Route Preview: Rally Estonia 2021

Rally Estonia joined the WRC last year amid a storm of COVID-cancelled events. However, they had already arranged a pair of candidate events so the place was well deserved, and the continuation of the deal was no surprise. Thus we will see the fast but soft gravel roads of Rally Estonia again. This year’s route […]

Route Preview: Safari Rally 2021

Safari Rally was set to return to the WRC already in 2020 but COVID-19 delayed the return by one year. As we know the event will be very different than in 2002 when it was last run in WRC, now run on 10-30 km stages on closed areas. The roads will still be completely unique […]

Route Preview: Rally Italia Sardegna 2021

The route of Rally Italia Sardegna hasn’t changed a lot in the past years. However, this year the base of the rally is moved from Alghero to Olbia – from West to East – with some new roads. The Friday and Saturday stages are driven in instantly-repeated pairs which is a unique solution. The character […]

Rally Finland 2021 Route Revealed

Rally Finland’s 70th anniversary run in 2020 had to be canceled and the 2021 event was further complicated by having to be moved to October, in order to secure better COVID-situation and secure allowing spectators for the event. The compact three-day route of the event was published today, and this is a quick analysis of […]

Route Preview: Rally Portugal 2021

Rally Portugal is one of the classics of WRC. Like many events, it was cancelled last year because of COVID-19, but the 2020 route will be used this year with small updates. Portugal can be classified as a technical, hot and dusty gravel rally, but it’s the fastest and one of the smoothest out of […]

Route Preview: Croatia Rally 2021

Croatia Rally is a new tarmac event on the WRC calendar. Not much was known about its character before the recce videos, but it seems we’re in for mostly fast roads on worn tarmac, but also technical or smooth sections. There’s similarities to many previous established tarmac rallies, but also some unique features. Cover image […]

Checking my estimate of Arctic Rally Finland pace

The first ever Arctic Rally Finland just ended. Before the rally I posted my estimate of the average speed of each stage (and through that, the whole event). Let’s see how that turned out. Cover Image by Taneli Niinimäki / AKK The original post Estimating the pace of Arctic Rally Finland Stage times Stage Length […]

Estimating the pace of Arctic Rally Finland 2021

Arctic Rally Finland is a completely new event for the WRC. The stages are driven in different configuration than on the national event, which is primarily contested with Rally2 cars. Can we use some mathematics to estimate how fast the upcoming event will be? Cover image by Taneli Niinimäki / AKK Rally2 vs WRC Valtteri […]

Route Preview: WRC Arctic Rally 2021

Rally Sweden’s canceling because of COVID-19 led to the WRC Promoter asking Finland to arrange a replacement. In the end, a version of the traditional Arctic Lapland Rally was put together quickly. The route packs 250 stage kilometres into three days and 10 stages, meaning longer stages for a change. This represents the challenge of Arctic Lapland Rally, long winter stages in the desert. The stages are predominantly fast, making this one of the fastest rallies of the season if not the fastest.

WRC Calendar 2021

The WRC calendar of 2021 looks again quite different than before with lots of tarmac rallies and European events. This could actually be the fastest WRC season ever. Read this post to find out why!