DAVID EVANS

“The 50-miler didn’t generate the interest”

Ialways look forward to the arrival of the Rally Mexico route. It’s the sense of adventure – the same reason you’d always look out for the Bauxite Way or Karoutes on an Acropolis route.

I suppose Guanajuatito or El Chocolate have become the modern-day equivalent of such Greek classics. Which is why I couldn’t help feel slightly disappointed at the plan for this year’s Rally Mexico. It’s pretty much the same as last year. Except shorter. And there are no 30-mile stages. And certainly no 50-milers.

It’s the Mexicans’ fault – they’ve worked so hard to lead the World Rally Championship in terms of innovation in recent years, anything less than the longest test of the season or a trip to the centre of Mexico City just doesn’t cut it anymore.

This is also the new WRC order. Endurance isn’t really the thing anymore and we need to come to terms with that. Even though it was only three years ago, the passing of time has skewed memories of that 50-mile Guanajuato test on the final morning of the 2016 event. Talking about this very subject in the service park in Gap last month, there were plenty who remembered that very stage with a sense of adventure, endurance and exploration.

The only thing missing was competition… Sebastien Ogier won the stage in 48m06.8s with his then Volkswagen team-mate Jari-matti Latvala his nearest rival. J-ML was 25.3s behind. Hayden Paddon was third, a minute down. Tenth quickest in the test was the Ford Fiesta RS WRC of Benito Guerra. The local hero was almost four minutes slower.

Those 50 miles simply didn’t generate the sort of action which they might have. For the WRC Promoter, running that stage again would mean a massive All Live effort for – probably – the same single-sentence response a good few of the drivers offer from the end of a 10 or 15-miler. Instead of fewer, longer stages, the plan is for shorter tests at a higher tempo.

I get that. And, let’s face it, we’ll still be totally transfixed by a shorter Mexico. It’s the way of the World Rally Championship these days – blink and you’ll miss something. Round one was split by 2.2 seconds. Next week’s super-quick Rally Sweden will be the same story. Once again every team will offer a potential winner. Or two. Or three.

The 2016 days of long stages offering dull stories are well and truly in the past.

There, I almost got through this column without mentioning Marcus Gronholm. Almost. Have you seen the videos from his test? He’s totally on it and looking very, very comfortable with a car that is clearly forgiving, friendly and made on fast roads covered in snow.

I saw Gronholm and his co-driver Timo Rautiainen in Paris last week and the pair of them were like teenagers again. It’s fantastic to know that as excited as we are to see them in the car again – they are even more so to be there themselves. Here’s hoping the weather delivers them the opportunity to do something great again. Talking of the weather and round two, don’t even think about starting any of those no-snow Sweden stories. It will be fine. It. Will. Be. Fine. I promise.