The rally bit from today's FIA meeting

[Hartusvuori]

One minute interval shows nothing but lack of knowledge of the sport. Like said, on tarmac events it's fine and on wet gravel rounds, but other than that - ridiculous. And how exactly is it going to help tv broadcast? OK, you get more drivers in shorter time, but is it more interesting. First car gets a bit of footage from the stage, rest of the cars will be shown only running to end of the stage and of course being interviewed. I don't see long future for this rule.

[Sulland]

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

Commencing 2011 each World Rally Championship (WRC) event must include one special stage on the final day for the purpose of enhancing television coverage. The fastest drivers and co-drivers will be awarded additional points (3-2-1) in accordance with the general classification of this stage.
Could be fun, but not in the endurance rally spirit, more Rally Cross spirit.

An FIA Production Car Cup for drivers of 2WD cars entered in the Production Car World Rally Championship (PWRC) will be introduced in 2011 to encourage competitors in Group R cars. At each round of the PWRC, a separate classification will be produced for the drivers of 2WD cars and points allocated according to the same scale as the Championship. The Production Car Cup will be awarded to the driver who has scored the highest number of points. As entrants in the PWRC, drivers of 2WD cars must nominate their events from a list and can score points in both the PWRC and Production Car Cup.
Have I not seen this 2wd thing somewhere..... Yes in IRC

From 2011, cars eligible to contest the FIA Super 2000 World Rally Championship must have a normally aspirated engine with a cylinder capacity of less than 2000cc. There will be no FIA WRC Cup from 2011.
Makes sense, to give more time to make the regs for the new class, and also to give it championship status is good. With so many cars available, and prices coming down, this could be a fun year for SWRC

After the fourth event in the 2011 WRC calendar, Manufacturer and WRC Teams are permitted to use a maximum of two engines per car for the remaining nine events.
Should be doable, but what if a driver brakes two, is he out then ?

Commencing from 2011, all cars will start special stages at one-minute intervals, to increase interest for spectators.
As said here, on several events this is stupid, and it would be better with 3 min intervals. Not sure if the rally arrangement comity have some freedom here ?

From 2011, Priority 2 drivers who have contested more than two consecutive rounds of the World Rally Championship will be awarded Priority 1 status for the remainder of the season. These drivers must then comply with the regulations pertaining to WRC Teams.
What is their plan for this one ?

A specialist group representing interested parties will review the possibility of introducing GT cars to WRC events.
Splendid, perfect class for the Gentlemen drivers, and beautiful cars !!! Best point so far.

The FIA in association with the WRC promoter will establish an Academy for young drivers.

Takes over from Pirelli, will be interesting to see how they solve this one, but a good initiative.

[alexlake]

1 minute intervals?! Well dusty stages will be a problem.

how short do they think a rally fans concentration is?! because i am always so bored and walk away now with the 2 min interval. dicks.

[Hartusvuori]

BTW - what kind of further safety freak out the one-minute interval will cause? Like said, even now when leaving stage after top guns the interval is already a minute, but somehow I can imagine this will have some effect.

[Josti]

Having seen the F1 Calendar, which finishes 27th Nov, what will happen with the WRC calendar? Surely they want to avoid clashes, and finish after the F1 has finished. I somehow doubt it though.

As for now, the WRC calender will finish before F1, on 13 November. But the F1 calender is bulking up with 20 races next year, so no wonder.

As far as the announcements of today, I agree with most people. The bonus system sounds cheesy and the 1 minute interval is too short for certain rallies, but ok for others tbh. Allowing GT cars to participate is a pretty nice consideration. Hope that one works out. The Academy for young drivers sounds promising (maybe it's the name), but I hope it won't be just another JWRC.

[jbmarcus21]

S-WRC is stopping in 2011 ?

[Mirek]

No, only WRC Cup

[Barreis]

After all Eurosport LIVE stages made media spirit more competative, finally..

[Steve Boyd]

I'm delighted to see the return to 1 minute intervals. The adoption of the 2 minute gap was definitely one of the factors that contributed to me stopping watching the RAC Rally (as Rally GB was called) about 20 years ago. Now if only they could get rid of the spectator ticketing nonsense and have a lot more stages we could get back to being able to watch the top 20 to 30 cars in 6 different places each day like we used to 30 years ago.

[bluuford]

Well, in Estonian championship there is 1 minutes caps between the cars. And there are some problems only on the back end where some drivers are really slow and might disturb faster drivers. But like someone said, there is 1 minute between P2, P3 and non priority drivers in WRC as well. We have not had too many problems. Lets take next year calendar:
13 February Sweden - no problems with dust
06 March Mexico- no big problems with dust
27 March Portugal
17 April Jordan- no big problems with dust
08 May Italy
29 May Argentina- no problems with dust
19 June Greece
31 July Finland- no problems with dust
21 August Germany- no problems with dust
11 September Australia- no big problems with dust
02 October France- no problems with dust
23 October Spain - no problems with dust
13 November Great Britain - no problems with dust

So, critical events are only Portugal, Italy and Greece. So, better to make rule that those who want can follow the 1 minute rule and those who can explain why they need longer time will be given more time.
Current rules did not allowed shorter than 2 minutes intervals for priority drivers. New rules allow to make it shorter but does not prohibit to extend the cap in specific rallies.