Preview: Ten Monte Carlo talking points

17th January 2012

After its three-year dalliance with the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, (probably) the planet's most famous rally is back in the World Championship fold for 2012, as the WRC once again kicks off with Monte Carlo.

By the standard of recent times, everything was looking fairly rosy when the 2012 calendar was announced last summer - three manufacturers committed, at least one more on the way, the return of the Monte and new investment on the horizon. It hasn't quite worked out that way, with the promoter crisis casting a massive shadow over the WRC's winter and the uncertainty over Mini and the temporary removal of a title contender with Sebastien Ogier's step down to S2000 taking some of the shine off the competition at the front.

But there is still a huge amount to look forward to this season and a lot of intriguing questions awaiting answers. Here are the top burning topics heading into Monte week.

1. LOEB IS THE FAVOURITE (AGAIN)

All dominant eras have to end eventually, and maybe this will be the year that Loeb's title run is halted after eight rampantly successful years, but the chances of him being beaten in Monte Carlo are extraordinarily slim.

Loeb has contested Monte Carlo in top-class machinery seven times, and won on five of those occasions. And his 'defeats' were pretty impressive too... In 2002 he won on the road, in only his fourth start in a World Rally Car, but was demoted to second by a two-minute penalty for an illegal tyre change, while in 2006 he crashed but came back from a five-minute superally penalty to finish just over a minute behind winner Marcus Gronholm in second.

Even if the champion's record on this rally wasn't so mighty, you wouldn't bet against Citroen on an asphalt event, and with Sebastien Ogier no longer on the scene, and new DS3 driver Mikko Hirvonen still settling in, Loeb has both by far the finest record on this event and the benchmark car.

2. HIRVONEN'S CHANGE OF SCENERY

He's spent the last four years chasing Citroens in vain, now he gets to try one. Few are expecting Mikko Hirvonen to be able to assert himself in what is firmly Loeb's team, and though Formula 1 fans might point to the example of Jenson Button turning the tables on incumbent Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, the protagonists in the WRC version of that tale are different personalities at different stages of their careers.

Given Loeb's Monte success rate, this is surely not a week when Hirvonen will spring an intra-team surprise, but Loeb himself insists they start as equals and that their battle is wide open.

3. LATVALA'S BIG CHANCE

After many years of nurturing - and in his often destructive early days, patience - from Ford, Jari-Matti Latvala now has a green light to lead the team's title chase, which is both a massive opportunity and a source of pressure.

Even when he was enraging Malcolm Wilson with costly mistakes, no one could ever accuse Latvala of being slow, and by the end of last year in particular, it was clear he was ready to turn that explosive pace into a mature title campaign - adding consistency without compromising his speed. But is even that combination enough against a rival as fearsome as Loeb?

4. THE NEXT GENERATION

Both Citroen and Ford have a new star in their ranks in Monte Carlo, and both are being tipped as their employers' next champions.

Citroen had hoped Ogier would be the answer to its 'what happens when Loeb retires?' conundrum, but that plan went rather awry. But while that relationship was collapsing, over at sister brand Peugeot, Thierry Neuville was marking himself out as something special with some exceptional performances in the IRC, and his reward is a season with the revived Citroen Junior project in the WRC.

Ford's new boy Ott Tanak is on a long-term M-Sport contract and was mooted for a fast-track promotion to the second works seat alongside Latvala before the team chose Petter Solberg. But Markko Martin's protege will still do a full campaign with M-Sport's second string team.

Don't judge either man on Monte Carlo though - it will be Tanak's debut on this tricky event and Neuville crashed on the opening stage on his first attempt at the Monte in the IRC last season.

5. THE WEATHER

So many Montes have hinged on changes in weather and consequent 'hero or zero' tyre gambles as the rally heads into the mountains. Last year's IRC event was one of the best ever examples: as the leaders headed for stage seven, dry tyres looked to be the obvious choice, but many of those behind saw snow coming and went for winter rubber.

Until then, Juho Hanninen had been leading by 51s over Solberg, with Bryan Bouffier 1m38s behind in seventh and Francois Delecour 2m15s down in eighth. Two snowy stages later, Bouffier led the rally by 28s over Delecour, with Hanninen and Solberg sixth and seventh, 2m35s and 3m49s adrift respectively...

At present, forecasts suggest we won't see a repeat of such weather chaos this weekend, with conditions looking consistently cold and dry. But no one will be taking that for granted.

6. SUPERALLY - THERE ISN'T ANY

The WRC's 'get out of jail' free opportunity is now offered at individual events' discretion, and Monte Carlo has, perhaps unsurprisingly, decided against it.

With 17 top-class entries, there should be enough strength in depth that even with retirement really meaning retirement, there will be a decent number of contenders around at the finish. And aside from odd exceptions like Loeb's heroic 2006 Monte comeback, how often has a superallying car truly contributed to the drama of a rally...?

7. THE PROMOTER QUESTION

All we know for certain right now is that: 1) North One Sport is no longer steering the WRC; 2) Eurosport is filming and broadcasting the Monte Carlo; 3) The situation needs a permanent solution...

It could have been worse - Monte and the championship itself might not have even gone ahead at all - but it's a position that no one would have expected a series with the WRC's status to be in, and the uncertainty will dominate service park conversation this week.

8. OGIER IN AN S2000

Had he still been alongside Loeb at Citroen, Ogier would have been the only man you might have imagined toppling the champion in Monte Carlo, but instead he is beginning his year in S2000 exile - before blasting back to the front as the vanguard of Volkswagen's massive WRC push in 2013.

There's no chance of Ogier getting near an outright victory in 2012, but there will still be a lot of eyes on his Skoda Fabia. He will be expected to absolutely blitz all other S2000 contenders all season, and as many others have proved, a well-driven S2000 in the right conditions is capable of upstaging the WRC backmarkers at least - so some epic feats of giantkilling will surely be on the cards. It's still a comedown after fighting Loeb for the 2011 title, but Ogier will have a part to play in this year's WRC story.

9. PROTON TAKES ON THE WORLD

While it proved unstoppable in the Asia-Pacific series, Proton's international efforts have not proved so fruitful in recent years, as every flash of promise in its IRC campaign ended in disappointment. Alister McRae's home podium for the team in 2009 now seems a long time ago.

In that context, switching to the WRC's S2000 class for 2012 seems bold, but Proton drivers P-G Andersson, Giandomenico Basso and McRae are confident that the Satria has potential in abundance and is getting better and better. Ogier and Kevin Abbring's VW-run Skodas, 2011 Monte winner Bryan Bouffier's Peugeot and Craig Breen's Ford will be ideal benchmarks for Andersson and Basso on the Monte.

10. DELECOUR IS BACK

Last year in Monte Carlo, Delecour restored the honour of returning French superstars - making up for Didier Auriol and Gilles Panizzi's less-than-sparkling comebacks of preceding seasons. Even when he was running solidly in the top 10 in the dry early stages, Delecour was impressive for a man away from the international stages for so long, but when he guessed conditions right and vaulted to second in the snow, nostalgic superlatives were justifiably abundant.

Now he's back in a WRC Ford Fiesta, a car he has loved so far in testing. Last year created expectations, but in reality Delecour has nothing to lose and can just enjoy himself - which will probably mean another shock retro-heroic performance.