WRC main class in 2025

[seb_sh]

https://www.motorsport.com/wrc/news/...mula/10575763/

Cyril says the sport needs stability and Peter Thul says it needs clarity.

[RS]

The most expensive thing is development and testing cost and the funny thing about it is that this cost doesn't depend on materials used. You can make the whole car from wood but the development and testing cost will be most likely same or even higher (because of lack of know-how related to the said material).

Just think about what is behind a part like let's say a rear wing. There are hundreds of hours of well paid engineer. The engineer needs expensive hardware, software and an office. After that he needs to order various prototypes which are multiple-times more expensive than the final part. Maybe he would need to rent an aerodynamic tunnel. Than you need another more junior engineer to design the wing attachment. He also needs hardware, software and an office and also some prototypes. You need mechanics to put that together. Than you need to take the car a well paid driver, some race engineer(s) and mechanics for a test. You destroy some parts during the testing and wear-out others. You spend thousands of litres of race fuel and wear-out dozens of tyres. And all the time you pay a manager overlooking the development. When you get to the final part you can count all cost which you already spent on it and divide it by the expected number of produced parts. How many wings can a WRC team use during one season? Few dozens I guess? It means that in a price of each wing you have thousands of Euros of development cost and even if you make the wing of paper it will still cost thousands of Euros.

Great argument for getting rid of the silly aero for a start.

Are there even any restrictions on that? Teams seem to bring new design wing mirrors every other rally..

[Mirek]

Great argument for getting rid of the silly aero for a start.

No, it's not. The point was different.

Anyway If you remove the aero they will spend the same money on suspension, or on differentials or whatever. The budget they have is not much driven by the technical rules but by the amount of money their managing board allocates for them. This amount of money is mainly about the marketing value of the championship. In other words if you want to save money for the teams you have to introduce some sort of budget cap. Playing with details like material for door panels is a waste of time for everyone involved.

Still I need to repeat that you won't make WRC better by making it cheaper. That will not bring new manufacturers. The key point is to find the story to sell to the public, a story which is so powerful that the new manufacturers see it as a opportunity for their promotion. Nothing else will work. And to be honest I don't think that the technical formula is all that important in that. IMHO the work done on social networks is way more important than argueing over and over again about how the new car shall look like.

[skarderud]

You need competition, you need stories, you need visibillity.
I'm sad to say todays wrc lack most of it due to bad management and a pay to wiew solution noone outside the fanbase know about.

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[WRCStan]

You need competition, you need stories, you need visibillity.
I'm sad to say todays wrc lack most of it due to bad management and a pay to wiew solution noone outside the fanbase know about.

Sent fra min SM-S901B via Tapatalk

Can you give an example of a story? Preferably within the bounds of reality and organicism unless you want scripted theatre.

[WRCStan]

The best selling cars in Europe in 2003:
1. Tesla Y
2. Dacia Sandero
3. Volkswagen T-Roc
4. Peugeot 208
5. Renault Clio
6. Opel Corsa

As you can see 5 of 6 of these cars are competitors to the WRC cars, so the segment selection is not wrong.

The question relating to 2030, and although Rally2 and Rally1 being different, consider these brands are...

1. 100% electric
2. Budget for a reason and probably pivoting to ROW markets where electric and WRC isn't important
3. Electrifying fast, Uturn on electrification pace possibly incoming however return to motorsport association unlikely.
4. 100% electric by 2030
5. Uturned on 100% electric for business case but presents as a leading electric brand
6. 100% electric by 2028.

[skarderud]

Can you give an example of a story? Preferably within the bounds of reality and organicism unless you want scripted theatre.

Yes, plenty of those in wrc thru the years:

Colin McCrash's 3 rolls in Finland, still managed to finish
Kenneth Eriksson in subaru in sweden
Petter Solberg has lots.
Marcus Grönholm also have lots
Panizzi, and all the tarmac-heroes from the past.

If the competition is good, and its enough seats available, it will always be stories to be told, both from the topguys and some lokal heros one-off.

The recipe for the promoter is like this:

How many seats/drivers/teams do we need? I say 15-20 seats

How do we get that?
A formula that is good enough to get spectacle, but not extreme tech-driven or expensive. Maybe todays safety-cell with an ice engine, and ofcourse a rulechange that open up for other teams than manu's to build cars.

How do we get bigger audience?
Make free half-hours recaps and summaries you give out for free, both on YT, social medias and regular TV canals.
Then more fans will buy your rally-tv product.

How to get stories?
If you have more seats, they come by itselves.





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[Jarek Z]

Can you give an example of a story? Preferably within the bounds of reality and organicism unless you want scripted theatre.

Yes, plenty of those in wrc thru the years:

Colin McCrash's 3 rolls in Finland, still managed to finish
Kenneth Eriksson in subaru in sweden
Petter Solberg has lots.
Marcus Grönholm also have lots
Panizzi, and all the tarmac-heroes from the past.

If the competition is good, and its enough seats available, it will always be stories to be told, both from the topguys and some lokal heros one-off.

Yes, there are many more exciting stories from the past:
1. Colin McRae vs Carlos Sainz in the same Subaru team fighting for the title in 1995 (Colin didn't want to follow team orders)
2. Carlos Sainz loses the title to Tommi Makinen on the last stage of RAC Rally in late nineties
3. Two top Brits Richard Burns and Colin McRae fighting for the title until the last rally in 2001
4. Audi vs Lancia in 1983:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER_nwY9ADBQ

It's just a couple of examples off the top of my head that I recollected in 10 minutes, but there are plenty more. Always from the past of course, because modern WRC is too boring to generate any exciting stories.

[WRCStan]

Ok I didn't know if you mean personal stories like how one man overcame adversity to become champion, or the drama like Red Bull Horner has now...

[Jarek Z]

I think there are more exciting stories in ERC now, like the one from last year when a forgotten WRC star from New Zealand returns to Europe and wins ERC, despite having to fight against a 5-car armada of the official MRF team.