Entry list for Monte Carlo Rallye 2018 is published!
The oldest and the biggest World Rally Championship event will be held from January 22-28. The winner gets prestige and glory because every rally driver has one dream - to win a Monte Carlo Rallye.
Source
Let's go back to the history. The first edition of the rally was in 1911 with aristocrats taking part just to show off with their cars and skills behind a wheel. In those days there was no roll bars in the cars, just a chassis with seats and belts. The speeds were slower but it was more dangerous without a safety equipment which we have in modern rally cars.
Only two drivers have five or more wins in this prestigious event: Sebastien Loeb with seven and current World Rally Champion Sebastien Ogier with five wins. Three drivers have four wins 'under their belt': Tommi Makinen (current Toyota works squad boss), legendary Audi driver Walter Rohrl and Italian Sandro Munari.
For the record, only one Monegasque won the event in 107 years: it was Louis Chiron in 1954 driving Lancia Aurelia B20 GT. Now you know how the newest Bugatti car got its name!!!
When we talk about this rally, it's very important to focus on the surface. It's tarmac rally, sometimes dry, sometimes dump and wet but it is most dangerous when the road is covered with snow and black ice. In 2017 edition a spectator got killed when Hayden Paddon, driving for the works Hyundai team, had an accident and went off the road because of black ice. The car hit Spanish photographer. That stage was canceled but the rally continued. That's how dangerous it is.
Source
What is important about this rally?
The most important thing is a choice of tires. It's a real gamble because if you choose perfect tires, you can gain a huge advantage over competitors. For example, a special stage is long 45 kilometers (in mixed conditions it's needed around 35 minutes to finish it), 8 kilometers is under snow and the rest is dry tarmac. What would be the perfect choice? Really brave drivers take soft slick tires and drive super slow on snowy patches but on dry tarmac they have huge advantage and can regain lost time on snow and also gain huge amount because with spike tires one can drive fast on snow, but on dry tarmac one can't drive flat out because of a lower grip.
Who won it in 2017?
It's an easy answer: Sebastien Ogier won it driving Ford Fiesta WRC 2017 in his first rally with the new squad (for him) and semi-private team M-Sport. 2nd place on the podium was for Jari-Matti Latvala in Toyota and 3rd was Estonian Ott Tanak in another M-Sport car Ford Fiesta WRC 2017.
What can we expect from 2018 edition?
I have got a feeling that we don't have a real favorite this year. In my opinion, Hyundai has the fastest car at the moment but we can't forget other teams who, for sure, worked hard during the seasons break. It's really unpredictable to say who will win but there are few potential candidates: Sebastien Ogier, Thierry Neuville, and Andreas Mikkelsen.
Source
Monte Carlo Rallye 2018 Entry list (start order)
1 M-SPORT FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM: Sebastien Ogier - Julien Ingrassia
2 M-SPORT FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM: Elfyn Evans - Daniel Barritt
3 M-SPORT FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM: Bryan Bouffier - Jérôme Degout
4 HYUNDAI SHELL MOBIS WRT: Andreas Mikkelsen - Anders Jaeger Synnevaag
5 HYUNDAI SHELL MOBIS WRT: Thierry Neuville - Nicolas Gilsoul
6 HYUNDAI SHELL MOBIS WRT: Dani Sordo - Carlos del Barrio
7 TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT: Jari-Matti Latvala - Miikka Anttila
8 TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT: Ott Tanak - Martin Jarveoja
9 TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT: Esapekka Lappi - Janne Ferm
10 CITROEN TOTAL ABU DHABI WRT: Kris Meeke - Paul Nagle
11 CITROEN TOTAL ABU DHABI WRT: Craig Breen - Scott Martin
31 M-SPORT FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM: Eric Camilli - Benjamin Veillas (WRC2 class)
32 SKODA MOTORSPORT II: Jan Kopecky - Pavel Dresler (WRC2 class)
