Now Hyundai pulled the plug on rallying for 2004 and 2005, there's even more drivers left to fill in these 3-rd places in the teams for 2004.

So who gets you vote for second spot next to Panizzi in the Mitsubishi and who should be the third drivers for the other teams?

My vote:
- Colin McRae at Mitsu (complements Panizzi's tarmac skills well and the strong Mitsu could fit McRae's driving style well).
- Kankkunen back into rallying ! He didn't get a podium over the last 3 years (none of the Hyundais did), but he's still one of the best ever.
- Bruno Thiry might be another good choice as third driver. 5-th last year in a private 206 in Germany amongst factory cars, he's still a very quick driver.

you havnt been keeping up have you. :D

There will be no third drivers in WRC in 2004.

So what happens with the teams such as Peugeot who have been signing the likes of Freddy Loix because they already had two drivers who ended on the podium in the last three years ?

Or did they decide to change the rules again ?

Yes the rules changed again !

Teams are only allowed 2 nominated drivers to score manufacturer points.

Peugeot can run Loix but he will only score driver points.

So potentially only 12 works drivers next year :(

Balls !

Although I assume maunfacturers will be able to nominate which drivers they want to collect the manufacturers points on an event. Peugeot could e.g. nominate Rovanpera on events like Finland and Loix on Deutschland. Or has that hole been closed too ?

What's the point of these rules ???

They want to make rally more spectator friendly so Jo Bloggs and the wife will come, hereby castrating the big events. And then they reduce the number of drivers ?!?

No rotation of nominated points scorers between events.

I believe each team will nominate 2 drivers at the start of the season.

The teams are pushing for rotating and nominated second drivers, but it isn't looking likely at the moment.

Chris

I still don't understand what all the fuss is about with the manufacturer's titel.

Marketing-wise, you only make a fool of yourself putting on all your brochures you've e.g. won the manufacturer's titel in 1996 and 1997 whereas any customer interested in that piece of information knows the worldchampion that year drove a different car...
If next year Loix would win the championship even with taking no points for the manufacturer's titel, you think anybody at Peugeot (or other) would bother ??

Hopefully the manufacturers will see the value of the driver's titel, just as Mitsubishi did back with Makinen. They only drove one car really and won every single titel in the end of the 90's.
I hope they will sign a big name for next year.