WRC Calendar 2023

[jcevc]

So at the end Chile didn't make the cut? Perhaps they decided they'd get to much backlash on Saudi Arabia so they delay the inclusion of it by another year?

Chile and SA are in, also Central european rally. Some dates are not fixed and contracts not signed yet.
Date for Czech/Austria/Germany rally is at the end of october, which could mean very very hard rally (like ERC Hungary) with a lot of mud, rain, moisture/fog, leaves etc.

[hari]

Chile and SA are in, also Central european rally. Some dates are not fixed and contracts not signed yet.
Date for Czech/Austria/Germany rally is at the end of october, which could mean very very hard rally (like ERC Hungary) with a lot of mud, rain, moisture/fog, leaves etc.

The candidate event for the Central european rally was held as "ADAC 3 Städte Rallye" with stages in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic last weekend. It was a very spectacular event with those autumn conditions.

Gallery: https://www.ir7.at/content/fotos_bes...llye_2022.html

[seb_sh]

So the proposed calendar is not that bad, I'm only sad about losing Spain to be honest. And there has usually been a "mercenary" event in the calendar, in the end for the promoter it's a business and they can look to make money.

Speaking in general for me there are 13 "classic" WRC events in the modern era: Monte Carlo, Sweden, Kenya, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Greece, Finland, New Zealand, Italy-Sanremo, Corsica, Australia, Great Britain. We still have most of those even if some are intermittent.
Between these classics there was often an extra event like Cote D'Ivoire, Indonesia, China, Cyprus usually something random and exotic.

Then they started to introduce new events and lose some classics, we got Germany, Turkey, Mexico, Japan (Hokkaido), Norway, Italy went to Sardegna, Ireland, Jordan, Poland, Bulgaria, France went to Alsace, Chile, Estonia, Belgium in Ypres, Croatia, Estonia and dare I say... Monza

So yeah some events I can pass over some are really must haves, a couple of the classics are maybe not viable anymore, a couple of the new ones are really good. For example Germany and Mexico have kind of become classics for me. So if most events are good ones and there's one cash-grab I can live with that.

[Eli]

Seems it's official & Estonia received it's €1.5 Million and the event will go ahead next year, also apparently Spain isn't leaving without a fight: https://www.rallye-magazin.de/wrc/ar...m-staat-49192/

[EstWRC]

If Tänak retires, it will be a huge blow for rally Estonia

[flat_right]

If Tänak retires, it will be a huge blow for rally Estonia

I hope even if he retires, he will do this as a 3rd/4th car in some team.

[typhoon]

I'm not sure how the WRC Promoter will be helping the teams out to get all those flyaway races outside Europe. For sure, they need to get back to the negotiations that apparently have been interrupted with DHL (that we saw appearing for some weeks on the WRC website, before being removed eventually).

Having a "Logistic Partner" to give to the team in form of bulk discounts (or better, free) on the shipping-transport of the material to rallies like Japan or Chile it's fundamental to let the teams in the championship and keep the costs as they are, without further increasing.

They basically should do what Eurosport did with the WTCR, getting DHL and giving to the teams the full amount of the sponsorship, in order to let them digest the events in Asia and have a very cheap shipping eventually.

[Eli]

Apparently the FIA has yet to receive a calendar from the WRC promoter, and the number of long haul events remain in doubt, if I had to guess I'd say Chile won't make the cut, unless the teams will go head on and disagree about going to Saudi Arabia next year, here's the article (from 3 days ago): https://www.autohebdo.fr/actualites/...alendrier.html

[fiscorpun]

Are Long haul events becoming a real problem for european teams as a whole? Cuz WORLD RALLYCROSS, WORLD TOURING CARS, WORLD SUPERMOTO, WORLD SPEEDWAYGP etc have been racing only in Europe for the last 3 years... I know covid make it worst, OF COURSE, but no one seemed to improve from 2021 to 2022... and 2023, with some "rumour calendars" not having international races again.

[typhoon]

^^

That's why the WRC Promoter desperately needs a logistic partner like DHL to help the teams having a heavy logistic help for the long haul races. This way, the few Manufacturers still involved would step away soon...