Fate of WRC hangs in balance

WITH his win in last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, Williams’ George Russell has moved to second in this year’s F1 championship behind Ferrari’s championship leader Charles Leclerc.

Monegasque native Leclerc could only manage third on his home event, bettered not just by Russell, but also Mercedes’ Esteban Gutierrez. Others to feature in the leading places included Red Bull’s Alexander Albon, Leclerc’s younger brother and Ferrari teammate Arthur, and McLaren star Llando Norris.

No, Drivesouth has not taken a forward leap in time to the mid2020s. Rather, I am reporting the results of last weekend’s Monaco Formula One Virtual GP, as online racing remains the only form of motorsport on the go.

While the real F1 plans for an early July start to the 2020 season in Austria, the future of the world rally championship is far less certain.

The 2020 WRC was already three events old when Covid19 brought the world to a sudden halt in March, but there has been no virtual WRC to keep us entertained since.

Hopes of a return to action now rest with a much compressed, Europeanfocused WRC, but the local quarantining that might allow F1 to recommence within the restricted confines of a race track is an impossibility for rallying, so don’t hold your breath.

Whether it is official or not by the time this edition of Drivesouth appears, one thing is for sure — New Zealand’s return to the WRC in 2020 is a dead dream, and has been so for weeks. Never mind reports out of Europe saying Rally New Zealand is being dropped because cashstrapped teams can no longer afford the trip; relaxing our border controls to admit the WRC circus would be a political impossibility for our Government, especially with the event’s planned early September date just a couple of weeks out from a general election.

The real challenge Rally New Zealand now faces is securing a postponement to run in 2021.

Closer to home, one of the first major motorsport events to run here post lockdown could be the Catlins Rally. It’s scheduled for early August, and if — as seems likely — the country has moved to a Covid19 Alert Level 1 status by then, the South Otago event should be able to proceed.

While awaiting the return of real motorsport, I have at least been enjoying a return to testing duties. The Hyundai Ionic that features in this weekend’s Drivesouth is the first test car I have assessed since early March and doing so was an absolute pleasure.