Croatia Rally winner Sébastien Ogier has branded the new-for-2024 World Rally Championship points system a ‘joke’, saying it is ‘devaluing good results’ after another round where podium finishers were outscored by a driver further behind in the rally classification.
Ogier’s 59th WRC victory yielded the Frenchman a total of 21 points, while third place finisher Thierry Neuville scored the same number of points as second placed Elfyn Evans with 19.
Both Neuville and Evans scored one point less than Hyundai’s Ott Tänak, however, who bagged 20 points despite finishing off the podium in fourth.
Ott Tänak outscored both Elfyn Evans and Thierry Neuville, despite never looking in contention for a podium spot
The new structure, which awards points at the end of each leg in addition to the already existing powerstage points, was introduced at the start of the season to prevent processional stages and encourage crews to push more on each day.
But Ogier, who is not contesting the full WRC campaign, believes this has only led to confusion and reckons victories and good results are being ‘devalued’.
“I think everybody feels strange today because it’s the third weekend after four rallies this weekend where nobody understands what’s happening with the points,” Ogier told DirtFish.
🔥 A first #WRC powerstage win for Fourmaux
⏰ Katsuta fastest on Sunday's stagesHere's the breakdown of how Croatia Rally points were scored 📊 pic.twitter.com/BcO7AX42H5
— DirtFish (@DirtFishRally) April 21, 2024
“It’s completely devaluing victory and devaluing good results. In France, we have a show called L’École des fans. It’s for kids. You give points to everybody, like always give them a 10 because you want to make them happy. That’s basically what happened in WRC.
“It’s unbelievably wrong. It’s really a pure joke.”
While Ogier needn’t worry too much about the points he is or isn’t earning given his part-campaign program, the Toyota driver raised concerns over how the championship is being perceived from the outside looking in, particularly with the fans.
“For me at least, it’s the second degree because I’m not playing the championship,” he said. “But it’s really sad to see that you give points to everybody and there is no difference. And then the result is not shown at all in the points.
Ogier worries the new points system will undermine the achievement of whoever claims the title in 2024
“So, at the end, there will be a champion. But I don’t know, whoever it’s going to be, it looks strange. It’s not natural anymore. So that’s the sad part of today.”
Despite this, Ogier could look back on the weekend with a degree of satisfaction, coming out on top in a dramatic final day’s action in Croatia to take his first WRC win since Kenya last year.
“Well, honestly, I think I haven’t had a weekend like this in my career with so many moments still. So, it’s been an eventful weekend,” Ogier added.
“And at the end, pushing like this from the start of the rally up to the end paid off. It was maybe not the moment where we expected it anymore.
“We knew coming here the start position would not play in our favour, so we knew that the only thing we could do was put as much pressure as we could. And at the end, we take this win.”
