On this day 23 years ago, one of the best seasons in the World Rally Championship's history came to an end. Richard Burns won his first and only championship title, beating the likes of Colin McRae, Tommi Mäkinen and Carlos Sainz in the season finale in Wales Rally GB. 

The 2001 season lives in infamy, as it saw 8 and 14 different drivers win an event and finish on the podium respectively. Such was the competitive nature of the season, that the top 5 in the standings were separated by just 8 points in the end!

To honour this season, I decided to take a deep dive into all those rallies and stages, and see which drivers were the fastest, which ones were the most reliable, and what were each of the title contenders' strengths. Unlike 2003, this time we will also be taking a look at “surface specialists”, as in 2001, tarmac events were full with them.

Before we dive in, let's break down how these numbers are determined! There are two key variables: Deficit to Ideal Time (measured in seconds per kilometer) and Percentage of Stages Completed with a Representative Time (expressed as a percentage). The first variable, Deficit to Ideal Time, reflects a driver's speed. It is calculated by comparing the driver's performance to the ideal pace, where the ideal pace is defined as a driver who won all the stages. Essentially, this shows how fast or slow a driver was throughout the season. The second variable, Percentage of Stages Completed with a Representative Time, relates to a driver's reliability. This percentage is based on the number of stages a driver completed with a competitive time relative to the total number of stages in the season, excluding super special stages (SSSs). A non-representative time might occur when a driver faces issues like mechanical problems, punctures, wrong tire choices, or is simply cruising. To determine if a time is non-representative, it is compared to times from either the previous run of the stage or times from the same loop. If the time has a deficit more than 160% of the previous pass or loop average, it is classified as non-representative. For this season, mechanical issues are taken into consideration, and don't hurt a driver's reliability/consistency score. 

Heading into Wales Rally GB, the four drivers still within a chance at the championship crown were Colin McRae, Tommi Mäkinen, Richard Burns and Carlos Sainz. However, these will not be the only ones we will be looking at, as Harri Rovanpera and Marcus Gronholm were also up there that year. We will also be taking a look at Didier Auriol, as well as Gilles Panizzi, Philippe Bugalski and Jesus Puras at different points in the season.

The season opener in Monte-Carlo was a nightmare for Peugeot, with all three of the 206 WRC cars being out of the rally by Stage 4. Marcus Gronholm retired with a water pump failure, and Auriol and Panizzi both crashed out. Gronholm wasn't the only one to retire due to issues with his car, as Richard Burns also retired on SS7 due to his Impreza. Colin McRae and Tommi Mäkinen were locked in a tight battle for the lead, before the Scot's Focus gave up the ghost on the first stage on Sunday. That gave the win to Mäkinen, with the Fords of Sainz and Delecour rounding up the podium.

In Sweden, both Burns and McRae made mistakes early on, getting stuck in snowbanks on Friday. Gronholm again suffered a mechanical issue, retiring from the lead on SS2 due to an overheating engine. Those incidents gave Harri Rovanperä the lead of the rally, on his first outing for the Peugeot team. His closest rival, Tommi Mäkinen, crashed out of the rally on the last stage of the event, trying to catch his compatriot. Rovanperä won, earning his first and only win in the WRC. It's interesting to note that both Burns and McRae were faster than the finn overall, but that's because they were pushing trying to salvage some points after their offs, and also had better road position on Days 2 and 3.

Portugal that year is known for its treacherous conditions, with heavy rain making life hell for the crews. The times taken into account are mostly from day 2 and 3. Carlos Sainz and Tommi Mäkinen were the two headline drivers in Portugal, with the Finn beating the Spaniard on the last stage to get his second win in 3 events. Marcus Gronholm and Richard Burns were behind the pair, a long way off, in 3rd and 4th. Colin McRae retired from the rally on SS8 due to an issue with his Focus. Didier Auriol endured one of the worst rallies or his career, being 2s/km slower behind the leader.

