2024 ERC News & Rumours

[WRCStan]

Llarena and MRF have parted ways.

[Backa]

Neither standings on ERC site nor results on Wikipedia shows that but seems like Miko Marczyk is now 4th in Championship standinds as he appealed decision to penalize him 2 minutes in Gran Canaria and it was changed to €10k financial fine. One of Marczyk's 16 tires was not properly declared before rally.

[Jarek Z]

Neither standings on ERC site nor results on Wikipedia shows that but seems like Miko Marczyk is now 4th in Championship standinds as he appealed decision to penalize him 2 minutes in Gran Canaria and it was changed to €10k financial fine. One of Marczyk's 16 tires was not properly declared before rally.

Rally Islas Canarias results have been adjusted following Marczyk's appeal (but the official website still doesn't show that):
https://www.fiaerc.com/a/news/w28429...Marczyk-appeal

[Jarek Z]

Belgian driver Amaury Molle is going to contest the remaining 3 events of the ERC season in a Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo under the Team MRF Tyres banner:
https://www.fiaerc.com/a/news/w28405...2-rookie-Molle

[Jarek Z]

Llarena with Hyundai?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmc4zhm0jBQ

[Jarek Z]

Llarena with Hyundai?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmc4zhm0jBQ

Yes:
https://www.ewrc-results.com/results...asturias-2024/

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Very interesting interview on this post-Rally Ceredigion podcast.. First with Hayden Paddon about his ERC Season, the i20 Rally2 and his future,; and then Armstrong & Creighton as MSport team-mates:

Starts about 10mins in...

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ud...TIGy-tiVJ6nuTw

[PLuto]

Very interesting interview on this post-Rally Ceredigion podcast.. First with Hayden Paddon about his ERC Season, the i20 Rally2 and his future,; and then Armstrong & Creighton as MSport team-mates:

Starts about 10mins in...

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ud...TIGy-tiVJ6nuTw

Can you summarize in short in written form for us who are lazy to listen it?

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Can you summarize in short in written form for us who are lazy to listen it?

Paddon:
ERC 2024 has been tougher than expected despite winning last year; the i20 Rally2 hasn't been the best car but he still thinks it's better on gravel than tarmac; everything just clicked at Ceredigion to his surprise; he didnt think he'd have funding for the final round (now has); he is still working on the electric rally car in NZ but not progressed much and hasn't had any interest in it from other Manus; he hopes to do more international events in 2025 but not in Europe as too costly.

[saco0o]

tnx for the link, mate!
he mentions "Australia" (they have a fun championship tbh, with bates, molly taylor, vangisbergen did some rounds last year) and "America" after saying they would like to do some international rallies next year. idk the rules in the american championship, i know its 'open 4wd' but not sure HOW OPEN it actually is, but he should really bring his EV to do one of those rounds. that would be cool! i wish we could see his EV more. he is not racing that car in the NZ championship. (i normally post the highlights from both aussie and nz series on the 'pacific rally' topics, just for the information)

he said he will do some events with the EV this end of the year, but its probably like last years, where they are more like exibitions, right? i dont remember him "braging" about winning an actual event on that car.
he says he wants to "expand" (not his actual word) his team more around the world as way of promoting their ideias and tech, he mentions something like they are working on the hydrogen refueling stations thing, say something about how they could even carry some kind of station with them on the car (?? something like that, just chatting around, nothing deep) and trying to "take the whole thing to the next level" (tho no manufacturer interest so far as eddie said)

edit: paddon also talked on dirtfish's podcast. if you are not going to listen, here some highlights, tho i recomend you just go and listen, he a great characte who seems to have both feets on the ground.
they talk about how sesks should do a year in wrc2 first before moving up because the doesnt know the rallies. he briefly compared espectations with sesks like when oliver solberg joined hyundai, that he had no way of doing super well without knowing the car, the stages and he was "burned"really quickly. he says hes not a fan of wrc drivers watching onboards of the cars ahead of them on the stages while waiting for their run. hes not a fan of every driver watching way too many onboards. he likes to drive around the stages and doing the pace notes. he thinks rally is about that. he also is not a fan of fans having access of ALL the onboards for EVERY stage because he feels fans watch a little bit then it gets boring. he think they should have some onboards and more storytelling instead. (i confess i used to love hearing the radio, checking ewrc results during the day, checking clips of crashes. i always found a little bit boring to watch onboards. some of them? GREAT! awesome. but i agree, i personally find it kinda boring. i used to watch my favorite 2 or 3 drivers in SOME of the stages and thats it.)
he talks about how he has not finding wrc very interesting right now because its predictable with only a few cars. he dont like the stage repetition at afternoon but understands thats easier for the organizers. he thinks wrc should focus more on people watching it live than people watching online because seeing rally cars live is incredible. he suggests doing something like "have three 50km longer stages on the morning, broadcast 2 of them then some highlights telling the stories" then having 3 city stages in the afternoon because its closer to the people and thats usefull, even tho drivers dont like super special stages that much
they talkied about lack of characters, paddons says its because the comercial partners not wanting drivers to say what they want to say.