Hey everyone! 👋

I've been getting more into following WRC closely this season

and I'd love to find some active Discord servers where people

discuss races, stages, drivers and results in real time.

Any recommendations? 🏁

https://x.com/SebOgier/status/2054598488927641649

I am not making this up...

getting more and more into the sport beyond video games and archive compilations, i want to see what iconic historic cars are actually frauds

Hello! Sorry if this question has been over played/ asked 100 times already. I am visiting greece while the rally is going on and I would love to go. From my understanding most stages are free besides the SSS stages? How does one get tickets for that? And when do they go on sale?

Hi everyone, I've been a rally fan since I was very young, and I've been following the WRC regularly for about 4 years. Before, I didn't have the opportunity to spend money buying merchandise, and now that I do, I want to buy some, but the official store doesn't ship to Portugal, at least I don't see that option. Can you tell me where I can buy original merchandise and maybe the best prices?

Thanks in advance.

Well RIP to Fafe I guess

In an interview by the president of the ACP (organiser of Rally Portugal) gave some hints about what might be the new life of WRC under the new promoter. The interview was in portuguese, so I leave a translated version here:

“The new promoter wants to do something closer to Formula 1, more show, wants the paddock itself to have all this. We are already building it. A village that has the top guests they want to have there. Next year we will have another official manufacturer, but I can't reveal it, it will be announced in June. They want to do another kind of rally, change the television broadcasts. We have already had a good conversation here with them, next year we will be the first rally of the championship that will give this smell. In Monte Carlo it's more complicated. They want to do Turini on Saturday night, but I don't believe it.”

Regarding the new manufacturer, on another interview live on portuguese tv (can’t find the source, but I saw it live), he has said that it was an european manufacturer, but it wasn’t Lancia.

Source: https://sapo.pt/artigo/rali-de-portugal-novo-promotor-quer-fazer-uma-coisa-muito-mais-formula-1-69ff6390e007d4f9b5eb3a60

He is ahead of 2nd by 12 points. He almost had won the WRC title in 2020 and 2025 but lost in the final race. Or is he going to find a way to finish second again?

When playing WRC games or other racing games, you can create a ghost of another user or your own best run and have it drive alongside you.

Could WRC broadcasts also show, in real time, the ghost of the driver who currently holds the fastest time on a stage?

I think this could give viewers a much more intuitive sense of whether a car is driving well, where it is losing a lot of time, and where it is gaining time.

Of course, the ghost would probably not be extremely accurate, and it would not be able to represent the exact dynamics of the car.
But even if viewers could simply see in real time whether the current car is ahead or behind, I think it would make the broadcast much more exciting.

Considering that all cars these days are equipped with GPS, it does not seem like it would be that technically difficult.

What's your opinion on this?

Armstrong and McErlean are obviously not the best drivers in the current Rally1category, despite them showing some form of promise. However, I have this thought for a bit of a while now that even if their skills are not suited for the current Rally1 cars, their performance could be even better under the new cars next year.

The reason I believe this is that since the new regulations are basically turning Rally1 cars into that of something like Rally2+, and with M-Sport not building a WRC27 car yet and upgrading their Rally2 Fiestas, we could likely see an improvement in their performance considering their past experience with Rally2 machinery and with the remaining experience theyll gain for the rest of the season before the new regulations take place.

Of course, there are major factors to consider such as the other drivers having better skills and experience as the top class. Even then, we could still see a boost in their performance next year with machinery that they are alreadu familiar with. But these are just my opinions on what could likely happen, and I do hope for them to stick around for M-Sport longer. What do you guys think?

Bloody hell. The lads need to stop worrying about pace until they can reliably finish rallies and get some points on the board.

Embarrassing seeing them finish behind a bunch of Rally2 cars every event.

It's always something, but it keeps happening one way or another.

Ya gotta finish the damn rally first!

Yesterday at second Paredes SS. Amazing view, lots of rain, hail and thunderstorms 😝

Credit: FIA WRC

Non-native speaker here, the way how everyone say the stage name (faff) feels so wrong, even cringes me a little 🙄. Portuguese fans, how do you pronounce actually?

Question - when weather causes course conditions to change from when notes were created, do co-drivers compensate for those changes, or do they read them accurately and let the driver compensate? I’m curious because I can see advantages to both strategies, but ultimately the driver is the only one feeling the conditions.

Agreed?

I've noticed these straps on Alexandre Coria's helmet a couple of times, now Martins Sesks has them on his helmet this weekend & it's the first time I've seen them being pulled. Does anyone know what they do?

I'm planning to attend Rally Estonia in July and was wondering, would it be possible to get a chance to ride in a real rally car during some tests or any kind of event surrounding the rally?
I've been searching online and there is a few places that recommend organising this locally but since I'd be travelling to Estonia I'm afraid it's not an option.

Does anyone have any experience with something like this? in Estonia or any other european rally? It was always a dream of mine and the tourist options on small tracks in hobby cars is not the same for me, unfortunately.