Christian Horner has said that Formula 1 needs to let its drivers be themselves more. I agree. In particular, the younger drivers need to be set free before they become PR automatons. Young people are frequently ludicrous and brilliant – let them get on with it.

Horner’s own Red Bull driver, Daniel Ricciardo, is a case in point. It’s not original or clever to point it out, but it’s unavoidable: he is one infeasibly beaming Australian.

Who hasn’t enjoyed seeing him on the top of the podium twice this season? It’s a joy to see him enjoy winning so much. Or doing just about anything, it seems. It would be criminal if his PR handlers were to erode that implausibly large smile to a weak, heartless smirk.

Or look at Marc Marquez. Admittedly anyone doing as improbably well as he has for the past season and a half would be on a permanent high, but he’s another one that’s a joy to see win.

It’ll be interesting to see how he comes across on MotoGP Tonight on BT Sport next month. Tickets to be in the audience practically evaporated, so the public are keen to see what he’s like. Hopefully he’ll be as charming as he tends to come across as in interviews, and not dead behind the eyes already.

Riders do inevitably calm down, though. Like Jorge Lorenzo. He wouldn’t jump in the water at Jerez with his leathers and helmet on these days, as he did in 2010. Shame, that.

It’s not all beaming smiles and daft celebrations though. One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about the World Rally Championship this year has been on boards with Elfyn Evans. It’s the young Welshman’s first full season in the WRC, and the look on his face while driving, a mixture of intense concentration and justifiable fear, is a thing to behold. This on board from Monte Carlo is a bit dark, but it’s clear enough.

So: young people being young people. More of it please!

There’s a lot of running away with championships going on this year, but not all of it is as clear cut as the results suggest. Here are six degrees of motorsport domination so far in 2014.

6. KTM – Moto3

It’s a remarkable record: a KTM-engined bike has won every Moto3 race since July 2012, and a KTM chassis every race since September 2012.

Though 2013 was a year of utter domination for KTM, 2014 hasn’t been the whitewash – six wins from six – that it looks like. Were it not for some cracking rides from Jack Miller and Romano Fenati – topping the points table as it stands – Honda would by now have secured a win or two at the hands of Alex Rins (third on points), Efren Vazquez or Alex Marquez.

The Honda is now a match for the KTM, and Miguel Oliveira on the Mahindra can’t be entirely discounted as an outside bet. It’s only a matter of time until KTM’s winning streak comes to an end.

Domination: cracked

5. Shane Byrne – British Superbikes

Shane Byrne has won three of the first four races in British Superbikes this year, and came second in the other. It’s a storming start, giving him a 30 point championship lead on 95 points.

But with those four races at only two meetings, there’s an awful lot of the season to come. There are consistent riders behind him too: Josh Brookes has a win and two second places, a retirement costing him dearly in the points standings; James Ellison has finished third in every race.

It’s too early to say that Byrne will dominate, then, but it’s clear where the sensible money is.

Domination: to be established

4. Mercedes – Formula 1

The Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid hasn’t finished a race outside the top two so far in 2014. Until last weekend, it seemed completely believable that it could win every race.

Reliability at the Canadian Grand Prix put paid to that though, and Daniel Ricciardo took the first non-Mercedes win of the season for Red Bull.

But there’s no sign that the other teams are in danger of catching – let alone overtaking – Mercedes on performance. So with 258 points and a 119 point lead in the constructors championship, and a similar advantage in the drivers table, it’s going to take a lot more unreliability for anyone other than Mercedes to have a look in when the big prizes are handed out at the end of the year.

Domination: probably in tact

3. Citroen – WTCC

Citroen have definitely ‘done a Volkswagen’: entered a world championship, thrown time and money at the project, and blown the competition – with little or waning manufacturer support – away.

They were never going to win every race of the season, with a reverse grid for the second race of each meeting, and the penalties for success that are usual for touring car racing. But even before the season started, it was virtually a foregone conclusion that one of the Citroen drivers would come out world champion.

