Thank you Wim! I'm very happy that other people are slowly starting to share my (or our?) point of view.
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It's already a good second tier series (still the best IMO), but it could be a great one.
Mix of surfaces this year is good, 5ish of 11 are on loose surfaces.
When they do live stages, they do them quite well. We just need more of them (I wonder if this is why they are pushing Barum for more money?)
I disagree with your criticsm of the calendar for this year. Ypres, Barum, Corsica, COI are all legends, and the rest of them are pretty nice events.
The ERC has been generally ok in my opinion, I like the mix of rallies and especially that there are many more tarmac events than the WRC.
The main problems this year have been:
1. the failure of the Peugeot team to provide a reliable car, so many events have 'fizzled out' as the top competitors have gone home early due to car problems.
2. the Fabia R5 should have been ready for 2014 and all the top drivers should be using R5 cars by now (not still S2000, RRC etc)
3. lack of live TV by Eurosport on many events - they should be showing a least one live stage per day, on every rally by now
Fabia R5 been ready in 2015 is I think more because that the new Fabia got delayed a lot this year and not because of the development of Fabia R5
I'm afraid Fabia R5 ready in 2014 would only make the things worse for the competition. Peugeot just wouldn't have a chance with its problems. I don't know should I be happy or sad for the next year ERC when the game is on.