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As Tom Howard returns from an incredible weekend of action in Sweden, he talks to Martyn Lee about the battle for the win and what it says about the championship fight this year.

Welcome back to the Gravel Notes podcast in 2023. We're back for our first WRC preview show and also a wider look ahead to the season ahead. This podcast incorporates a shorter section we also made for the Autosport podcast channel, but we know you're a fan of rally, so then we continued the conversation and heard from three of our title contenders this year - Kalle Rovanperä, Ott Tänak and Thierry Neuville.

The World Rally Championship heads to Japan this weekend for the final round of 2022 with nothing but pride to race for, with both championships already decided.  The 10-year wait for WRC to return to Japan in 2020 was ultimately delayed as the event became a casualty of the pandemic, and the sense of anticipation is even higher now amongst the passionate local fans cheering on Toyota. This weekend the Gravel Notes podcast is in to Japan with Autosport’s Tom Howard as the previous gravel roads of Japan make way for 19 new twisty tarmac stages which will prove one of the toughest challenges of the year. On a new edition of the podcast, Tom previews the weekend action following Thursday’s shakedown and first stage, which saw Sebastien Ogier narrowly beat M-Sport’s Craig Breen by just 0.1 seconds, with Hyundai’s Ott Tanak another tenth of a second behind. Tom also talks about WRC’s silly season with Esapekka Lappi expected to join Hyundai to replace Tanak, with the Estonian facing a year on the side-lines without a drive in 2023. There is also still plenty to fight for in WRC2 with a three-way fight for the drivers title.

Tom Howard is back to review the penultimate round of WRC in 2022, but can't talk about anything else first but Ott Tänak's decision to leave Hyundai at the end of the year. But does it mean he'll leave the sport itself?  Tom also talks about how Toyota exerted their strength to win another team title and why all teams need to be looking for the next generation of rally stars. Martyn Lee is your host.

WRC returned for the Repco Rally New Zealand after a ten-year hiatus to see a new world champion crowned. Kalle Rovanperä could have settled for a cautious points finish to secure his first title, but instead delivered his trademark 'maximum attack' on the wet and muddy gravel roads around Auckland. Rovanperä also takes the title of being the youngest world champion in the history of WRC taking that benchmark from the late Colin McRae.  The penultimate day of the event saw Rovanperä celebrate his 22nd birthday and, just 24 hours later, bring home his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 car home for a spectacular powerstage victory. Tom Howard joins Martyn Lee on the podcast to review the weekend and look at how 'King Kalle' brought the championship back to Finland for the first time in 20 years.

Martyn Lee is joined by TOM HOWARD to analyse a fairy tale weekend for Hyundai, as other teams fell by the wayside, they picked up a 1-2-3 result for the first time in history. What makes this story more remarkable is from how far back Hyundai came in 2022, with a Rally1 challenger developed and built far too late.  From the lows of Monte Carlo and Kenya, the team were forced to build reliability whilst watching rivals run away with an early lead. However, a controversial decision to impose team order to 'bring the cars home' on Sunday called off a duel between Neuville and Tänak, much to the annoyance of the Estonian former champ and his supporters.

Tom Howard and Michael Haffenden are back from WRC Ypres Rally Belgium where Ott Tänak secured his second rally win on the bounce, as a high rate of attrition saw multiple crashes. 

Last weekend witnessed a truly incredible Rally Finland with WRC's best battling it out for the win. Today on Gravel Notes with Tom Howard he talks to all three podium teams - Tanak, Rovanpera and Lappi. We also hear how Hyundai ended Toyota's winning streak in Finland, and how the land of 1000 lakes was able to keep Lappi's car topped up with water after a massive shunt. Stick around to the end of the podcast because Tom talks about an experience no mere mortal has any business doing - co-driving a top tier rally car alongside one of the worlds best drivers, as he calls the pace notes over 6 kilometres for Takamoto Katsuta in the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 car.

Kalle Rovanpera clinched a fifth win from seven World Rally Championship rounds with a masterclass display to defeat Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans at Rally Estonia. The WRC championship leader produced yet another stunning performance, despite starting first on the road in changeable weather conditions, to beat Evans by 1m00.9s on Estonia’s fast gravel roads.  Martyn Lee is joined by Tom Howard to discuss all the action, and we hear from the top three of Rovanpera, Evans and Tanak.