And so it has worked out so far: Citroen have won 11 of the 12 races, and comfortably occupy the top three spots in the championship table. It’s not all predictable though: not many would have Jose Maria Lopez leading the standings by 41 points from Yvan Muller and Sebastien Loeb.

Domination: convincing, but not complete

2. Volkswagen – WRC

Volkswagen have won each of the first six rallies of the year, and there’s every chance that run will continue.

They also won all but three rallies in 2013, in their first year. Sebastien Loeb won two of those three, but he’s out of the way now, part of Citroen’s domination of the WTCC.

The competition are looking only intermittently threatening, with a smattering of podium finishes scattered amongst the Citroen, M-Sport and Hyundai runners. Citroen’s Mads Ostberg has been most consistent, but has less than half the points of inevitable championship leader Sebastien Ogier.

Volkswagen might not win every rally this season – reliability and bad luck always come knocking eventually in rallying – but it’s almost inconcieveable that they – and Ogier specifically – won’t be on top come the end of the season.

Domination: highly efficient

1. Marc Marquez – MotoGP

One man, though, has dominated domination so far in 2014. As if taking the MotoGP title on his first attempt in 2013 wasn’t enough, Marc Marquez has won all of the first six races of 2014, to collect a perfect 150 points. His closest rival is Valentino Rossi, on 97.

The first four races of the year were pretty straightforward for the ludicrously talented Spanish child, who has been excellently described as the Predator, in reference to the ‘aliens’ tag that has been used in recent years for the frontrunning set of MotoGP riders.

Then in France he made it hard for himself by dropping back to 10th at the start, but it didn’t take long to find his way to the front, ultimately taking victory by 1.5 seconds.

And in Italy, someone finally made it hard for Marquez. Jorge Lorenzo – hopefully a now resurgent Jorge Lorenzo – challenged him race-long in a superb battle for the win. Marquez ultimately triumphed, by just 0.121 seconds.

But he did win. Again. When will it end? No-one knows.

Domination: frightening

The WRC has had a turbulent few years, particularly from a UK perspective, but as the new season starts there’s an embarrassment of positive stories.

After scraping together a UK TV deal to air highlights on ITV4 a couple of rallies into last season, that continues into 2014, along with an additional deal for extended coverage on BT Sport. That will take in live coverage as well as daily highlights, even if the BT Sport website is no help in finding out when it’s on.

Then there’s the sport itself. How will Robert Kubica fare in his first full time WRC campaign? How about Kris Meeke at Citroen? And will new manufacturer Hyundai do a Volkswagen, or more of a Suzuki – or worse, a Mini?

But more importantly: glasses

That’s all good, but the best story is Thierry Neuville. After a storming 2013 season, finishing second in the championship in the factory-support-less Fiesta, this year the Belgian is Hyundai’s lead driver. Which is lovely for him. But it’s also good news for his glasses, which if there’s any justice, will rise in profile with the man himself.

Glasses are quite rare in motorsport, and vaguely interesting glasses – Jari-Matti Latvala doesn’t count – even more so since Sebastien Bourdais stopped wearing that red pair he had back around his time in F1.

I don’t even wear glasses, so no vested interest here. They’re just a bit of interest on motorsport’s largely bland faces, aren’t they? And therefore to be encouraged.

Meanwhile…

Glasses or no, Sebastien Ogier continued where he left off by setting the fastest time on shakedown for Rallye Monte-Carlo today. Tantalisingly, Meeke was second.

Photo Credits
WRC on BT Sport: Hyundai
Thierry Neuville’s orange glasses: Florival fr – Wikimedia Commons – Some rights reserved
Thierry Neuville’s blue glasses: Hyundai
Sebastien Bourdais’s red glasses: Wikimedia Commons

With no great fanfare – only a vague tweet from Matt Salisbury put me on to it – the World Rally Championship finally returns to UK TV screens, after no deal was in place for the start of the season.

