Mahonen seems to be a guy full of ideas but without a master plan for WRC. It’s ironic to hear him saying that private teams should be encouraged at the same time he announces WRC calendar will expand to 16 events…

The new WRC cars were a bold move and the easiest solution to revamp the series but they’re more expensive to build and run and they’re yet on an initial development phase; we’ve seen this picture before when new rules are adopted: after 2 or 3 years the car prices climb even higher, as manus can’t avoid enter their own ultra expensive race for tech supremacy.

That’s the real problem FIA officials should be looking: to make sure running costs doesn’t get exorbitant. Not for the privateer’s sake but to ensure that current manus doesn’t pull out for financial reasons and to make easier for new brands to get into the series.