Friday, July 1, 2011

2008 World Rally Championship Season

The 2008 World Rally Championship season was the 36th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 15 rallies and began on January 24, with the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally. Frenchman Sébastien Loeb successfully retained the Drivers' World Championship, his and co-driver Daniel Elena's record-breaking fifth consecutive title, all of them attained driving Citroëns. In addition, Citroën secured their fourth Manufacturers' title, and their first since 2005, from 2006 and 2007 victors, Ford.

Rule changes

The banning of tyre mousse made punctures much more common (pictured JWRC car with a rear wheel puncture in Italy).

The running order for the first day is governed by championship position, with the championship leader running first on the road. For every other day of a rally, the order is decided by the previous end of day classification (with the leader on classification running first). The term 'leg' has been replaced by 'day' in order to sound more understandable. Extra 10 minute service prior to the finish podium has been added, intended to allow the service park to remain an attraction until the end of the event.

With the switch to Pirelli tyres, tyre mousse (along with all anti-deflation devices) has been banned, and fewer compounds are available. Also the teams aren't allowed to modify tyres by themselves (eg. by making additional cuts) anymore. At the first event of the season, the available tires were the soft slick DS tire (Pirelli PZero), the WX snow tire without studs, and the WX snow tire with studs (both variants of Pirelli Sottozero^]). The same snow tyres were used in Sweden as well. Later on loose surface tyres were introduced: Pirelli Scorpion, available in two variants - hard compound for abrasive surfaces, such as roads in Mexico or Greece, and soft one, for more muddy stages as seen on Welsh event.Tire walls have been strengthened in order to endure long, rough gravel stages often full of sharp rocks. The tread on Scorpions is asymmetric and directional, as it has proven more efficient during the tests.

Calendar

Jean-Marie Cuoq and Jari-Matti Latvala on a transport section of the 2008 edition of the Monte Carlo Rally.

The 2008 season includes 15 rallies, which is one less than the 2007 season. Rally Norway, Rally Portugal and Rally Ireland were dropped from the calendar for 2008. Rally of Turkey returned to the schedule, and Jordan Rally is part of the calendar for the first time. Rally Australia was planned to make a return after being absent in 2007, but the organizers submitted a request to the FIA to delay the event's return to the schedule until 2009.

The events also part of the Production World Rally Championship are Sweden, Argentina, Greece, Turkey, Finland, New Zealand, Japan and Britain.The seven rallies also on the Junior World Rally Championship schedule are Mexico, Jordan, Italy, Finland, Germany, Spain and France.