[WRC] News & rumours (part IV) 2016

[AL14]

are you trying to give me cancer you 2 legged life forms ?

How about the fact that we need more hairpins, more WRC cars in events no matter who drives them, more lakes in the pictures and that WRC+, at the end, is a great service?

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Latvala said that more power is welcome!! Which it is! He doesn`t think that more aero and actice centre diff is necessary

Must be the other driver then who thinks "you wouldnt want to go much faster than the cars do now..."

[Francis44]

I'm guessing your still school/university age? If you had experienced the rallying from '90 to '96 you would know the sport was huge then, the crowds and media interest were on a completely different scale to now.

Many sports have had eras of dominance by individuals and teams, rallying is certainly not alone in this, where rallying has failed has been in its marketing, technology has moved on but WRC in particular has been slow to move forward and embrace and use livestreaming etc

Im slightly under 30 but thats completely besides the point.

In those years, even though some managed to be champions more than once, you could say entrylists had 4 or 5 drivers who could legit fight for victory, can you say that now?! Absolutely not. Thats the problem as of now.

[Nornbugger]

Im slightly under 30 but thats completely besides the point.

In those years, even though some managed to be champions more than once, you could say entrylists had 4 or 5 drivers who could legit fight for victory, can you say that now?! Absolutely not. Thats the problem as of now.

It's not beside the point, people are rarely completely objective and usually misunderstand eras that were not at their own personal sweet spot, ie your late teens/early 20s when typically people have more freedom of both time and money to enjoy stuff.

If you look at other sports you will see that well presented and marketed sports don't collapse when one individual or team dominates.

ps. remember your original post that I had quoted, you said GpA cars were boring, you also said the sport is growing now!!!

[Francis44]

you also said the sport is growing now!!!

Isnt it?! Last time I checked for 2017 we can expect five manufacturers, not long ago we had just two. Im not saying there isnt a problem with the sport and how it is marketed, what Im saying is that the car formula is hardly the problem.

[AndyRAC]

If VW continue to dominate, then it won't matter how many manufacturers there are; media & public interest, coverage, etc just won't be there.

[COD]

They are the same concerns a lot of forum members here had since the beginning...
Do we have geniuses in here or retarded over there?

weel, I think the latter. Of course, I have said the same from the beginning, so you feel free to call me genius 😇

[markf8691]

For me the main problem with the sport is the complete dominance of Volkswagen and Sebastian Ogier.

I like Ogier however I know before I watch a rally that unless something major happens to him, or the FIA do everything they can to make him not win (even then he grabs a podium) then he is going to take the victory.

I don't think Volkswagen and Ogier should be penalised for doing a brilliant job and for being the quickest, I think the other teams and drivers need to step up.

If each rally there were 3/4 drivers who could legitimately take the win for being the quickest then it would be so much more interesting to me. I think this is a problem too, there are not enough great drivers out there (look at problem Toyota are going to have).

I'm happy about the extra power, a lot of road cars these days have more HP than current WRC cars so to me this is a good thing however I do think the cars need a bit more variation and a bit less grip.

Imagine how exciting it would be (even with current cars) if each rally you had no idea who was going to win and it was a fight right down to the end of the rally, for me that's what needs to change to make the sport more interesting - new regulations will just mean Ogier winning the rallies just in a new car.

[Nornbugger]

If VW continue to dominate, then it won't matter how many manufacturers there are; media & public interest, coverage, etc just won't be there.

A healthy sport is a good place for teams to be, the lack of profile the sport has is much more of an issue than VW/Citroen/Seb x2 dominance.

[stefanvv]

If the 2017 wrc cars will be easier to drive, that means drivers would have more equal speed. Probably that is what counts FIA on. Though I believe VW will just be even more dominant force with technology advantage.