The decision-makers of the World Cup rally even did something. Besides that, there is only one good side in the new point system, writes Urheilu’s Micke Suopuro.
Micke Suopuro sports reporter
– Don’t drive too hard, the rules can change.
With these words Sebastien Ogier warned Kalle Rovanperää in the summer of 2022.
The eight-time world rally champion said the words jokingly, but he really knew what he was talking about. After all, the scorned starting point rule of the World Series was unofficially named the Ogier rule.
Rovanperä did not listen to Ogier’s advice, but drove even harder. The Finn is now a two-time rally world champion.
In the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Rovanperä won nine competitions, i.e. more than one in three of all competitions. Rovanperä scored the full 30 points seven times.
In the past, reaching 30 points required, in addition to winning the race, winning the Power Stage, the rally’s final special test. You got 25 points for winning the general competition and five points for the final.
This year, to collect 30 points, three separate points categories must be won: from the overall situation after Saturday (18 points), from the overall time on Sunday (7 points) and from the Power Stage (5 points).
Learn more about the special point system: Who will really win the World Rally Championship? This example shows how revolutionary the point calculation reform is
The ultimate purpose of the new points system is good. Changes have been demanded from the decision-makers of the World Rally Championship, i.e. the International Motor Sports Federation FIA and the promoters of the series, because the Sunday rally days have been boring.
Often, the differences between the drivers have been so big that the drivers have saved their tires for the extra points fight in the final stretch. Now this will change, because additional points will be awarded separately from Sunday.
Instead, no more points are awarded for winning the general competition. However, you have to place in the general competition if you want the points, which are distributed based on the results after Saturday.
A much clearer race model would have been the one with the world champion karter Jonne Halttunen suggested in Urheilu’s podcast. In that case, the general competition would have already been decided on Saturday. A separate, shorter race would have been run on Sunday.
Confusion is the most visible problem with the new points rule in the World Series, but there is an even bigger one lurking behind: the cheapening of winning.
First of all, the reform may cause a situation where the winner of the rally, i.e. the overall winner, does not get the most points from the race. Previously, this was not possible.
In addition, with the previous points rule, the runner-up could collect only 22 points even at their best, if the winner reached the maximum points. The difference between the winner and the runner-up was therefore eight points.
With the new rule, the corresponding difference drops to five. The second highest scores from Saturday, Sunday, and the last special exam will yield 25 points.
Depreciating winning is especially absurd because the top of the World Series is so narrow. Realistically, only three drivers are competing for the world championship this season. Point differences are artificially equalized and the share of chance increases.
Reaching 30 points is therefore more difficult, but is rewarded relatively less. That’s why the reform can be considered to be aimed directly at Kalle Rovanperä, who collected full points seven times during the previous two seasons.
It’s a shameless number, because no other driver has achieved seven victories in total in the same period – not to mention the maximum points.
In fact, all other drivers have only reached 30 points in a single race a total of three times during this time. Two of these victories have still gone to Ogier, a driver who has only been driving for half a season.
The points reform can therefore be unofficially called the Rovanperä rule with good reason.
They were ready to change the rules, which is a good thing. Therefore, even this point record can still be filed before Rovanperä returns as a full-season driver in 2025.