Janury has rolled around alarmingly quickly and the 2005 WRC season has begun - Rally Monte Carlo is running as I type. Looking at the entry list, there has been a complete changing of the guard. The only champion of the nineties left is Didier Auriol, doing quite well in a privately run Peugeot 206.
On leg one the Citroens of Loeb and new recruit Duval have been the class of the field, but behind them it is quite tight, even Panizzi in the Mitsubishi is doing quite well. Gardemeister looks like he is starting to get comfortable in his new Focus and is coming through the pack after a cautious start. Peugeot, Subaru and Mitsubishi are all on Pirellis this year and should probably fall to the Michelins of the Ford.
One thing that is quite disappointing to see is the very small number if stages, many of them repeated. It has been getting worse and worse over the years. Seems a bit of a stretch to actually call these modern events rallies, there is certainly no endurance element to them any more.