Rally Catalunya was the first full tarmac rally of the season, and it saw the Citroën team debut its Xsara WRC car. Jesus Puras and Philippe Bugalski, both driving the Xsara, were the two fastest drivers in Catalunya, but neither of them would finish in the points. Puras retired on Saturday after his Citroën gave up the ghost, and Bugalski incurred a 4 minute penalty after losing his clutch, and not being able to start his car after reaching the time control of SS15, dropping him out of the points. Catalunya was also a difficult event for the championship contenders. Burns had gear selection problems which left him outside of the points, while McRae retired from the rally altogether, again due to a problem with his Focus. The Scot had 0 points from the first 4 events. Gronholm suffered a 3rd retirement in 4 rallies, after ripping a wheel off his 206. In the end, Auriol won, with Panizzi in 2nd, and Mäkinen in 3rd.

3 rough gravel rallies led us to the mid season break. McRae’s fortunes would change, with the Ford driver winning all three of the events, and propelling himself right into the championship fight. Burns finished 2nd in Argentina and Cyprus, but retired on the Acropolis due to a transmission issue with his Subaru. Mäkinen didn't have great results in those three rallies, finishing 4th in Argentina and Acropolis, but also crashing out of the rally in Cyprus. Sainz finished 3rd in both Argentina and Cyprus, with Cyprus being his best event of the season, but retired from Acropolis, just like Burns, due to an engine failure. Meanwhile, Gronholm retired from all three events, all three from mechanical issues with his 206.

Now, after the first 7 rounds of the season, here's how every driver looked like reliability and pace wise:

McRae and Burns are the two fastest drivers, with also a great consistency percentage, showing that their lack of points, mostly in Burns' case, have come from mechanical issues and not due to crashes. On the flip side, all of Mäkinen’s retirements so far came from crashes, thus denting his consistency. Carlos Sainz is the most consistent out of the title hopefuls, no surprise there. The Peugeots are the ones lacking compared to the others. Rovanpera’s retirements due to broken suspensions early on in Cyprus and Argentina really hurt the Finn in terms of consistency (only gravel rallies are taken into account), whereas Gronholm is marginally behind his title rivals, on the few events the 206 hasn’t let him down.  

If we compare the previous table with the standings after the Acropolis Rally we see that the two biggest losers are Burns and Gronholm, with the 2000 champion only finishing in 1 out of the first 7 events! McRae's only points finishes are his 3 wins in a row, whereas Mäkinen has as many points as the Ford driver, despite his crashes in Sweden and Cyprus.

Rally Safari in Kenya was next, and it would be a miserable event for most of the championship hopefuls. Burns was out on SS1, McRae on SS3, Gronholm on SS4 and Sainz on SS5. Mäkinen won the rally comfortably, with Rovanpera in 2nd. Such was the level of attrition in Kenya, that Armin Schwarz finished 3rd in the Skoda Octavia! Mäkinen now led the championship by 10 points.

Rally Finland finally saw Marcus Gronholm catch a break. The Finn suffered no issues this time, winning his home event for the second year running. His teammate and fellow Finn, Harri Rovanpera could have challenged Gronholm for the win if it wasn’t for a broken shock absorber at the end of Friday, as well as a spin on the second pass through Ouninpohja, costing the Rally Sweden winner precious time, and dropping him outside the podium places. Burns was in 2nd, with McRae completing the podium in 3rd. Contrasting fortunes for Mäkinen, with the four times champion crashing out of his home rally on the first stage!

In Rally New Zealand, Richard Burns overcame transmission and clutch problems on Friday, to win his first rally of the season. (With also strategically manufacturing a better road position for Saturday) Notably, Burns went from 7th to 1st in just one stage, Saturday’s opener, which was 59km long. McRae finished 2nd, and caught up to Mäkinen in the points standings. Mäkinen finished outside of the points thanks to the extreme road cleaning and a spin, in what would be the last rally with his beloved Group A Lancer. Gronholm finished 5th after team orders went badly wrong on the last stage of Friday, meaning he was 2nd on the road for Saturday, losing heaps of time. A jump start on Sunday effectively cost 3rd. Harri Rovanpera was in 3rd place, with Carlos Sainz close behind in 4th.

