Who will win the Monte 2003?

With the Monte only a couple of weeks away now, I thought it would be interesting to ask who you think will actually win the season opener! ;)

I'm putting my money on Sebastien Loeb :D

My vote goes to Tommi - he seems to almost always win it :):):)

Although I would love Markko to get his first win there ;)

The Monte would have to be the hardest rally on the callendar to predict. Depends on so many things, the weather being the biggest! If it'd dry it will probably be a fight between Loeb and Panizzi. If it snows it gives the likes of Makkinen and maybe even Gronholm the advantage.

Sainz is always a solid performer there (like everywhere) perhaps the added tarmac speed of the Citroen will give him his fourth Monte. McRae has is probably due some luck too, he hasn't finished there too often.

Oh hell... I have no idea! I'll choose 'Someone Else' - maybe Auriol in the Skoda :p

How about a poll for who will win the championship? With the new points system Carlos Sainz would have to be a good bet.

Originally posted by RallyRaider

How about a poll for who will win the championship?

I will not be drawn inot that discussion! :D j/k

That i, intil the first few races are done. I have no idea what the teams will come up with in terms of the cars. I'm very curious to know what Ford will do with their Focus (go Markko!!!), also Citroen could be a dark horse. Or it can be Pug all over agian.

I went with Loed because the citroen is brutal on tarmac. Plus he's my favourite driver next to Solberg.

Why is everyone so convinced about Citroen being the car to beat on tarmac? If anything, it's Panizzi's Pug that is the class of the field. Besides, I highly doubt that we will see a dry MC rally this year.

I'm still going for Tommi, if his car is u to it, that is. Second choice - Gronholm. Although we could also have a few surprises from the younder generation (I hope so!)

You've said it right!
watch out for the new generation!
Simply judging from the driver's performances from the Race Of Champions, if I would have to bet, it would be on Grönholm.

But, as we all know, he could always have trouble.
I guess we should all look at Duval's performances. He's very fast on tarmac, has aggressive driving (so do all wrc drivers), but he has proven to be the best f the new generation (roc).

So, let's hope he is just as a good wine, gets better with age.:)

As RallyRaider points out it's very difficult to predict anything in WRC. And that's why it makes for such interesting sports.

I was thinking of doing a poll prior to every rally and that for the first couple of rallies, to see where every team and drivere are. And after a couple of rounds, then do the Championship poll.

Why a lot of people think Citroen is the team to watch on Tarmac? Simply because Loeb was the fastest on last years Monte - but got penalised and came second and cause he one "The Deutschland". Panizzi for sure is also fast... oh well, we'll have to wait and see.

It's not so long a wait now :):):) (for those who don't know, it starts 22nd of March).

What prevents me from siding with Loeb, Citroen and even Panizzi is that it migh very well be asnowy rally ... but we'll see.

True, when it's a snow event/ice event we might expect Gronholm and Makinnen as the frontrunners and even Carlos Sainz will have a good chance, even in the Citroen.

I'm not so sure about the youngsters though. Martin maybe not there yet, Solberg maybe overmotivated to confirm his win in the UK, and Duval probably still to explosive cause he still has a lot to learn

Winter is late this year. Here (The Netherlands) at least, maybe also in monte-carlo. I guess the tracks will be snowey, so my vote goes to Marcus Grönholm, or some other finnish person.

When the track is dry (as already mentioned) panizzi has a good chance. Loeb is also a driver to think about, i hope citroen spends some more money on keeping the cars running this year (especially now mcrae and sainz joined the team)

Originally posted by ales
It's not so long a wait now :):):) (for those who don't know, it starts 22nd of March).

What prevents me from siding with Loeb, Citroen and even Panizzi is that it migh very well be asnowy rally ... but we'll see.

:huh: Slightly adjustment. Monte starts at 23rd of january.

Umpf!!! I meant 22 January (the shakedown). :uhoh:

It seems to me that the only teams putting in a substantial new car (homologation) are Skoda and Subaru so we could expect fireworks from these two "new" evolutions beginning in the Monte!

ciaoo Olivier

Looking at the 2003 photos of the Focus, it is pretty close to whole new car.....hehe.....who knows what Hyundai will pull out the bag....

Ray

I wonder why no one voted for Colin McRae? He has certainly the car to win the Monte and he's bloody quick. Maybe with his new co he can won't crash his Xsara as much as did with the Focus.

My bet is on Seb, but I'll have one eye on Colin ;)

Originally posted by huudo
I wonder why no one voted for Colin McRae?

'cause we don't like him! :D :finger:

Originally posted by ales


'cause we don't like him! :D :finger:

:rolleyes: :lol2:

quote:
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Originally posted by huudo
I wonder why no one voted for Colin McRae?
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'cause we don't like him!

I would sooner see him wreck.....I think my fave rallys of 2002 was Cyprus(?) where he kept wrecking/rolling and Finland where he caught fire....that was beautiful:)

Originally posted by ales
'cause we don't like him! :D :finger:

Why the bad blood towards Colin? He's not my favourite but I appreciate his driving (and shunts :p ).

Burnsie on the other hand.....

I never had any ill-feeling toward McRae, until I saw a TV interview with him.....some of his comments......the same goes for Loeb......
Both good drivers, both too full of themselves.....

Ginger has his faults, but I support him because he is the other UK driver in the WRC, when he is winning, McRae is not:).....and at least he doesn't change co-drivers every couple of years blaming them for his driving errors....

All in the name of sports:D No ill feelings to anyone, we are all different in our opinions

I think the main problem I have with McRae and Burns is due to the English commentary that accompanies the highlights packages that we get here. They are so biased towards the UK drivers and seem to focus upon creating excuses for why they are loosing time and completely failing to acknowledge the performance of the likes of Makkinen or Gronholm.

I always thought it a pathetic move by McRae and Subaru to dump Ringer as if he was to blame for McRae's run of accidents in 1996. And was astounded when wee Colin pulled exactly the same stunt with Grist last year only to re-hire Ringer!

Always disliked Burns since 2000 when he and Reid pulled their 'flat tyre' trick on Rally Australia.

I don't know about the 'puncture' incident in Australia 2000 since I was still living in South Africa then where it is harder to follow the WRC than it is here.....
BTW, I have seen the flat tire trick pulled so many times in mountain bike racing(including at a World Cup!!) that it doesn't surprise me, it does always disappoint me though to see it.

Totally agree with the Grist/Ringer & McRae thing.....but I am glad Grist is out of that partnership....he is better off!!
McRae always says it is the co-driver's fault.....never his....another reason I don't like him....

BTW, we don't get the biased English commentary here.....the problem here is they only follow the main teams, at times last season, I found myself wondering if Hyundai and Skoda were running any cars because you never see TV footage of them.....

Ray