WRC 2013 begins with Rally Monte Carlo

David Bodapati January 13, 2013

591 Less than a minute

Valence (Monte Carlo), 13 Jan 2013: The 2013 Rallye Monte-Carlo marks the opening round of the series and the 40th anniversary of the FIA World Rally Championship, the series having been inaugurated at the start of 1973 with this now world-famous event. Back then, the eight-day rally started with concentration runs from Almeria, Athens, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Monte-Carlo, Oslo, Reims, Rome and Warsaw – the average distances being in the region of 2,500 kilometres – before the crews met up for the start of the competitive action. The first-ever FIA World Rally Championship special stage was Col du Corobin, which ran at the end of the concentration runs to establish a classification before the start of what was then known as the ‘common run’.

Remarkably, one competitor – the overall victor of the 1973 Rallye Monte-Carlo – will be participating in the 40th WRC anniversary event. “Biche”, who navigated Jean-Claude Andruet to victory in a Renault Alpine A110 and claimed the win ahead of Ove Andersson and Jean Todt, starts this year in car #73 (Mitsubishi Evo IX) alongside Italian Maurizio Verini.

Rallye Monte-Carlo is famous for its mixed conditions, most notably the potential combination of wet and dry tarmac, snow and ice, making tyre choice a critical factor. Competitors have a choice of four types of tyre and having the correct ones fitted at the right time is key to Monte-Carlo success.