Come on then, who is it? If not Colin McRae, then who? Sébastien Loeb… yeah, we can think of nine fairly good reasons to go for the Frenchman. Or Hollywood – Petter Solberg was the only man ever to beat Loeb in a full season. But what about Markku Alén? Surely, Mr Maximum Attack must be in there?
The question? The simplest one: in terms of World Rally Championship drivers, who is the greatest of all time – the WRC’s GOAT.
The WRC’s own website is setting out on a month-long journey to answer that question, and DirtFish’s David Evans will be helping them along the way.
Evans has been selected from journalists around the world to form part of a six-strong expert panel to assist in answering a question that’s been on the mind of every rally fan since Walter Röhrl succeeded Björn Waldegård as world champion in 1980.
As well as the rally reporters having their input, rally fans from around the world are being urged to take part in a tournament-style draw which pits drivers head-to-head from round to round.
As well as the 18 champions, WRC.com has included two wildcards – Alén and Jari-Matti Latvala – as the two drivers who scored the most wins without taking a title. Best not mention the ‘no title’ thing to Markku. Don’t forget, he was 1986’s 11-day world champion before those Sanremo shenanigans were overturned in favour of Peugeot and Juha Kankkunen.
The seeding is based on titles, rally wins and podiums. The lowest eight seeds take part in Monday’s qualifying round, which has Petter Solberg against Latvala, current champ Ott Tänak taking on Alén, then it’s rallying’s quiet man Stig Blomqvist taking on the charismatic Ari Vatanen and finally Timo Salonen against the first and only Englishman ever to have been crowned king of our world, Richard Burns.
Incredibly, four of those titans won’t make it out of the qualifying rounds. Which four is up to DirtFish man Evans and you. The eight round one winners progress into the quarter-finals, followed by the semi-finals. The final will reveal The Greatest WRC Driver.
The drivers and their seedings are:
1 Sébastien Loeb
2 Sébastien Ogier
3 Tommi Mäkinen
4 Juha Kankkunen
5 Marcus Grönholm
6 Carlos Sainz
7 Miki Biasion
8 Walter Röhrl
9 Colin McRae
10 Didier Auriol
11 Hannu Mikkola
12 Björn Waldegård
13 Petter Solberg
14 Ott Tänak
15 Stig Blomqvist
16 Timo Salonen
17 Ari Vatanen
18 Richard Burns
19 Markku Alén
20 Jari-Matti Latvala
Head to WRC.com for the first vote on Monday April 6