33 M-SPORT FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM: Teemu Suninen - Mikko Markkula (WRC2 class)
34 (private entry): Kevin Abbring - Pieter Tsjoen (WRC2 class)
35 (private entry): Guillaume de Mevius - Louis Louka (WRC2 class)
36 (private entry): Eddie Sciessere - Flavio Zanella (WRC2 class)
61 (private entry): Enrico Brazzoli - Luca Beltrame (WRC3 class)
62 (private entry): Taisko Lario - Tatu Hamalainen (WRC3 class)
63 (private entry): Jean-Baptiste Franceschi - Romain Courbon (WRC3 class)
64 (private entry): Amaury Molle - Renaud Herman (WRC3 class)
21 (private entry): Alessandro Fioro - Guido d'Amore (RGT class)
23 (private entry): Nicolas Ciamin - Thibault de La Haye (RGT class)
25 (private entry): Andrea Nucita - Marco Vozzo (RGT class)
18 (private entry): Manuel Villa - Daniele Michi
71 (private entry): Ole Christian Veiby - Stig Rune Skjaermoen
72 (private entry): Olivier Burri - Anderson Levratti
73 (private entry): Kalle Rovanpera - Jonne Halttunen
74 (private entry): Quentin Giordano - Vincent Landais
75 (private entry): Mathieu Arzeno - Romain Roche
76 (private entry): Stéphane Sarazzin - Jacques-Julien Renucci
78 (private entry): Claude Carret - Olivier Mathias
79 (private entry): Henk Vossen - Hoek van Radboud
81 (private entry): Philippe Chevallard - Frederic Arnaud
82 (private entry): Eamonn Boland - M.J.Morrissey
83 (private entry): Enda McCormack - Colin Fitzgerald
84 (private entry): Ismael Vuistiner - Florine Kummer
85 (private entry): Philippe Rageau - Alexandra Rageau
86 (private entry): Andrea Coti Zelati - Giovanni Barbaro
87 (private entry): Thibaut Poizot - Marion Grand
88 (private entry): Jason Bailey - Shayne Peterson
89 (private entry): Lilian Vialle - Manuel Ghirardello
91 (private entry): Sebastien Capanna - Robin Doussan
92 (private entry): Yoann Bonato - Benjamin Boulloud
93 (private entry): Philippe Baffoun - Fabien Yonnet
94 (private entry): Alain Lauzerte - Patrick Guerrieri
95 (private entry): Nicolas Latil - Audrey Nesta
96 (private entry): Carlo Covi - Pietro Elia Ometto
97 (private entry): Gus Greensmith - Craig Perry
99 (private entry): Stephane Metiffiot - Pierre-Andre Metiffiot
100 (private entry): Romain Fostier - Ophelie Abchiche
101 (private entry): Deividas Jocius - Zvicevicius Donatas
103 (private entry): Laure Jaussaud - Carine Jaussaud
104 (private entry): Renaud Dolce - Jean-Pierre Ayasse
105 (private entry): Nikolaos Pavlidis - Allan Harryman
106 (private entry): Thierry Tondut - Romain Beylouni
107 (private entry): Hugues Chareyre - Jean-Luc Duval
108 (private entry): Laurent Scherrer - Sebastien Achard
109 (private entry): Jonathan Villy - Ronald Villy
111 (private entry): Damien Oberti - Thomas Escartefigue
112 (private entry): Nicolas Renchet - Cedric Amoros
113 (private entry): Frederic Fortunato - Lionel Neto
114 (private entry): Sebastien Studer - Maude Studer
115 (private entry): Marc Dessi - Vanessa Dessi
116 (private entry): Eric Martini - Guy Pengial
117 (private entry): Alain Mari - Dominique Cesari
118 (private entry): Richard Desbordes - Jean-Luc Fustier
119 (private entry): Christophe Berard - Christophe Bernabo
Source
As we can see from the entry list, maybe 15-20 crews are professionals. All the others are amateur rally drivers.
My wish was always to start and finish this rally. And that wish almost came true in 2011 when Auto Club de Monaco celebrated 100 years of this rally. I had a budget for diesel car because my sponsor wanted to run it. Organizers gave all the crews free entry (that means no 3000€ entry fee) but they restricted the number of entrants to 120. And guess what?!? 310 crews signed up. And my entry with a diesel car wasn't accepted. I was really devastated. I worked hard for months and after all, I was 'broken'. But what can we do? Life goes on. I still hope that I will start Monte Carlo Rallye, sometime in the future.
But for now, let's enjoy this beautiful event.
AND LET THE BEST WIN - AS ALWAYS!!!
Click on the coin to join our Discord Chat
Vote 
In the bottom of the page type: adsactly-witness and press vote.
Use small letters and no "@" sign. Or, click here to vote directly!
Thank you!