The facts: 65 minutes of Rally Mexico highlights will be broadcast on ITV4 on Tuesday 12th March at 5.50pm, repeated at 10.00am Saturday 16th March.

Which is pretty good news, all told: not only is it on UK TV, it’s on free-to-air. It’s a couple of days after the end of the rally, not exactly in a prime time slot, and it’s not clear whether it’s a long-term deal or a one-off. But we have to start somewhere.

And we should be optimistic of better coverage – just look at the new BRDC Formula 4 Championship. That’s a brand new national junior single-seater championship, and has secured an hour-long dedicated show, in a “prime-time Sunday evening slot”, the week after each of its eight race meetings. It’s a fantastic commitment to motorsport from both MSV and ITV in getting that deal done. It makes you wonder whether that sort of exposure could have helped the likes of F2 or British F3.

Which brings us back to the WRC – which is, lest we forget, one of only three FIA world championships. Fingers crossed discussions are ongoing between ITV and commercial rights holders Red Bull Media House for something bigger and better.

UPDATE: ITV has confirmed to Sport On The Box that we can expect similar coverage for the rest of the season: an hour on early Tuesday evening, with a Saturday morning repeat.

Few would have thought that the UK TV coverage of the WRC could get worse for 2013, but with absolutely nothing for Rallye Monte-Carlo, it really has. With luck, that will change before the end of the season.

But in the meantime, let’s accentuate the positive: at least we won’t have this year’s new liveries piped into our telly boxes. The worst of them? It’s a fight in the Middle East. Above, it’s the Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT DS3 WRC, daubed in an ugly faux-gold.

And to the right, the Qatar M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC, with Qatar’s beloved burgundy splashed all over it. Yes, I know it’s on their flag, but someone really should tell Qatar that burgundy has not been an appropriate colour for a car since about 1986.

But which is worse? Well, it’s the tacky gold Citroen, clearly. You’ve done a bad paint job, Abu Dhabi.

It would be unfair to not mention another Middle Eastern-backed entry, the Skydive Dubai Rally Team, for not having an awful livery. The black, red and white Skoda Fabia S2000 entered in the new WRC2 category is a perfectly serviceable effort. Dubai’s neighbours should take note.

Photo Credits
Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT DS3 WRC: Citroen Racing
Qatar M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC: jambox998 – Flickr – Some rights reserved

I went to Reading Museum at the weekend. It’s all right! It has a full-size copy of the Bayeux Tapestry, made in 1885 by just 35 women. Their names are by their work and everything. It’s quite good.

More topically, it has a temporary sporting exhibition running at the moment entitled Bikes, Balls & Biscuitmen – Our Sporting Life. I was pleased to see amongst the exhibits a panel about the late Richard Burns, the 2001 World Rally Champion, who was from Reading.

But on reflection, it’s a shame that there isn’t more about England’s first and only World Rally Champion. Admittedly rallying isn’t the biggest sport in this country – especially with TV coverage as it is these days – but it’s not as if Reading has a surfeit of world champions from other disciplines. A single poster-sized display on Burns seems too little.

To be fair, Reading does continue to celebrate the life and achievements of Burns. The main Reading Sports Personality of the Year award was renamed the Richard Burns Memorial Trophy after his death, and Burns was once again remembered at this year’s ceremony.

That’s not terribly public though. It’s a bit sad that there isn’t – as far as I can tell – a permanent physical memorial to Burns in Reading.

On the subject of which: I had no idea until Becs Williams tweeted about it recently, that there’s a memorial to Michael Park – AKA Beef – in Estonia, such is the regard for him there as co-driver for Markko Martin.

It’s quite beautiful, and a definite example of how to do it.