Round 7 of the World Rally Championship in Estonia kicks off tomorrow just after 6:30pm UK, and Martyn Lee is joined by Tom Howard to preview the action. Safari Rally Kenya was a car-breaker with harsh conditions hurting many teams and drivers, whilst 2022's sensation Kalle Rovanpera dominated from first on the road. Can home hero Ott Tanak fight back at an event he has won multiple times, and will Toyota's upgrade package be another blow for the teams playing catch up? On the podcast today, Tom is joined by M-Sport Team principal Richard Millener, reflecting on Safari and looking to Estonia. We'll hear about their solutions to reliability issues and how he is expecting Craig Breen to deliver in Estonia.  Tom has alsoi spoken with Hyundai Deputy team director Julien Moncet about the parts shortages causing a supply "nightmare".

Kalle Rovanpera enhanced his World Rally Championship title credentials with victory at a gruelling Safari Rally Kenya, as Toyota locked out the top four positions.  Tom Howard is back on the podcast to review a weekend of attrition and superb performances. Martyn Lee is your host.  

Tom Howard is live from Africa as he previews all the action for this weekend's Safari Rally Kenya

Tanak is back on top of the podium after 462 days, Rovanpera extends his championship lead and Craig Breen has technical trouble with his giggling pin. Martyn Lee is joined by Tom Howard to look back at WRC Rally Sardinia.

WRC teams have made the relatively short hop from Portugal to Italy for this weekends WRC Rally Italia Sardegna. The more observant podcast fans will have noticed we didn’t bring you our usual review show last week to wrap up Portugal, and we explain why on today’s podcast. So we look back at Portugal and the incredible job by Kalle Rovanpera to win his third consecutive event this year. Tom Howard and Martyn Lee discuss how he overhauled Evans to show he has an answer to every surface in 2022 – snow, tarmac and now gravel.  Marcus Gronholm says Kalle is ready to win a world title, but what’s it like to be around him in the service park as the pressure mounts? Tom tells us his perspective from Portugal. Next we head to Sardinia this weekend where Neuville will look to close the 46 point gap to Rovanpera, and Evans looks to build on his first podium of the season, after a rocky start in 2022. Finally we have the results of our social media fan survey asking about the greatest WRC driver and it was a runaway win for one particular legend.

Tom Howard and Andy Simmons are in Portugal to preview the next round of the World Rally Championship. They were also present at the gala dinner last night to celebrate the 50th season of WRC, and bring us all the news about how the special anniversary is being marked this weekend.

Tom Howard is back from Croatia to analyse all the action from WRC Rally Croatia, including a frantic Sunday when sudden rain and tyre choices  were the story of the day.

Mechanics are an integral part of motorsport regardless of discipline and those that work in the World Rally Championship mechanics are regarded among elite. These unsung heroes are expected to perform miracles against the clock to prepare and repair WRC cars during events. Unlike other forms of motorsport, rallying’s version of the circuit racing pitstop is known as a service and these occur after a series or loop of special stages held on closed roads. Drivers and co-drivers will return to the service park, where teams deploy a group of mechanics to repair any damage or change items on the cars in an allotted time period before the next set of stages. To better understand the life of a mechanic Autosport WRC reporter Tom Howard was invited to become part of the M-Sport Ford WRC team to work on Pierre-Louis Loubet’s Ford Puma Rally1 WRC car at the South Belgian Rally.

Tom Howard talks to new FIA Rally Director Andrew Wheatley. Wheatley took over the position vacated by Yves Matton last year, and steps up from being WRC category manager. He’s a rally veteran having worked across Belgian and Polish championships, including a long spell at M-Sport in the early 2000’s.  WRC’s new Rally1 hybrid era is underway, and today we talk about how the FIA plans to take that forward, responding to changes in the automotive sector with the shift to electrification.  And work has begun on the next rule cycle from 2025, which he says will be more like an evolution of the current Rally1 regulations.

Tom Howard is fresh off the plane from Sweden with his full review of how Kalle Rovanperä took an emphatic victory to take charge of the championship. The 21 year old decided on muted celebrations, after giving his support to the people of Ukraine currently under Russian invasion, exactly 21 years after his father Harri took his only World Rally Championship victory at the same event.    In contrast, Elfyn Evans had a weekend to forget. A 10 second time penalty caused by him leaving the designated course, whilst recovering from crashing over a snow back on the final corner, would just be the start of his pain. To discuss that and a lot more, Martyn Lee joins Tom Howard to look back at memorable weekend of motorsport.

This weekend there'll be no Sebs, plenty of studs and guaranteed sub-zero temperatures.  Following a 2021 break, Rally Sweden is back on the calendar and moving to a new location further north, which will guarantee a spectacular backdrop of snow and ice.    On the podcast today we hear from Esapekka Lappi about his first start of the year and how the new cars will handle in the conditions. Plus we hear from M-Sport Team Principal Rich Millener about his target for the weekend.