Regulations for 2010

[bluuford]

regulations for 2010 season are published.
I just red them and found some changes. At least it seemed to me that these things were changed:
1. 7.3.1 A WRC Team undertakes to take part in a minimum of 8 nominated rallies including two
outside Europe with one or two cars of the same make. These two cars may be of any eligible class
(see Article 4).

That means you can take part as a WRC team with any car. for example S2000 car or GrN Mitus or whatever. New seems also the fact that you ned to take part in atleast two rallies outside Europe.

7.3.7 A WRC Team using World Rally Cars may not enter such cars homologated during the year
2009 and may not use parts homologated after 2 January 2010.

So, WRC Team still cannot use the latest cars. And like it was said before. development of WRC cars are also freezed to 2009 level.

8.2.1 In order to score points in the Support Championships, entrants must register with the FIA no
later than 4 January. Later applications may be accepted subject to FIA agreement and availability.
Registration for each Championship, set at 1390 €, may be either:

So, no other changes here but later date.

8.2.4 The number of qualifying rallies in the JWRC is 6. At the time of registration, the entrant must
nominate 5 rallies in the Championship in which he will participate to score points.

I think here is one rally lesser than last year.

9. FIA WRC CUP
9.1 ANNOUNCEMENT
The FIA WRC Cup is an award for registered teams taking part in the qualifying rallies using eligible
cars as in Article 4.4. A team shall be a legal body or commercial entity entering one car.

This is all new
EVENT CONFIGURATION
13.1.1 Road surface
Special stages may be held on gravel or asphalt surfaces. These surfaces may be mixed either within
a special stage or from stage to stage.

13.1.2 Special stages
- The total distance of the special stages shall be between 300 km and 500 km.
- There shall be no single stage minimum or maximum distance (except for super special stages),
however there shall be no more than 80km of stages between visits to service parks or remote
service zones.
It seems to be changed as well

13.2.2 Events may competitively run over 2, 3 or 4 days, including part Day starts or part Day
finishes (Sections of a Day).
13.2.3 Events must finish on a Saturday or a Sunday.

Another new thing

13.3.3 ‘Meet the Crews’
The top 3 crews classified at the end of each Day, except the final Day, must attend a ‘Meet the
Crews’ session for media and spectators. This will take place in the service park (usually the ‘WRC
stage’) at a time and location advised to the relevant teams by the FIA Media Delegate. Other
selected drivers and team personnel

Nice name :-)

29. SHAKEDOWN
29.1 REQUIREMENTS
A shakedown stage will be organised with the purpose of being both a media and promotional
opportunity and for competitors to trial their cars. For registered Manufacturers and WRC Teams,
each car entered shall complete a minimum of 4 passages of the Shakedown stage.

Well.. no more one or two runs

29.2.2 The shakedown stage may be run using a super special stage or part of a stage of the
itinerary of the rally.
Like it was in Spain this year.

Any lateness exceeding 30 minutes on the target time between two time controls, or at the end of
each section and/or Day of the rally, will result in the competitor concerned being excluded by the
clerk of the course. The crew may nevertheless re-start the rally under the provisions of Article 45. In
calculating such exclusion, the actual time and not the penalty time (10 seconds per minute) applies.

It was 20 minutes

44.1 REVISED START ORDER REQUIREMENT
The start order shall remain unchanged until at least 10 % of the total distance of the special stages
detailed in the final itinerary has been completed.

I dont remember such rule before

60.6 ROAD SECTIONS
Where no special stage is involved, non-registered pattern tyres may be used on road sections.

So, basically you can lend tires for roadsections to avoid retiremnt due to the punctures etc. Good decision.

61.6 HANDCUTTING
Handcutting is permitted only for 2WD cars when in the main service park.

I think it was not in last year?

[Sulland]

So they did not pick up the new 2010 point scoring system that F1 will use:


1 = 25
2 = 20
3 = 15
4 = 10
5 = 8
6 = 6
7 = 5
8 = 3
9 = 2
10 = 1

Would make sense !

[AndyRAC]

So they did not pick up the new 2010 point scoring system that F1 will use:


1 = 25
2 = 20
3 = 15
4 = 10
5 = 8
6 = 6
7 = 5
8 = 3
9 = 2
10 = 1

Would make sense !

It certainly would. Loeb wins most of the rallies but can't shake Hirvonen off due to his consistency. As happened, particularly in 2008 which was quite ridiculous - and only won the title on the penultimate round, yet won 10 events. mokin:

[Simmi]

I'm not entirely clear about the first rule. Could that mean in theory if both titles were sewn up before the end of the year Cit/Ford could miss Rally GB?

Could it also lead to the big 2 making an agreement not to do certain rallies like we have seen in the irc?