Photo Credits
Burns/Reid Subaru: Supermac1961 – Flickr – Some rights reserved
Michael Park Memorial: rudi-k – Flickr – Some rights reserved

Was this commissioned before Raikkonen knew he was returning to Formula 1? Given that rallying features heavily, and there’s no single-seater action to be found, it seems likely.

It’s a shrewd move though: Raikkonen has a rampant fan-base, and a game for iOS isn’t a bad way to pump them for cash. It’s a free download, with in-app purchases. To be fair, it isn’t stingy with its free content, and it does look pretty smart.

There are four racing disciplines, which vary from the nearly-okay to the quite-terrible.

Starting with the latter: rallying. At first, it feels borderline uncontrollable: on snow, there seems to be little on offer between driving in a straight line and handbrake-turning into a snow bank. After driving a different vehicle on tarmac, however, the problem is clarified: there’s an infuriating split-second delay between tilting the iPhone and your car responding to the input. With this knowledge, the rallying is less fist-mashingly bad, but the nearly-digital steering means it’s still far from enjoyable.

The lack of handling subtlety also hinders the NASCAR-style truck racing: ovals are a painful experience when it’s a battle to maintain a nice even cornering radius.

Things start to pick up with the sporty tuner car: the tight corners are more suited to the twitchy handling, and the car skids pleasingly without entirely losing grip. But bafflingly, either I just managed to avoid ever encountering another car, or it’s a rally-style time trial for no good reason. I’m fairly confident it’s the latter.

Karting is by far the game’s most enjoyable discipline: the handling is perfectly at home, and the tracks are nicely designed.

But it’s also where the game’s biggest bug is most obvious. The computer-controlled opponents can be absolute idiots, swerving everywhere and constantly resetting themselves. That’s not the bug though: if you lap your opponents, then you’ll cross the line in 1st, but the results screen will have you finishing last, presumably comparing your time over two laps to everyone else’s over one. Which means that, to register as winning, you have to wait up to five minutes or more for everyone else to unlap themselves. Which is rather tiresome.

So: the rallying is unsuccessful, and it’s a bit unresponsive. An accurate representation of Raikkonen himself, then. (Joke! Sort of.)

While it’s no Real Racing 2, it’s also nothing like as bad as the utterly incompetent TT3D tie-in. And plenty of the game’s problems could – and should – be fixed via updates.

We’re firmly into in Formula 1 launch season, which as always provides a stream of photos of largely familiar looking cars and empty soundbites. Far more interesting is what’s going on over in TV land.

GP2 & GP3

On the good news front, a TV deal for GP2 and GP3 has been announced: as widely hoped, they will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1 HD. It’s only sensible; after all, they have a whole channel to fill. As Ted Kravitz reported Jenson Button as saying at the McLaren launch yesterday:

“I’m giving long answers because Sky Sports have a lot of time to fill on their new channel!”

He’s not wrong. GP2 and GP3 is a very good way to fill a bit more of the schedule on race weekends: dedicated fans want it, the casual viewer might just find something they like, and it’s great for the series to have live coverage on a serious channel. It’ll probably also tip the balance for a few undecided viewers to sign up for Sky.

WRC

While common sense has triumphed for the Formula 1 support classes, it’s still trying its best to do so in the WRC. iRally is the place for an up-to-date, blow-by-blow account, but let’s summarise.

WRC commercial rights holder North One Sport was bought by Convers Sports Initiatives in 2011. Later that year, the company went into receivership, following the activities of Vladimir Antonov. That sort of screwed everything up, just before the 2012 season was due to begin.

Eurosport stepped in and provided coverage of the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally, doing a good job at short notice, by all accounts. Eurosport, having experience from running and broadcasting the IRC, were – and are – the obvious choice to take over as promoter and broadcaster of the WRC. There’s been little word from the FIA, but the latest from iRally suggests that both sides want to make it work, but European employment law may be the latest sticking point.

