COLIN CLARK
“Have Ogier’s young rivals missed a golden chance?”
A
very wise colleague of mine said to me in the latter half of last season: “[Thierry] Neuville knows this could well be his best chance of winning the title and if he throws it away now, he might never get such a good chance again.” Well, if Neuville himself didn’t necessarily believe that last season, he sure as hell does now.
Sebastien Ogier was the man to beat last year, and here’s the thing, he was beatable. He was vulnerable, particularly in the first half of the year. Yes he won Monte, but then there was a period of uncomfortable settling in to a new car and team. The Ford Fiesta WRC was good, but it wasn’t good enough for the champ. The handling and the balance just weren’t to his liking and, for the first half of the season, he looked oddly out of sorts.
The cloak of invincibility that he wore with such breathtaking self-assuredness in his all-conquering VW days, had not just slipped, it had fallen and been discarded.
That was when the pretenders to Ogier’s crown really needed to step up. There’s always a time when the cocky younger lion in the pride senses a vulnerability in the dominant alpha male and challenges him for the right to lead the pack. Maybe the young pretenders in the WRC pack were sleeping last year, because they somehow missed a glaring opportunity to assert their dominance and send the alpha male packing.
And now? Well it’s too late. Ogier has regained his powers. He’s stronger than ever and that swagger of invincibility has returned. It’s astonishing really, but somehow M-sport has done it again. With the most limited resources, and I suspect the smallest budget by quite some margin, they have produced a car that the others can’t get near. How much of that is down to Ogier’s input and direction? Well a fair bit I’d wager, but let’s be clear: what we’re seeing this season is a concerted team effort by all behind that Fiesta to dominate the WRC.
Ogier, Wilson, M-sport, Ford Performance – it’s a winning combination. As one observer out on the stages remarked: “That Fiesta looks more and more like a VW with every rally that passes.” High praise indeed. It’s the relentless consistency of the Fiesta that has the others worried. They’re all playing catch up and, as we know, that’s a difficult game to play. There was a lot of head scratching going on at Hyundai at the weekend and the car was, at times, impossible to drive. The Toyota looked good, but lacked consistent pace in all conditions and the Citroen was a fair way from the dominant force it was in Corsica last year.
Back to Neuville. Well, I have to tell you that he drove his socks off at the weekend and he got more out of that car than many thought possible. But, my goodness, it was a hell of a risky ride. At stage ends, he was more often than not shaking like a leaf and almost incapable of putting words to his thoughts. He ignored the dodgy handling, drove through the massive moments and pushed right to the final stage.
But, I fear these heroic efforts may not be enough again. Ogier looks supreme, and to further compound Neuville’s woes, Esapekka Lappi and Ott Tanak are shaping up to be real challengers this season.