Marcus Grönholm's Disastrous 2001 Title Defence

Welcome to another new video on this video!
Marcus Grönholm came into the 2001 season as the reigning champion after beating Subaru driver and future teammate Richard Burns by 5 points and dethroning fellow Finn Tommi Mäkinen, who had a disastrous 2000 season. But Marcus's title defence was marked by reliabilty issues from his Peugeot 206 and several driver errors. He still had a solid second half to the season, where, with some luck, he still could have won the title. But let's take a closer look to his season. Enjoy!
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[@ivaneurope]

His second title defense in 2003 wasn't anything to brag about either. In this case, it was the inverse of 2001 - a strong start with 3 wins and 1 second place, but a string of retirements in the mid-to-late part of the season (he failed to finish in 6 of the 14 races of the calendar) dropped him down to 6th, 26 points behind champion Petter Solberg. Moreover, the string of retirements from Grönholm also impacted Peugeot's position in the manufacturers standings, losing to its sister brand Citroën by 15 points

[@jm69eng35]

I might have to cover his season too. His downfall that season is surely interesting (even through if Panizzi's comments on the lack of development of the 206 were correct, Peugeot might have ruined their chances aswell),

[@ivaneurope]

@@jm69eng35 I'd argue that by 2003 work had already began on the 206's replacement - the 307 WRC, and perhaps Panizzi was annoyed that all resources were diverted for 2004 rather than trying not to lose ground to Citroën, who kept updating the Xsara, as well as Ford (who unveiled an updated version of the Focus) and Subaru (which began running the facelifted Impreza). Maybe Peugeot saw no need in keep developing a car that was already the top car in WRC for the last 3 seasons and was going to be replaced at the conclusion of the season anyway.

[@TheRealEmile]

Fantastic video, please keep making these WRC retrospectives!

[@jm69eng35]

Thank you very much! I have some more ideas for future videos. Stay tuned!

[@tommygun6866]

Awesome!

[@jm69eng35]

Thank you very much!

[@marcelkagalova3521]

when speak Peugeot 307 wrc well dammit! 307 wrc landed in privateers hands. some good performances by manfred stohl and gigi galli in 2006 wrc season proved that 307 once got polished enough, really started to show some potential. Peugeot 307 wrc was a missed opportunity.

[@jt-hb8lh]

It was more the lack of competition rather than the pace of the 307 in 2006. The 307 was actually quite reliable in 2005.