Should the WRC take things back to basics?

[Matthew McClune]

Recently, I've become disheartened with the way that the WRC and most other major rally championships have dropped in popularity. I believe that there are a number of reasons for this;

The drop out of big team names from the WRC such as Subaru and Mitsibushi Ralliart has had a negative impact on the sport, with a large amount of the fans wanting to see these heavyweights battle it out stage by stage. These cars added an excitement value for the fans. Now, instead they are greated by names such as Hyundai Motorsport...... I'm not for one moment suggesting that Hyundai is a bad company, in fact they make some of the best small consumer cars on the market today, I just feel, like many other rally enthusiasts, that Hyundai aren't exactly a byword for speed. I feel that in order to engage the fans more, bigger names such as Audi, BMW, Subaru, Mitsibushi and Nissan should enter teams into the Championship. This would make it more of a spectacle, and would attract vast numbers of fans to the sport. Every effort should be made to make sure the fans enjoy the rallies. At the end of the day, they pay the bills.

Another suggestion I would have for the FIA would be to take the cars back to basics. Rallying used to be about driver skill controlling the machine, but now with fancy computers in the cars, it is more like the car is controlling the driver. I would like to see the FIA do away with the likes of sequential transmissions and bring back the standard manual gearboxes for the rally cars. Okay, so maybe gear changes are slightly slower, but with the driver having to use the clutch and a gear stick for every shift (instead of using paddles and driving the cars essentially as an automatic) it brings back real or 'pure' driving. Essentially, I'm looking back to the golden age of group B rallying, even though it was banned. I think that taking inspiration from those Group B cars, with their minimal driver aids and standard manual transmissions would do no harm for the sport, especially with today's new safety standards.
I would be happy if rallying simply went back to it being the car and the driver, rather than software running everything! This simply sets the skill level required for the drivers that bit higher, meaning greater chance of driver error, and more exciting racing for the fans.

I would love to hear what you guys think on this!
Thanks!

[noel157]

No.

[N.O.T]

go watch local village events if you want medieval vehicles...

WRC needs to be the spearhead of technology, that is how manufacturers advertise themselves...

[stefanvv]

Yes, I think it should do, it's for the better of the sport. But that's not going to happen.

BTW I don't think there is much "smart" electronics in WRC cars, not like the level it was in F1 nearly 20 years ago with the driver just steering the "wheel".

Frankly I don't know what is the problem with WRC. 5 years ago I would say it is Loeb/Citroen domination. But now I'm not sure about such formula. I'm sure though there is a problem....

[AL14]

Moneys.
There are plenty of cars that lay like ghosts in very big parks unselled all over Europe and our continent has not too much market, I think the problem is more there than in the type of car used.

I also think rally has some communication issues. I'm not refferring to advertising stuff but to the way it is recounted, it is an self-referential world, a guy who's not used to it couldn't understand anything about how it works, the agonism, the stories behind the sport, the drivers and all the things we all love about it.
It's not easy to attract new public if you speak a language they don't understand. I stucked into rally playing a rally videogame last year and I didn't give a fuck before, I discovered a beautiful sport and now I'm very much addicted to it. But why didn't it reached me before? How many guys out there can become big fans but they're not giving a fuck? (sorry for my explicit language)

By the way, money is the main reason imho.

[N.O.T]

Rallying and the WRC are different sports.

[AL14]

Rallying and the WRC are different sports.

You can be right, "WRC" would be more appropriate but I've edited that post so many times because of my grammar mistakes I really don't want to do it once more.

[stefanvv]

Promotion is important of course, but there is still something missing. Something which brought those legions of crazy fans in mid 80's on the stages.

[N.O.T]

Promotion is important of course, but there is still something missing. Something which brought those legions of crazy fans in mid 80's on the stages.

the way of life during the 80s brought them out by legions... we are in a different era now.

[stefanvv]

the way of life during the 80s brought them out by legions... we are in a different era now.

No, it's not the way of life. I think it was the technology revolution called Quattro & Group B. But that's not all, in 90's we had Sainz, Kankkunen, McRae & Makinen, which were all great drivers but also great characters. May be that's also missing nowadays. Probably the last great character in wrc I remember is Gronholm.

So it is right. We are in different era now, and sadly I don't see how wrc is going to be more popular.