Young Norwegian WRC champion Petter Solberg epitomises the changing faces at the top of rallying. Michael McAleer, Motoring Editor, assesses what the future holds for the sport
It was a tumultuous end to a tumultuous season, with the final result going right to the last event in Wales, which was dominated by withdrawals, team orders and retirements.
Petter Solberg's coronation as Norway's first world rally champion on Sunday sent another blast of fresh air through a sport already swept by the winds of change. So too did Citroën's stunning success in winning the manufacturers' title in their first full season.
Subaru's Solberg and Citroën's French overall runner-up Sebastien Loeb, both still in their 20s, are leaders of a new generation eager to push past the older men who have dominated the past decade.
As they staged a private duel in the Welsh forests to finish first and second, they were tailed home by departing champions Tommi Makinen and Colin McRae.
Between them McRae and Makinen dominated the 1990s, the Scot champion in 1995 and Makinen in 1996-1999. Neither will be back next year, and Makinen not at all, which is also set to be a farewell for 1990 and 1992 champion Carlos Sainz of Spain. There are even doubts about Richard Burns, the 2001 champion, who will have further medical tests this week after fainting at the wheel before the season-ending rally.
Citroën's success reinforced the sense of a changing of the guard. They ended stablemates Peugeot's bid for a fourth successive title and became the first new champion manufacturer since Mitsubishi in 1998.
Solberg's victory in the last rally of the season marks an amazing journey for the young Norwegian in the last 12 months. Just a year ago he was a little-known driver poised to win his first event and become the latest in a seemingly never-ending line of Scandinavians to display their rallying prowess.
The 28-year-old, in just his fourth full-time season at the top level, has confounded established wisdom by hauling Subaru up by the scruff of the neck and turning them into genuine title hopefuls.
Solberg has proved to be their greatest asset, blowing away perhaps the sport's finest driver of the modern era in team-mate Tommi Makinen, as well as bringing some flair back to rallying. Makinen finished his final WRC rally in typically subdued form.
Ironically, for all the success of Solberg, the team has to address some concerns over Makinen's replacement next season, Richard Burns. The sidelined Englishman's management has been unable to confirm that he suffered a second blackout early last week, but expect the nature of Burns' illness to become clear after more tests in the next few days. In the meantime Subaru are in no hurry to engage in the feverish speculation over Burns' health, far less discuss possible replacements.
Burns has to undergo a medical examination for 2004, just like any other competition licence holder, but Subaru is not obliged to nominate both drivers until entries for the Monte Carlo Rally close in December.
The weekend rightly belonged to Solberg, who became the first Norwegian world rally champion after a masterly performance in which he and his Welsh co-driver Phil Mills had led from the fourth of the 18 special stages.
Even though Solberg spent his time reminding anyone who would listen that Spanish former champion Carlos Sáinz had lost the championship when his engine failed 300 yards from the end of the final stage in 1998, he finished with a flourish, extending his lead over his remaining world championship rival, Citroën's Sébastien Loeb on the last stage.
With rallying bearing the charge that it's not a good television sport, it was something of an irony that the BBC stood accused of derailing the championship hopes of both Citroën contenders, thereby handing the world title to the Subaru driver Petter Solberg. Sainz's Citroëcaught fire apparently as a result of a wiring fault in a new in-car camera system supplied by the BBC, and the Spaniard started the first stage late. He said later that his concentration was shot to pieces after that, and he left the road at high speed on the third stage, having simply ignored an instruction from his navigator Marc Marti, before retiring.
There were no chinks in Subaru's armour, but no denying either that an anti-climactic air had settled over the rally from the moment Citroëordered Loeb to throttle back and concentrate on the manufacturers' championship on Friday afternoon.
Citroën's judgment of how much to put in was prudent, if not parsimonious. It was certainly cautious when Peugeot was badly weakened by Burns' absence and clumsily handled too, for Loeb was given permission to push harder on Sunday when Solberg was 40 seconds ahead and out of reach, whereas Colin McRae was ordered to slow down still more when just six seconds behind Tommi Makinen.
Citroën made no apologies for its approach, its motor sport director Guy Fréquelin commenting: "The manufacturers' championship is easier to win than the drivers. I must say honestly that I don't think team orders would have changed anything."
Loeb was gracious in defeat, saluting Solberg as a worthy champion, and admitting that he would have struggled to beat him even if he had been let off the leash.
McRae's rally turned into a let-down in every sense, with a puncture on the final televised stage costing him two minutes and any chance of taking third place, and the upper hand in his final duel with Makinen. McRae's motivation crumbled when Citroën cut him loose in August and he admitted that he would have struggled to match the youngster's pace even if he had not collected Sunday's puncture and suffered brake problems earlier in the rally.
McRae is taking a sabbatical next season, and is expected to compete in January's Paris-Dakar Rally, although if Richard Burns is ruled out by his mystery illness then the 1995 world beater could find a lifeline at Subaru.
Solberg's world title marks a seismic shift in rallying, establishing that a younger generation is replacing old stagers. And the Norwegian talks enthusiastically of doing better still in 2004.
As for Citroën, it will face a tough battle, with Peugeot determined to recapture the title and Subaru roaring back after a dip in 2002.
There are also major uncertainties about next year, with Skoda pulling out of the full 2004 season and Hyundai absent entirely. Ford remain undecided as budgets are tightened.
New rules, limiting teams to two cars each and expanding the calendar to 16 races with Mexico and Japan appearing for the first time, have sparked controversy and hastened some departures.
Makinen said he feared for the future: "They make new regulations and I am very, very worried. It is starting to be very expensive for manufacturers and that is why they are thinking about what to do. They try to push too many rallies, it's hard work."