[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

[AL14]

I like actual format and new regilations. I just prefer to have more variety for each rally. If there are not 5 world Champions running the same year is not promoter's fault. With WRC+ coverage is excellent and with new regulations there will be more different, bigger and faster cars. And yes, China should be in the Championship, it has always been a business for manufacturers, in China there are billions of people and some of them are becoming rich opening new markets. Of course it would be a shame if Wales will lose its round let's hope it won't happen but one should lose it. We have to move on, 90s are 20 years ago. The world is completely different now. The only same thing is that rally is not even comparable with f1

[makinen_fan]

Going to China may be a bit tricky though in terms of following the event live as we do now!
Remember that the majority of live coverage at the moment, apart from WRC+, goes through Twitter, facebook, YouTube. All of these are banned in China (they have their own version of these)!! How will the teams communicate the results in real time? Just wait until Monday? Or use illegal VPN to bypass the banned websites?
It will be like an event back in the early 2000 with just live radio (that also rely heavily on twitter for info source now) and live results pages (if and when they work...) You know what it means to rely on wrc.com and TV coverage for information of what happened in the rally... we will miss 99% of what was going on.

Another thing that comes to mind. An onboard video with Kopecky, 2 years ago, from the Chinese APRC round. During a 14min stage I counted less than 20 spectators...

[shaitan]

Going to China may be a bit tricky though in terms of following the event live as we do now!
Remember that the majority of live coverage at the moment, apart from WRC+, goes through Twitter, facebook, YouTube. All of these are banned in China (they have their own version of these)!! How will the teams communicate the results in real time? Just wait until Monday? Or use illegal VPN to bypass the banned websites?
It will be like an event back in the early 2000 with just live radio (that also rely heavily on twitter for info source now) and live results pages (if and when they work...) You know what it means to rely on wrc.com and TV coverage for information of what happened in the rally... we will miss 99% of what was going on.

Another thing that comes to mind. An onboard video with Kopecky, 2 years ago, from the Chinese APRC round. During a 14min stage I counted less than 20 spectators...

You are right in most cases like race live message.

But It will not a problem if no one come to the stage watching the race. VW/Hyundai/Citroen will give them all on PR of marketing side, like TV advertisement, Chinese SNS.

In China most people do not care about live sport(include F1/tennis), the most effective way is social network and advertisement.

In another way, APRC and the other Chinese local race was not promote at same level as other races.

It is clear China race may not be a good WRC race round, but definitely it will be a huge promotion event for the manufactures, FIA and car makers love to see it.

[AL14]

You are right in most cases like race live message.

But It will not a problem if no one come to the stage watching the race. VW/Hyundai/Citroen will give them all on PR of marketing side, like TV advertisement, Chinese SNS.

In China most people do not care about live sport(include F1/tennis), the most effective way is social network and advertisement.

In another way, APRC and the other Chinese local race was not promote at same level as other races.

It is clear China race may not be a good WRC race round, but definitely it will be a huge promotion event for the manufactures, FIA and car makers love to see it.

We will have this round. Manufacturers and FIA want it. As for twitter and social media, there is no problem actually. They can easily communicate their message to people in Europe and then it will be twitted. The only issue is that it will happen 2/3 minutes later than usual.

[shaitan]

We will have this round. Manufacturers and FIA want it. As for twitter and social media, there is no problem actually. They can easily communicate their message to people in Europe and then it will be twitted. The only issue is that it will happen 2/3 minutes later than usual.

Sometimes fans complain too much.

For several manufactures China market is the only way to survive.

[pantealex]

Going to China may be a bit tricky though in terms of following the event live as we do now!
Remember that the majority of live coverage at the moment, apart from WRC+, goes through Twitter, facebook, YouTube. All of these are banned in China (they have their own version of these)!! How will the teams communicate the results in real time? Just wait until Monday? Or use illegal VPN to bypass the banned websites?
It will be like an event back in the early 2000 with just live radio (that also rely heavily on twitter for info source now) and live results pages (if and when they work...) You know what it means to rely on wrc.com and TV coverage for information of what happened in the rally... we will miss 99% of what was going on.

F1 has race in China, no problems with live coverage or social media...

[rallyfiend]

At this stage I don't even care any more. For me the WRC is like F1 - I like the concept of it, but there is just too much about it that is done poorly.

I'm not interested in the type of cars that are used, the technical side of the current WRC cars, the rallies that have been lost to shit ones like Sardinia etc. the fact that the drivers don't give you the same sense from between 1990 until about 2003 that you were watching the best drivers in the world (think Auriol, Kankkunen, Gronholm Makinen, Sainz, young McRae, Burns, young Solberg), the poor TV coverage - endless chopper views and frustrating onboard views. This insistence that the WRC needs to be about the miserable cars and markets where the manufacturers sell them instead of brilliant cars tearing through forests and alpine passes while making un-godly noises.

They could replace Monte Carlo, GB and Finland with China, Jordan and Antarctica. They could reduce the minimum length of the cars even further so that the cars used are the VW Up, Ford Ka, Citroen C1 and Toyota Aygo. They could implement all those insane ideas Jost Capito scribbled on his toilet paper. I wouldn't care because they're just shooting a dead horse at this point.

And yet here you are, taking time out of your day to make very specific and informed comments on a WRC forum about a Championship you supposedly don't care about...

[AndyRAC]

I fully expect China to be included. F1 and WEC go there and there were no issues with social media, etc
Which event gets dropped I have no idea. Would they drop Corsica? Yes, they’ve done it before. The FFSA even held their WRC round in Alsace.

RallyGB – possibly, but talk of it being a ‘classic’ is wrong. It was a ‘classic’ when it was the RAC, now it’s just another identikit WRC event – like the rest of them. We get told the UK is an important market but 99% of the population will be unaware when RallyGB is on. It receives very little mainstream coverage.

Rallye Deutschland – I can’t believe they’d drop it. The most important car market in Europe?

[Jack4688`]

And yet here you are, taking time out of your day to make very specific and informed comments on a WRC forum about a Championship you supposedly don't care about...

Exactly, that's cognitive dissonance for you. I don't care about the WRC and if it gets worse, yet I spent the best part of 15 minutes writing that.

[b3637853]

I fully expect China to be included. F1 and WEC go there and there were no issues with social media, etc
Which event gets dropped I have no idea. Would they drop Corsica? Yes, they’ve done it before. The FFSA even held their WRC round in Alsace.

RallyGB – possibly, but talk of it being a ‘classic’ is wrong. It was a ‘classic’ when it was the RAC, now it’s just another identikit WRC event – like the rest of them. We get told the UK is an important market but 99% of the population will be unaware when RallyGB is on. It receives very little mainstream coverage.

Rallye Deutschland – I can’t believe they’d drop it. The most important car market in Europe?

Perfect situation would be if China was added to the calendar. WRC needs to be more around the world than 3 rallies outside Europe. I would even add 15th round and it should be antoher tarmac rally (Ireland, Czech Republic or Japan maybe). But if FIA would have to replace round it should be one of bland gravel rallies, I think Sardegna or Portugal. Maybe Poland, but I really like how it is the only rally where we see who is fast and who is not. Poland kind of gave as an hierarchy of current drivers, so one rougn like this should be in calendar.