Why Monte Carlo success could spark another past master’s WRC revival

They say that once the motorsport bug bites, it’s very difficult to let go. Four-time World Rally Championship event winner Francois Delecour is a case in point – now 60, he picked up the WRC2 Masters Cup class win on the Monte Carlo Rally last month.

Delecour’s passion for rallying has never dwindled. The 1994 Monte Carlo winner is as hooked on wheeling a car through its famous twisty mountain roads as he was when he made his event debut as a bright-eyed future prospect, driving a Talbot Samba in 1984.

“It’s easy to understand: I have a fantastic chance to compete in this sport,” he says when asked about his passion for the rallying growing rather than receding. “Physically I’m in good form, it’s no problem with the eyes, touch wood. I see in the dark like I was young and the day I’m not like that, maybe I stop.”

Delecour has an affinity with Monte Carlo. It’s a rally that ultimately propelled him to a WRC career that included factory drives with Ford, Peugeot and Mitsubishi in the 1990s and early 2000s, peaking with second in the 1993 standings behind Juha Kankkunen (Toyota).

It’s also a rally that has dished out a fair share of heartache over the years; most notably in 1991 when Delecour appeared on course to score a breakthrough WRC win before a final stage collapse. While leading, his Ford Sierra Sapphire Cosworth ran off the road and a tearful Delecour was forced to limp home to third as Toyota’s Carlos Sainz snatched the victory. An elusive Monte Carlo win would eventually arrive three years later, piloting a Ford Escort RS Cosworth.

While Delecour called time on a full-time WRC career at the end of a trying 2002 with Mitsubishi, he’s never left the competitive rally scene. This year marked his 24th attempt at the iconic Alpine asphalt classic as Delecour lined up in brand new Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, hoping to show rallying’s next generation a thing or two. To borrow an old cliché, there was plenty of life in the old dog as Delecour finished 19th overall and 10th of the Rally2 runners on his way to WRC2 Masters Cup honours.

Delecour has the same passion as ever at the age of 60 and even attempted to source a drive in a Rally1 M-Sport Puma for Monte

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Despite his age, the burning desire to win and the relentless drive to be faster remains, as evident by his reaction to winning the class.

“It [winning the Masters Cup] really doesn’t matter to me,” he says. “I want to push hard and I want to be like the young drivers. But still, I can do it. I need to just work on it a bit more and improve the car and understand it.

“It was my first rally in WRC2, first in an R5 car. I have no experience at all. I can do it, but I just need some more testing miles.”

Lining up in the shiny new Skoda was however only half the story. Delecour had hoped to take on an even tougher challenge of driving a top level Rally1 M-Sport Ford Puma, but a lack of available chassis means hopes of a return to rallying’s top class for the first time since 2014 will have to be put on hold for a year. And so the budget was put into a debut in the ultra-competitive Rally2 class, where he competed against the likes of rising stars Adrien Fourmaux and Oliver Solberg.

"I am looking at videos and I know Monte very well, but the other drivers are better than me because they look at the videos so much. It is another job compared to 10-15 years ago" Francois Delecour

The lure of testing himself against the rallying’s future hopefuls was the key factor that convinced Delecour to take on this next challenge of his glittering rally career. But while the veteran was impressed by Rally2 machinery, the commitment to a top level return remains.

“Next year we will push hard to make Monte-Carlo with a Rally1,” he says. “This year it was nearly done, but at the last moment Malcolm [Wilson, M-Sport owner] told me: ‘Francois, I have no cars, I am very sorry’.

“It would be so interesting to compare and see if I [still] have the speed. I had my supporters and my friends behind me – okay I am 60-years-old, but the budget was unbelievable. We had the budget to do it, which is absolutely crazy. It is more than double this one [WRC2] this kind of car.”

The game has changed in WRC’s top classes since Delecour last drove the recalcitrant 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer WRC. Not only have the speeds increased, but the way in which speed is now achieved has moved on. There is much more emphasis on crews analysing stage onboard videos to extract those crucial tenths of seconds.

The game has moved on since Delecour called time on his full-time WRC career with Mitsubishi in 2002

Photo by: Ralph Hardwick/LAT

“The WRC2 is good, efficient and you are going very fast, but we need to improve more by looking at the videos,” he says. “I am looking at videos and I know Monte very well, but the other drivers are better than me because they look at the videos so much. It is another job compared to 10-15 years ago.

“The speed is now like what has happened in football. The speed was not there and now in football with people like [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo, the speed is unbelievable.”

Among the challenges facing Delecour was adapting to the 1.6-litre four-wheel drive Rally2 pocket rockets, where the level at the sharp end makes for extremely close competition. For example, in Monte Carlo leading class contenders Nikolay Gryazin and Yohan Rossel were split by just 4.5s after 325 kilometres until a corner-cutting penalty switched the positions post-event.

Delecour’s task was made even tougher by the fact that he has driven countless cars over the years and regularly chops and changes from one to another. His previous six rally outings before jumping aboard the Skoda included drives in no less than five different cars; a Subaru Impreza, Porsche 991 GT3 Cup, Ford Escort RS2000, Alpine A110 RGT and a Renault Clio Rally4. It is no wonder that achieving the ultimate pace (and, he jokes, remembering where the handbrake is located) can become a quite a challenge.

“My problem right now is that I am changing cars all the time,” he adds. “I am going in a Porsche, then an Alpine, now this. Sometimes you arrive to a corner, and you don’t really know where the handbrake is, believe me!

“These guys are all the time in the same car, same class. They are thinking about the same things. The pace in WRC2 is incredible, it was so fast. I didn’t expect the speed to be so high at the front – but these guys are pushing really, really hard. With more time, maybe I can be on the same pace on some stages but not over the whole rally, that’s for sure.”

After enjoying four days at the wheel of the Fabia, Delecour is also convinced that this slower, yet more affordable platform compared to the fire breathing million euro Rally1 monsters, is perhaps the future for the top level of the WRC.

“The car is unbelievable, the chassis is so good,” he says. "I have nothing to say about the car because it’s me at the moment [that doesn’t have the ultimate speed]. My driving style, I have to change many things to learn a little bit more.

Delecour was impressed by his first experience of the Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2

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“It’s unbelievable because we have 200 horsepower less than the good [Rally1] car and the time was faster sometimes than [Hyundai driver Dani] Sordo’s time. Incredible. The level is so good and from my point of view this is the future.

“WRC2, it is the future because it is very interesting. The car is not bad, but you can still have car like that for everybody, many private drivers can drive this type of car [due to the costs]. This is very interesting.”

For most people, entering their sixties is a time to start winding down. But, if anything, this latest success and desire to compete against the next wave of WRC talent has stoked Delecour’s love of rallying still further. With the Rally1 Monte Carlo dream shifting to 2024, Delecour is now keen to compete in as many six rallies in Rally2 machinery this year.

"After Monte-Carlo I am not tired - I can do another 100 kilometres right now, easy!" Francois Delecour

Judging by his efforts at Monte Carlo, this seems realistic and could perhaps be a wakeup call for some young guns. There are no concerns over his fitness either – Delecour rides around 400 kilometres a week on his bicycle, and he even cycled the 60km to and from his pre-event Monte Carlo test.

“I am pushing hard to do some more mileage this year,” he says. “Maybe Corsica, Portugal. I would like to try this car on gravel. I hope we will do it.

“We will try to do five or six, we’ll see. But I think it is possible. After Monte-Carlo I am not tired - I can do another 100 kilometres right now, easy!”

Delecour is seeking more outings with the Skoda to prepare him for another crack at the Monte in a Rally1 machine next year

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