Rally Sanremo saw the crews return to Europe and tarmac. That meant a welcome return for the tarmac specialists of Citroen and also Gilles Panizzi. Burns wouldn’t even see the end of the first stage, crashing out of the rally a few kilometres into the first test of the rally. Mitsubishi debuted their new Lancer WRC in Sanremo, which was an absolute catastrophe. The new car was frustratingly slow and difficult to drive, with Mäkinen being 11th before he lost a wheel on Sunday, and ending his torture prematurely. McRae also scored no points in Italy, suffering issues on Friday. Sainz was the only one out of the title challengers to finish in the points, finishing 4th. Jesus Puras and Gilles Panizzi were locked in a tight battle for the lead, but Puras’ crash gave the Peugeot driver his first win of the year, with teammate Didier Auriol also finishing on the podium, in 3rd. In 2nd was Sebastien Loeb, in his first rally for a factory team in the WRC!

Mäkinen’s season would take another turn for the worse in Corsica, with the Finn suffering a frightening accident, which injured himself and co-driver Risto Mannisenmaki. Gronholm would also go off the road, thus ending any chance he had at retaining his championship crown. Neither of the Fords would score points either, with Sainz losing oil pressure, and retiring from the rally on Friday, and McRae suffering a puncture among others, which dropped him outside of the points paying positions. Jesus Puras won the rally, getting the first win for the Xsara WRC, fending off the Peugeots of Panizzi and Auriol.

The penultimate round of the season was in Australia, and it was Gronholm who’d come out on top. Out of the championship contenders, Sainz saw his chances of a 3rd title evaporate after the Spaniard lost a wheel on Stage 6, also incurring a one minute and 30 second penalty, something which saw him finish in 8th. Despite back pain and the fact that he was driving a Lancer WRC, Mäkinen finished 6th, earning a single point for his efforts. Burns was in 2nd, and McRae was 5th, heading to Wales as the championship leader. Harri Rovanpera completed the podium in 3rd.

So heading into the final round of the season, McRae was leading the championship, 2 points ahead of Burns and Mäkinen who were tied on points in 2nd, and 9 points ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz who still had a mathematical chance at the title, albeit quite a remote one.

Mäkinen was the first to bow out of the championship in Wales, losing a wheel on the first proper stage of the rally. McRae was leading the rally, and could afford to finish behind Burns (unless Burns won the rally). But the Scotsman rolled out of the rally in spectacular fashion on Stage 4, ending his bid for the 2001 title. The 2001 title was in Burns’ hands with the Englishman needing to finish in 4th to claim his maiden championship. Sainz would also go off the road, meaning Burns was the only one out of the title challengers still running. The Subaru driver from Reading would bring his car home in 3rd, winning his first and only championship. Gronholm and Rovanpera would lock out the first two places for Peugeot, winning the Constructors Title for the French marque. 

So how did things pan out on the second half of the season?

Tommi Mäkinen's crashes didn't stop in the second half of the season, in fact they increased. Combined with the new Lancer Evo WRC being rather hopeless, Mäkinen finds himself as both the slowest and the least consistent driver of the 2001 title challengers. The Finn only scored one point after the Safari Rally. Richard Burns became faster, but also less consistent after the Acropolis, with the worse consistency not costing him a thing in the end. Colin McRae was just as fast throughout the second half, but that 7% he lost in consistency is mostly due to his off in Wales. Marcus Gronholm's two dominant wins in Australia and Wales help him salvage a bad season, with the Finn ending the season as the fastest driver. Carlos Sainz is again the most consistent driver, but not the fastest, only being ahead of Harri Rovanpera and Tommi Mäkinen on pace. The Spaniard only scored 7 points in the second half of the season, mostly due to the Focus' reliability, but also mistakes in the final two rounds of the season.

This time, seeing the performance each driver had on different surfaces is not as insightful as in the 2003 post, so instead, I'll leave you the 5 best performances of the season!

So, what did we uncover today? Your takeaways might vary based on your knowledge of the 2001 season, but here’s what stood out to me. I was surprised at McRae and Burns, I expected them to have opposite stats, with Burns being the more consistent, but it was McRae who was the more consistent out of the two. The Scot lost the title mostly because of his Focus' mechanical problems, and not due to his own crashes. The tarmac rallies of the season were like a completely different championship, with the Citroens, Panizzi and Auriol leaving the title contenders scrambling for the lower points paying positions. Mäkinen's lost points are almost wholly due to him crashing, with the Group A Lancer not giving any trouble on that department. So this was the story of the 2001 season. A season worthy of being in everyone's list!

Written by Dimitris Theodorou