Alister McRae - Is he really that good??

[AndyF]

Apart from his drive to fifth in Sweden, Alister McRae hasn't really shown much form this season. I know the Mitsubishi is a dog, but Delecour seems to be getting more from it, and this comes on the back of a couple of non-descript seasons at Hyundai.

What do you think?

[SJ Spode]

In a decent motor Alister would be up there.

[StuiE]

Yeah, its the car mainly, hes not as good as Colin just yet, but he will get there

[OVERSTEER]

Well Alistair may not be up with Colin Just yet gtr69 but he doesn't seemed to crash as much as Colin does he?
That Mitsubishi is cr@p, get him in a decent car someone, so he can show how good he is.

[Speedworx]

He has proven himself many times. Its only a matter of time until he is winning rallies and the title.

[StuiE]

maybe the car isnt fast enough for it to crash

[Amaroo Park]

Originally posted by gtr69
Yeah, its the car mainly, hes not as good as Colin just yet, but he will get there

But don't forget that Makineen got one of these Mitsubishi heaps of to consecutive World Championships. Yes the cars are rubbish but it just shows how much better people like Makineen are than ANYONE else in the championship. One thing though I tend to think that as an allround driver that Jimmy McRae is better than both his sons

[StuiE]

I meant the EVO VII, this is an all new car, so they didnt have much to work with, all the previous (bar the EVO IV)cars were only updates, and not a whole lot was changed

[SJ Spode]

Originally posted by colinbond


But don't forget that Makineen got one of these Mitsubishi heaps of to consecutive World Championships.

Makinen's Championship Mitsubishis were to Grp A spec, and for some unknown reason Ralliart just can't get the WRC spec cars on the pace; whether for Alister / Francois this year or Tommi last year. I'm sure there's plenty of in Rugby.

[rdjones]

Yes, he is good enough, at the end of the day he is a McRae, and you only have too look at the family record in the sport which is pretty good, what with 8 British Championships and a World Championship. The problem Alister has is that he live in Colin shadow and is in a pretty poor car this season.

[bulldogspirit]

To be honest I believe there are better, younger drivers coming thru the ranks who could do equally well, or better than Alister's current form. Maybe it's just years of driving rubbish cars (c.f. Jacques Villeneuve in F1) that mean he can't perform to his obvious potential. Hopefully as the Mitsubishi improves so will he as a driver, but at the moment I'm not sure.

[Riceboy]

Look at Rally GB 1998. Alistair McRae was bought in to aid Colin carry out further testing on the Scoobie a week prior to the event.

Given just a couple of weeks in the car look at the results from leg 1

Overall Position after Leg 1
pos driver machine time
1 C. McRae Subaru Impreza WRC 47:53.0
2 C. Sainz Toyota Corolla WRC +3.6
3 A. McRae Subaru Impreza WRC +4.2
4 D. Auriol Toyota Corolla WRC +7.9
5 J. Kankkunen Ford Escort WRC +12.7
6 R> Burns Mitsubishi Carisma +16.4
7 G. de Mevius Subaru Impreza +18.7
8 B. Thiry Ford Escort +19.3
9 S. Lindholm Ford Escort +33.2
10 K. Holowczyc Subaru Impreza +43.0


After McRae retired Alistair continued (leg 2 results beneath)

Overall Position after Leg 2
pos driver machine time
1 R> Burns Mitsubishi Carisma 2:13:41.2
2 A. McRae Subaru Impreza WRC +1:15.7
3 J. Kankkunen Ford Escort WRC +1:46.1
4 C. Sainz Toyota Corolla WRC +2:01.7
5 B. Thiry Ford Escort +3:01.1
6 G. de Mevius Subaru Impreza +4:26.7
7 S. Lindholm Ford Escort +6:08.3
8 A. Schwarz Ford Escort +6:23.5
9 K. Holowczyc Subaru Impreza +6:47.1
10 H. Rovanpera SEAT Ibiza +8:37.0

Of course he deserves a place in the WRC.

Give him half a chance with that dog of a Mitsi. He needs a good chassis underneath him and they'll all be looking out for him then.

Trouble is I don't believe that he will get a 'good' car until Colin goes, and then everybodys going to be harping on about how he has stepped out of his brothers shadow (bah!!!!)