[bluuford]

I'm not entirely clear about the first rule. Could that mean in theory if both titles were sewn up before the end of the year Cit/Ford could miss Rally GB?

Could it also lead to the big 2 making an agreement not to do certain rallies like we have seen in the irc?

No, they are Manufacturers :-) they have to take part in all rallies. teams are like stobbart and Citroen junior team.

[RS]

I'm not entirely clear about the first rule. Could that mean in theory if both titles were sewn up before the end of the year Cit/Ford could miss Rally GB?

Could it also lead to the big 2 making an agreement not to do certain rallies like we have seen in the irc?

No, WRC "teams" is different to manufacturer teams. Only teams such as Stobart, Munchis can miss events I think.

One thing I have not seen confirmed somewhere but I presume must be the case - I presume S2000 cars can no longer run in pWRC next year?

[Simmi]

Thanks bluuford and RS. I think overall the regs are starting to move back towards common sense. It is just the process of slowly undoing all the bad decisions they have made.

Hopefully in 2011 there will be another raft of changes. I want to see the control tyre banished and bring back the art/lottery of tyre choice. I also think the new points makes sense.

[bluuford]

No, WRC "teams" is different to manufacturer teams. Only teams such as Stobart, Munchis can miss events I think.

One thing I have not seen confirmed somewhere but I presume must be the case - I presume S2000 cars can no longer run in PWRC next year?

regarding technical regulations of each Supporting championship they are referring to Appendix J. But there is no Appendix J for 2010 there is for 2009 and all I could find was such description in one article:

ARTICLE 1: HOMOLOGATION
This is the official certification made by the FIA that the Super
2000 Rally Kit Variant of a model of a specific car, previously
homologated in Group N or in Group A (in this case, the
necessary information must be added in the complementary
information section of the VK-S2000-Ra form), has been made in
sufficient series production numbers and meets the requirements
of the homologation regulations for Super 2000-Rallies.
The Supply Variants (VF) homologated in Touring Cars (Group A)
are also valid for cars of type Super 2000 – Rallies.

So, it seems like they are calling it as a S2000 car now and they are not homologatig it in GrN. But nothing is clear yet. Where those S2000 cars compete in remaining 3 rallies not included in SWRC? Which group they belong now? This is bit unclear.

[Steve Boyd]

44.1 REVISED START ORDER REQUIREMENT
The start order shall remain unchanged until at least 10 % of the total distance of the special stages
detailed in the final itinerary has been completed.

I dont remember such rule before

This rule has been around for many years, it stops organisers from re-seeding based on the classification after short first one or two stages (e.g. opening super specials). I thought there had been a proposal to get rid of this to allow "Seeding Stages" to be re-introduced.
Incidentally they had a "Seeding Stage" once on the Manx International in 1976 (its first year in the ERC) - the report in "25 Years of the Manx Rally" says "Three of the five former winners entered were eliminated; 17 cars went off on one corner; another rolled over the finish line; …". Perhaps "Seeding Stages" are not such a good idea!

60.6 ROAD SECTIONS
Where no special stage is involved, non-registered pattern tyres may be used on road sections.

So, basically you can lend tires for roadsections to avoid retiremnt due to the punctures etc. Good decision.

I'm not sure your interpretation is right. Non-controlled tyres have been allowed on sections without stages so that the marked tyres do not need to be used up driving from Parc-Fermé to a Ceremonial Start, for example. Unless there has been a change to the wording of this rule I don't think you can take off your destroyed stage tyres and fit road tyres to get you back to service. In any case, if you wanted to do this you would have to carry the spares in the rally car & change them yourself as outside assistance is not permitted, except in service zones.

[serial jeff]

It certainly would. Loeb wins most of the rallies but can't shake Hirvonen off due to his consistency. As happened, particularly in 2008 which was quite ridiculous - and only won the title on the penultimate round, yet won 10 events. mokin:

Regardless of the consistency vs speed debate, I'd just like to point out that the F1 scoring system is almost identical to the WRC except it has 10 scoring positions instead of 8.

In F1 the top three get 25, 20, and 15 points... notice that this is just a multiple of 2.5 WRC points, where the top three get 10, 8 and 6 points. You can multiply the scoring points by any constant and it wouldn't affect the final results, so Seb's victories would not have been any more important using the F1 system.

edit: Actually, if you think about it, it was the WRC's point scoring system gave Seb the title. Had this F1 system been used, Seb would actually have lost the title due to his 4th place in Argentina and 7th in Poland. These positions gave him 5 and 3 points respectively for a total of 8. In F1 (once the points had been divided by 2.5, for convenient comparison) he would have gotten (10+5=15)/2.5 = 6 points, 2 less than he was given in WRC. Mikko's points would not have changed since he was always in the top 3 or retired. So, Mikko would have ended the season with 1 more point than Seb.