FIA Rally Working Group: the future of WRC and the rally sport

[er88]

Rally 2 cars sound fucking dull. Give me a screaming s2000 from 15yrs ago, hearing it popping and banging miles away over a faster r5/rally2. Sound is such a huge part of the spectacle and wow factor in rallying. Always has been! S2000 cars proved you could create affordable cars that had the spectacle needed to attract fans to the stages & generate huge interest. So it can be done. After all, s2000 and the IRC nearly killed the WRC around 2009 - 11/12 period!

https://youtu.be/W2I5ZBQ8gho?si=M7okmvQwfXhpuZV-

[RS]

S2000 screamers were fun but realistically we're not going to go back to NA engines.

Rally2 cars don't have to sound dull, this one is nice and the Yaris with it's 3 cylinder thrum is interesting too:

https://youtu.be/8bpF6kGy-Pw?si=uhsTZaBcl8Wl38L_

[fiscorpun]

Do we know if thers a way (BoP, of course) to have a Hydrogen Yaris, Haiden Paddon's EV, Renault's Electric R5 3E and Vermont's Subarus racing with the same performance of the Rally2 cars? Cuz IMO that would be the ideal mix for a top class.

[WRCStan]

How does 25 cars fit into itineraries with all live?

At 3 minute intervals on gravel the 25th is starting 1hr15m after the 1st. Assuming all being covered is desired, with no crossover and WRC2 gets nothing, a typical loop could be 6 hours or more. Where's the shorter days then?

Or are some top class drivers not going to be top class in reality, thus not necessary to see?

[WRCStan]

Do we know if thers a way (BoP, of course) to have a Hydrogen Yaris, Haiden Paddon's EV, Renault's Electric R5 3E and Vermont's Subarus racing with the same performance of the Rally2 cars? Cuz IMO that would be the ideal mix for a top class.

Or any class. They could easily introduce it if they wanted, but it doesn't fit with commercial agreements. P1 fuels for instance. Edit: ...and logistics aside of course.

[Steve Boyd]

At 3 minute intervals on gravel the 25th is starting 1hr15m after the 1st

I stopped watching the RAC Rally live when they went to 2 minute intervals because of the boredom waiting between cars. 3 minutes is pointless - they may as well make it 10 minutes and only have 3 stages a day for TV and ignore the live viewers.

[PLuto]

I stopped watching the RAC Rally live when they went to 2 minute intervals because of the boredom waiting between cars. 3 minutes is pointless - they may as well make it 10 minutes and only have 3 stages a day for TV and ignore the live viewers.

2-3 minutes is ok for live TV coverage, for spectators on site it is disaster...

[deephouse]

I'm a big supporter of reducing rallies. Saturday and sunday, if I'm specific. People these days don't have that much time of watching all day for almost a week. Even the hardcore fans doesn't have that much time on their schedule. It would help also the drivers to being more with family, relax and regenerate. Reducing the calendar would also help. Classic rallies stays, and some with rotating spots. Like Australia/NZ, or Argentina/Chile. Estonia/Latvia/Poland...

As for rally2 switch over rally1... Those guys in front of the field would turn any machine in fast and exciting vehicle to watch. So I'm not worried of being not interested enough. I'm actualy not interested in watching if there is dominance in one driver and team. I point on F1 2023. Like you already know who would win literaly every race out there. As of this year Monte, I want that. On every round. No matter what class of cars they drive. As long as there is battles out there.

I think that point system will not work good and they would need to change it soon. Maybe reward points for each stage on sunday or simply put everyone on new tyres for PS.

If there would be like 20+ cars for top category (i don't know if there would still be WRC2 if they really abandon rally1 cars), I personaly don't know how would they run AllLive.. Maybe two pictures in one. Replays of moments and interesting thing, splits, telemetry.. Don't know. But one thing for sure. If they stop broadcasting all together, I hope that radio, splits, maps, news and all of that will not be payable. Because it's not worth it. Even now with live video, people barely pay, because the service is so bad.

Another idea. Maybe they could run ERC and other continental championships simultaneously with WRC rounds. Reducing costs with organization, more participants, more fans...

And another silly (but personaly the best) idea would be implement ''classic category''. Where all previous cars which did participate in WRC somewhere in history of sport. It would be awesome to see some retired drivers with Quattros, Lancias, Minis or even old spec Fiestas.

[SubaruNorway]

2-3 minutes is ok for live TV coverage, for spectators on site it is disaster...

Yup, haven't 100% calculated it yet, but watching more than 2 proper stages a day on Friday and Saturday in Sweden you will barely have time to watch all Rally1's on the first stage in the morning

[typhoon]

Another idea. Maybe they could run ERC and other continental championships simultaneously with WRC rounds. Reducing costs with organization, more participants, more fans...

This would be economically unsustainable for the local promoters, as they would set up the infrastructure for the event on a massive scale to accomodate all the crews and teams.

Also, this would be unsustainable for the WRC Promoter as well, as it would lose 500.000 euros for each event on the ERC calendar. And if the idea is to charge the WRC events, some are already in trouble gathering 1M for their slot, they wouldn't be very happy to hear about 1.5M calendar fee...