflat in the title. I can't find anything from Goodrich as they don't make them anymore, but here's a link from Pirelli saying run flats are temporary and for slow driving.

Here is the Makinen link in pdf. The thing is that the Pirelli link is for road cars tires. If you read it carefully, it says that "This is due to the reinforced sidewalls on the tyre, that bear the weight of the vehicle for a short amount of time" The system they used in WRC is totally different. The mousse was compressed by the air pressure. Dual chamber setup combining compressed air and a nitrogen-filled foam insert inside a tire. It relies on active pressure changes i.e when the air escapes, the foam dynamically expands to take its place, taking over the load-bearing function of the air. This was the reason the car could therefore continue driving at rally speeds rather than having the tyre collapse off the rim. They are totally different solutions.

Which is why I say limp-home mode. If you've belief that tyres back then were better and costs of manufacturing made them unviable, I'll think you've fallen for the marketing and looser regulation of the time.

It was not a limp mode home. Hopefully my previous point explained it. As I stated before, cars could win stages and sometimes didn't even understand when the system was deployed and these are not my words but from the people who used it back then.

Here is the Mousse inside the tire cut in half:

 

[doubled1978]

Of course. Back then, the system was called "Flexible Temporary Support" (ATS) and there is no chance that a damaged tire is as fast as an undamaged one. But it was useful. In the same Makinen link he says that "If we could add mousse back to the tyres, this would get rid of this problem. I remember when we had it before, we could drive over everything with no problem." Which means, even if you cut the tire, they were sure that after the Mousse was deployed, the loss of performance was greatly reduced. He doesn't say that tires were so strong that cuts didn't affect the tires but they could keep pushing even if there were some cuts but Mousse was deployed.



Here is the Makinen link in pdf. The thing is that the Pirelli link is for road cars tires. If you read it carefully, it says that "This is due to the reinforced sidewalls on the tyre, that bear the weight of the vehicle for a short amount of time" The system they used in WRC is totally different. The mousse was compressed by the air pressure. Dual chamber setup combining compressed air and a nitrogen-filled foam insert inside a tire. It relies on active pressure changes i.e when the air escapes, the foam dynamically expands to take its place, taking over the load-bearing function of the air. This was the reason the car could therefore continue driving at rally speeds rather than having the tyre collapse off the rim. They are totally different solutions.



It was not a limp mode home. Hopefully my previous point explained it. As I stated before, cars could win stages and sometimes didn't even understand when the system was deployed and these are not my words but from the people who used it back then.

Here is the Mousse tyre cut in half:

This is exactly what I was getting at. Those tyres were dropped because of cost, but my point is that sending a car and crew half way round the world to have a puncture on stage 1 and effectively be out of the rally in a lot of cases, clearly isn’t a cost saving. Equally, now they have a limited amount of tyres available, the extra cost would be somewhat mitigated anyway.
Rallying is so competitive now, that a puncture is a rally ending incident from a competitive standpoint in a lot of cases, so my position is maybe the rules should be looked at again to suit the modern situation.
When I started watching rallying, events were won by massive margins…that’s not the case anymore, so a tyre affected result is far more likely. Friday was a pure lottery as to who got away it and who didn’t, that isn’t good value to the teams. Saudi last year the same.

Another point for me regarding the calendar is that ending the season on a dry gravel rally is very harsh on the championship leader, particularly if the points are very close. When we used to finish in GB, the road position was usually best for the first few cars, so it was much more fair from a competitive position. I think Ogier has referenced this in the past.

 

[Ferranis]

Ogier has words then has to retract them.

https://www.motorsport.com/wrc/news/sebastien-ogier-apologises-for-out-of-line-interaction-with-fia-president-mohammed-ben-sulayem/10850894/

:rolls eyes: emoji

What would I give to be a fly on the wall...

 

[doubled1978]

What would I give to be a fly on the wall...

Yeah, looks like he finally blew his lid on the Hankook’s

 

[Fast-Eddie]

Taka:

I must say thank you for Thierry and Martijn after our incident. They arrived at location just after our incident and cared us all around very much until rescue team arrive.
I was not able to walk and stay as normal so it was quite scary but they helped us a lot at that moment. Which is most important for this sports.

I really appreciate both of you, I never forget about this and we keep pushing each other in the rally.

 

[TypeR]

Balls must have been squeezed hard to make him apologize

 

[flat_right]

Ogier: Those Hankooks are shit
MBS: Apologise now or you would be excluded and won't drive this year anymore
Ogier: Sorry.
MBS: Not enough. Public apology!
Ogier: Sorry, boss! (Logs in Twitter)

 

[denkimi]

This is exactly what I was getting at. Those tyres were dropped because of cost, but my point is that sending a car and crew half way round the world to have a puncture on stage 1 and effectively be out of the rally in a lot of cases, clearly isn’t a cost saving. Equally, now they have a limited amount of tyres available, the extra cost would be somewhat mitigated anyway.

