Of course I know that it is ONLY about money. Nothing about quality of the event, quality of the organisation, infrastructure...
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Of course I know that it is ONLY about money. Nothing about quality of the event, quality of the organisation, infrastructure...
Something is a bit strange for me about this Croatia thing. Coming fairly out of the blue to being right there about to get a calendar spot. Certainly no teams are asking for this, and I saw quotes (I think from Penasse) questioning why it was even being considered.
But you had a WRC promoter delegation visiting Croatia. Stories about it on WRC.com. Glowing quotes from Ciesla. What other candidate events are receiving that? It just seems a bit fishy to me. Like there are personal friendships or likely there's a load of cash involved.
Certainly Poland organisation shooting themselves in the foot at just the wrong time opens the door for this event. I certainly don't see how they can both exist.
I have no idea if these are any of the roads being considered used in Croatia but the scenery looks quite ok
https://www.google.no/search?q=Croat...+roads&imgrc=_
You can find good stages there but there is very weak local rally scene with no local drivers being active on the internaitonal scene. It's also a small country with a small car market and there is no car manufacturer located in Croatia. I don't see any added value for having a WRC round there.
Maybe this road !
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cc_rc/...7682283355963/
Croatia would be a perfect candidate late in the year. I would go for it.
Regrettably the FIA and the WRC promoter are still struggling to choose the series future: to promote a worldwide expansion or keep WRC eurocentered? Both ways have pros and cons, but at same point they must decide which to take, as these constant reports about new events here and there are a clear sign of disorientation.
Beside deciding were to focus the series, they also must question the events layout, as the current two and a half days 9 to 5 routine seems to be exhausted. On that one I hope they can think out of the box, as it’s possible to have the old endurance character back, alongside the sprint cost saving current needs.
One way to do it is to get a handful of iconic events, with larger routes and schedules (a sort of WRC grand slam), and to condensate the others rally’s into a full day marathon leg, with around 250 stage kms and only one service halt. The extra cost of those grand slam events would be compensated by the savings made on the others and it’d be possible to increase the number of rounds without loosing major events identity.
Anyway, what’s important is to hurry up decisions and if they’re clueless about the path to take they can always ask fans what they want, like it was done with the new WRC cars survey a couple of years ago.
There has been 13 rallies a year since 2010. If I'm correct the majority of WRC teams oppose any kind of expansion, so I don't know how can you add more rallies. IMHO this year's calendar is quite good, Poland is the only one I wouldn't consider a classic. But teams and fans like the event, it adds to the championship, pity for the spectator safety aspect.
Safari, Acropolis and a round in Japan would be a great addition. And of course, NZ.
You've raised some good points.
Personally, I'd still say the WRC should make the best of the number of events it has now; its still not big enough to expand into 14+ rounds - as that will just add more cost - and is there value in added events?
As for event formats, I sadly think we're stuck with the current 'generic WRC event'; I've never been a fan of the 'one size fits all' events - and would like to see a bit more variety to events. A mix of 2, 3 and even 4+ day events. Certain events, e;g the Monte should be a long Endurance type event (as should Rally of GB), wheres you could have Corsica over 2 days.
But I just can't see it happening; I'm not sure the will is there - and they'll claim its too expensive. I think we're stuck with the anaemic 2 and a bit day events.