It is a quite staggering mess. I complained last year that there was no free-to-air coverage in the UK, but this is another level of badness for the sport. Common sense says that a deal will be made between the FIA and Eurosport; let’s hope it triumphs in the end.

Photo Credit
Kevin Simpson / videocrab – Flickr – Some rights reserved

It’s nothing new to suggest that Kimi Raikkonen didn’t exactly dazzle everyone in the two years he spent rallying. But because of the relative lack of competition in the WRC compared to Formula 1, it’s not a given that his 2012 season will be much of an improvement on the last couple.

Raikonen’s WRC record

You see, even though he was a bit rubbish at rallying, the sheer lack of entrants in the WRC meant that on paper Raikkonen actually did all right. He scored 25 points in 2010, and 34 in 2011, finishing 10th in the overall standings both years.

Let’s put that in context, though. In 2010 Federico Villagra finished ahead of Raikkonen in the standings having entered four fewer rallies; in 2011 Dani Sordo did the same with three fewer rallies. In 2010, no-one below Raikkonen in the final standings did anything like a full season; in 2011 he finished 9th of the 12 championship regulars.

But that doesn’t change the points he scored.

Meanwhile in F1

On returning to the sport where he was crowned world champion, the least you’d expect is that Raikkonen would score more points than he did in the sport where he was just a bit crashy. So that’s 34 points in a single season, or 59 points in total. Either would seem reasonable as a target for 2012.

Looking at 2010 and 2011, that sort of level is about 10th in the overall standings. And since that’s where he finished in both his WRC seasons, that seems like a good target.

Now, we’ve no idea yet how competitive the Lotus will turn out to be. But going on resources alone, it seems unlikely that the top four teams – Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes – will be bothered. Which leaves only two spaces in the top ten.

If Lotus continues to follow the downward trend set by Renault last year, then they will be overtaken by Force India. So Raikkonen seems likely to be in a four-way fight – at least – for the last couple of top ten places with his team mate Romain Grosjean, and those talented chaps at Force India, Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg.

Conclusion

Nope, it’s definitely not going to be a trivial task for Raikkonen to improve on his WRC results. But Robert Kubica finished 8th with 136 points for Renault in 2010, so it’s not unachievable. He’s just got to want it.

Photo Credit
*nog – Flickr – Some rights reserved

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The Dakar has already passed through Argentina and Chile, and is now into the final stages in Peru.

Bikes

In the bikes, as expected, it’s coming down to Red Bull KTM team-mates Cyril Despres and Marc Coma. They’ve been leaving regular blogs on Red Bull’s Dakar Rally 2012 website. They’ve never been far apart, and their blogs provide nice insight into their current thinking.

Coma, the chaser, realises he has to give it everything to have chance: “I will push as much as I can and maybe that will bring home the win but this is not going to be easy.”

Current leader Despres, on the other hand, is clearly intending to maintain his conservative approach. As he wrote after losing a few seconds to Coma on stage 10: “Maybe those seconds will be important in the end, we’ll have to wait and see. I could have taken more risks out there today but that’s not my style.”

Cars

Meanwhile in the cars, it’s Giniel De Villiers who is closest to the dominant Minis. He too is blogging for Red Bull.

With his Toyota Hilux entry put together at relatively short notice following Volkswagen’s withdrawal, it’s remarkable that he’s running in 3rd, and that it’s not the new Toyota which has suffered with unreliability, but the familiar Hummers. He’s clearly up for the challenge, as he wrote after stage 10:

“We’re running with a standard engine compared to what the Minis have under their hood so with this in mind we’re doing just fine. We’ve tried to push whenever possible and today’s stage suited us better than the others we’ve had in Chile. It was definitely not easy but that’s what we want to see more of. The more difficult the stage, the better it is for us.”

More!

As well as the blogs, the Red Bull site has stage profile videos with Marc Coma, video highlights, and reports. It’ll be interesting to see what the riders in particular have to say as they approach the finish – the bike contest hopefully going down to the wire.