I would also point out that having a car torn to shreds because the tyre flaps around costs way more than a bit of mousse. After a lot of punctures they need to replace the side or the bumper, or both. It causes brake failures, and damages many other components.

 

[Fast-Eddie]

Maybe the lesson is to stop and change the wheel unless you're very close to the stage end ?

Although after Friday there were no more delaminating tyres, so those first day roads couldve just been exceptionally harsh..

 

[denkimi]

Maybe the lesson is to stop and change the wheel unless you're very close to the stage end ?

Although after Friday there were no more delaminating tyres, so those first day roads couldve just been exceptionally harsh..

And lose more time? Unless they have to pay for it themselves they won't slow down just because it might cause expensive but mostly cosmetic damage.

 

[deephouse]

Everyone knows what Ogier was saying and apologizing just confirm that. Hankook tyres are not good for WRC and especially not for current Rally1 car (2025-2026 version). Maybe on Rally2 car they are better, but I think they have different model. We will see next year.

Also the fact is they made it softer, while there is simply no logic behind it, at least from our sight. They don't need to compete for speed, as they are only supplier, margin between Rally1 and Rally2 car are so big that even if it would be alittle slower (and durable), Rally2 cars would not beat Rally1 cars on pure speed.

But again those penalties about shit talking on tyres just deepens theory about someone behind the scene wanting to be softer, and then because of that more fragile, just to create more drama, incidents, and mess up the leaderboards to artificially made spectacle while affected crews needs to go through hell to crawl back in the top 10. I mean is it possible that this is their logic?

 

[speederbee]

But again those penalties about shit talking on tyres just deepens theory about someone behind the scene wanting to be softer, and then because of that more fragile, just to create more drama, incidents, and mess up the leaderboards to artificially made spectacle while affected crews needs to go through hell to crawl back in the top 10. I mean is it possible that this is their logic?

I don't think so. Hankook is here for the marketing. They don't want to be known as the company that makes shitty tires. "Someone behind the scenes" would have to be paying them unrealistic amounts of money to intentionally harm their brand image. And if that was happening, they wouldn't use the brand name Hankook, they'd make up some anonymous new name.

More likely is that Hankook is paying for the right to be sole supplier, and part of the deal is that they get positive advertising out of it, not negative. They genuinely just make bad tires.

 

[doubled1978]

I would also point out that having a car torn to shreds because the tyre flaps around costs way more than a bit of mousse. After a lot of punctures they need to replace the side or the bumper, or both. It causes brake failures, and damages many other components.

True, today punctures are too much of the story. If it’s a very occasional thing like Michelin, or the latter years of Pirelli then that’s ok, it is rallying after all.
in those times the balance was the driver was unlucky to get a puncture, today it’s the driver is lucky to not get a puncture.
Maybe next season with less power and less aero, the tyres might survive better..we can hope.

 

[27Stan]

Of course. Back then, the system was called "Flexible Temporary Support" (ATS) and there is no chance that a damaged tire is as fast as an undamaged one. But it was useful. In the same Makinen link he says that "If we could add mousse back to the tyres, this would get rid of this problem. I remember when we had it before, we could drive over everything with no problem." Which means, even if you cut the tire, they were sure that after the Mousse was deployed, the loss of performance was greatly reduced. He doesn't say that tires were so strong that cuts didn't affect the tires but they could keep pushing even if there were some cuts but Mousse was deployed.



Here is the Makinen link in pdf. The thing is that the Pirelli link is for road cars tires. If you read it carefully, it says that "This is due to the reinforced sidewalls on the tyre, that bear the weight of the vehicle for a short amount of time" The system they used in WRC is totally different. The mousse was compressed by the air pressure. Dual chamber setup combining compressed air and a nitrogen-filled foam insert inside a tire. It relies on active pressure changes i.e when the air escapes, the foam dynamically expands to take its place, taking over the load-bearing function of the air. This was the reason the car could therefore continue driving at rally speeds rather than having the tyre collapse off the rim. They are totally different solutions.



It was not a limp mode home. Hopefully my previous point explained it. As I stated before, cars could win stages and sometimes didn't even understand when the system was deployed and these are not my words but from the people who used it back then.

Here is the Mousse inside the tire cut in half:

Top man, thank you.

 

[Fast-Eddie]

And lose more time? Unless they have to pay for it themselves they won't slow down just because it might cause expensive but mostly cosmetic damage.

But the point here was that it was often more than cosmetic damage, causing brake and suspension failures.

If its known the tyre cant stay together more than a few Kms its wise to change. Then at least the car survives to continue and the driver can fight back.

 

[Ferranis]

Keep driving and you have at least a chance, change the tire and you are completely out of the fight.

It's a bit like in Group B times and the spectators "Why did they not just slow down?"

Rallies are sprints now, backing off or changing a tire is severely punished