Makinen wanted R5 for having TMR contracted by Toyota to build-it all the same as current WRC.
(remember the r5 issue rumored with Tanak's leave? Maybe things are connecting in the end)
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Makinen wanted R5 for having TMR contracted by Toyota to build-it all the same as current WRC.
(remember the r5 issue rumored with Tanak's leave? Maybe things are connecting in the end)
If this is truej, then why isn't it hapenning ? I guess MSport would be thrilled to hazve R5 the main category (they have a competitive car and a large customer base). Hyundai has the car ready as well. My understanding was that toyota, which is not short of cash, was the blocking point. If not, then who on earth is pipe dreaming that the new uber-expensive hybrid RC1 will bring manufacturers in ? MSport will struggle, Hyundai is rumoured to leave ... If it is FIA (Matton) who is too stubborn to admit that times have changed (trying to be nice and not mentionnin being wrong ...) then it is terrible and WRC ought to die.
I find this extremely hard to believe. In a 2022 hybrid the battery does not need to be very large afaik (haven't seen any details). Certainly not on the order of the whole car bottom like it is on production cars.
How hard is it to place it behind the seats in a hard+soft shell when it is say 200 kg and the size of two two spare wheels max?
There are some 7+ million EV and plug in hybrids on the road in the world right now. They do crash, just like all other cars. How many horrific stories of deaths/injuries from those crashes you have heard of ? I noticed a few burned cars with no injuries (cause the fire starts slowly), that is all. For sure any story related to the battery would be blown up on all front pages.
WEC hybrids had 300 kg battery systems and they did crash at quite high speeds. F1 has had hybrids (without batteries) for very long etc...
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As to why nobody tested the car yet.
The first "public" 2017 car tests were spring/summer 2016 (think it was VW). MSport and Hyundai cars first appeared in late summer or after that. That was with quite small changes and without any pandemic and now we should think it's strange they haven't tested in second week of January?
And didnt the WRC put back the date the teams must be testing the new cars to July 2021 ?
MSport were cracking on with the new car during lockdown last year. They should be well into testing soon.
https://www.motorsport.com/wrc/news/...w-car/4795754/
The road legal thing isn't a issue; in Rally-Raids there are tubular chassis protos from all sizes and shapes and they're free to use open public roads on liasions. Besides, road homologation of a one-off protos is done by national certification agencies, not by the FIA; it may be easier in some countries than others, but once a proto gets a valid plate it can go anywere.
On having a rally car tuned up on a garage from a base model, that's what Rally2-Kit already allows and Victor Cartier Yaris is a perfect example.
Anyway, in Rally1 case we're not talking about home made protos but on top private tuners machines, probably funded by big companies that would get an incentive to be more involved in the sport with a less strict FIA homologation system. As Red Bull has been showing in F1, the marketing value of becoming a full entrant it's way higher than just to sponsor an existing manu team.
Letīs put it this way:
2022 car rules were made long long time ago
Do you really believe that lack of "quite small hybrid component" is the reason that Teams havenīt started building their 2022 cars ?
6 months testing could be enough but why every Team is just "waiting", only because of that missing Hybrid system ?
FIA for sure has delivered all tecnical information about it to Teams (weight, size etc.)
I hope Iīm totally wrong with my "stories" but we will see...
I'm not very confident about the future of the WRC and the 2022 proto hybrids. Unless they are cheap to make and they allow non manufacturers it might be a dead end. Maybe the next rules should have simply been an R5 based car, maybe with a standard hybrid to tick the box.
Also something to consider, when WTCC died they went to TCR rules where the are only "customer" teams. Ok some of them are almost official teams but the cars are cheap and there are many privateers and championships all over the world. GT3 is similar, customers and semi works teams only and many many privateers all over the world. Maybe WRC should have gone that way. The only problem is those series are BOP so sometimes the winner is determined in an excel sheet. On the plus side the variety of cars is huge compared to any other era and the battles are tight and fun and the balancing is mostly ok, you can tell as they are ALL complaining about it so it must be pretty equal :D