Infographics. What if the 2018 season was the closest in 15 years?

We may have gone a little too hard calling the 2018 Formula 1 season one of the most exciting in the last 10 years. With this in mind, we are approaching the current World Championship campaign. rally (WRC) with a slightly less extreme spirit: what if the 2018 season was the best in… 15 years? Before you get carried away, take a look at some statistics below.

A 2018 season in two stages
After the tenth round contested in Turkey, the fight was confined between three crews, representing as many different teams: Thierry Neuville-Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai), Ott Tänak-Martin Järveoja (Toyota) and Sébastien Ogier-Julien Ingrassia (M-Sport Ford).

The Belgians are 13 points ahead of the Finnish pair, while the French are 23 points behind. With still 90 points to distribute for the winner of the last three events (25x3 + 5x3, including the Power Stage), everything remains playable for these competitors.

This graph allows you to see the evolution of the three title contenders, rally after rally. Thierry Neuville and Sébastien Ogier exchanged command three times in the first five rallies before the situation stabilizes. We can then clearly distinguish a sort of status quo from Portugal.

Since then, the two men have followed almost parallel trajectories due to the various problems encountered in Finland (unstable car for Sébastien Ogier, sweep for Thierry Neuville), Germany (puncture for Ogier then 2nd) and Turkey (stage not finished for both).

Meanwhile, Ott Tänak storms back up. After conceding 72 points behind Thierry Neuville on the evening of the Sardinia rally, the protégé of Markko Märtin (victorious in the WRC in 2003 and 2004), the 30-year-old driver has put the turbo on. His three successes in a row earned him 87 points ! In three rounds, here he collects more units than in the first seven meetings, a real performance.

Unheard of since 2003
Okay, the 2018 season is undecided, but you need more to convince you. This second infographic should help.

Actually, 2018 is indeed the tightest season of this decade after 10 rounds. Far from the overwhelming reign of Volkswagen and Sébastien Ogier (124 points ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen in 2015!), and even denser than 2011 (the internal duel between Sébastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier at Citroën) or 2017 (Ogier-Neuville duel).

Let's see if this characteristic is reproduced by comparing 2018 to the 2000s. In order to better understand it, let us specify that in 2009, the points system was modified in WRC:
2003-2009: the first eight score points (10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1)
Since 2010: the first 10 score points (25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1) + the first 5 of the Power Stage since 2017

This 2018 season is only beaten by two campaigns: 2007 and 2003. In 2007, one of the most exciting duels in the modern WRC took place between Sébastien Loeb and Marcus Grönholm, two drivers at the top of their game. In 2003, Petter Solberg won it by a small point against the same Loeb while four men (Solberg, Loeb, Sainz, Burns) could be titled before the last rally!

But where 2018 differs from 2007 is thatit allows for the first time since 2003 to have a gap between the top 3 of the general classification smaller than the value of a victory. We're still talking about a period when Sébastien Loeb was seen as a young rally kid!

For this reason, let's hope that the three-way fight of this 2018 season lasts until the final of the Australian Rally (November 15-18), like in 2003, obviously...