FIA World Baja Cup 2024: provisional standing after Baja Greece
By Stephan Wolf
Following changes to the FIA World Baja Cup sporting regulations, this year’s FIA World Baja Cup is becoming more unpredictable. Firstly, the results of all rounds of the series are counted towards the season results. This requires a different strategy from the competitors than in previous years. Secondly, the coefficient system (depending on the number of nominated competitors in a group, a coefficient scale of 1.0–1.2–1.5 is used) complicates the preliminary calculation of points and chances at future rounds.
Ultimate Category
Yazeed Al-Rajhi was the only competitor in this category to start in the first two rounds of the World Cup. His victory in Saudi Arabia and third position in Greece gave him the lead with a significant advantage.
Challenger category
The fastest crews so far have either not started all the rounds in a row (João Dias won in Saudi Arabia, but missed the round in Greece) or face big problems on the track (João Ferreira and Ghislain de Mévius in Greece). The advantage is still held by the most stable crews who finish every race - Diego Martinez and Khalid Al-Jafla.
SSV Category
After two rounds, it remains the only category where a higher coefficient was used - 1.2 on Baja Greece. After the chaos in Greece (won by Alex Toril, but later disqualified), Fernando Álvarez has a full advantage - two wins brought him 88 points out of 88 possible.
Overall standing
With the new rules, the overall standings have become the most complicated in the FIA World Baja Cup. The most important factors here were high efficiency in his category (Fernando Álvarez won two rounds out of two) and the application of coefficients (in Greece, a coefficient of 1.2 in the SSV category earned Álvarez 48 points instead of the usual 40).
The next round, Baja España Aragón, is scheduled for July 26–28. Perhaps even the maximum coefficient of 1.5 will be used in some categories in this round.
Photo Credits: Yazeed Racing, Baja Greece
