WRC main class in 2025

[Sulland]

You are missing the actual point here.

What attracts manufacturers is publicity. What creates publicity is fans watching. And what attracts fans is spectacle and drama.

I tend to agree.
A gamechanger would be to get a rally version of "drive to survive"

Interrest of F1 has exploded since they got that series, why not also in rally, where the best drivers are and many more areas of drama.

[seb_sh]

You are missing the actual point here.

What attracts manufacturers is publicity. What creates publicity is fans watching. And what attracts fans is spectacle and drama.

Hyundai happily pays much more to sponsor the football WK in qatar than they do to sponsor rally, because it gives them more exposure.

Going electric, as electric cars are today, will just cause a big loss in spectators, making it even less attractive to manus.

Rally shouldn't care too much bout manufacturers, they must put what fans want in the first place. Lots of fans will attract sponsors and manufacturers, not the other way around. That's what made group B such a succes.

This right here. It's time motorsport stops pretending to be road relevant and embrace the entertainment role. WEC is doing that perfectly with the new regulations. The performance is capped and the cars balanced with the goal of creating close racing. The manufacturer's know for sure there won't be an escalating cost due to a development war and they can plan in the expense. Like it or not that's the best way forward for motorsport, sadly the WRC is lagging behind as usual.

[mknight]

You are missing the actual point here.

What attracts manufacturers is publicity. What creates publicity is fans watching. And what attracts fans is spectacle and drama.

Hyundai happily pays much more to sponsor the football WK in qatar than they do to sponsor rally, because it gives them more exposure.

Going electric, as electric cars are today, will just cause a big loss in spectators, making it even less attractive to manus.

Rally shouldn't care too much bout manufacturers, they must put what fans want in the first place. Lots of fans will attract sponsors and manufacturers, not the other way around. That's what made group B such a succes.

2017 WRCs were basically Group B revival. They worked to attract manus and fans for 3 years.

But by end of 2019 the manus started dropping and new ones (Skoda) did not join.
Did the spectacle and drama drop? Nope. Did fan numbers drop? (I don't have facts but I doubt it)


So how come they dropped? According to your explanation everything should have been fine?

How would redoing the same thing again re-attract manus? It wont.


Rally is a combination of spectacle, drama and "normal looking" cars on "normal" roads. You can't just drop one of the sake of the other. F1 or WEC never had the last two parts. They will always have closer fights (cause the cars are on track at same time) and things like Rallycross will always have more "fast" spectacle.

With regards to spectators and electric it depends:
- electric cars can be spectacular in different ways than petrol ones and for a short time you will have "novelty" effect
- for the future you need to look at younger spectators, the 60+ old men talking about 80s will not be main customer group much longer. When I take my son to rally he wonders why there are no electric cars when everyone drives them and they accelerate much faster.

I tend to agree.
A gamechanger would be to get a rally version of "drive to survive"

Interrest of F1 has exploded since they got that series, why not also in rally, where the best drivers are and many more areas of drama.

This I totally agree with. It hugely boosted F1 popularity, last time rally had anything similar was "Engineering world rally" in 2007ish.

Promotion is not directly related with rules though.

[WRCStan]

This thread has cycled back to the evergreen how to attract new manufacturers question, again.

They're not coming whatever the car spec, cost of the car or Netflix shows (loooooooool), or free coverage. Name the candidates.

[AnttiL]

agreed, but if you reinforce an r5 to become similar to an old spec wrc -as u said before- in a way is still a wrc! : )

The biggest difference is that a WRC car by definition has no cost cap, while Rally2 car has. Also the rules state use of certain parts like gearbox (correct me if I'm wrong) for Rally2, and you cannot use a "better" one even if you wanted. Rally2 car uses a lot more "production car" parts, WRC and especially Rally1 more of custom made things, expensive materials. Even the engine cost is hugely different, 30 000 for Rally2 vs 150 000 for Rally1. Remember when Rally1 concept was on the design table, the manufacturers debated about using the WRC engine or the Rally2 engine because one is more expensive but also more reliable.

[mknight]

This thread has cycled back to the evergreen how to attract new manufacturers question, again.

They're not coming whatever the car spec, cost of the car or Netflix shows (loooooooool), or free coverage. Name the candidates.

Skoda (or by extension any mark from VAG, Cupra was mentioned once). They were already on the way and stopped due to slow rule changes.

Stellantis is talking about a candidate and asking for electric.

Renault was talking about joining if it goes electric.


On the other side you have Hyundai likely leaving in case it doesn't turn electric. ( Right now they are working in Ioniq 5 N and already released Kia EV6 GT).


...
And then you have Toyota pushing hydrogen completely alone.

[Kenneth]

Why just not loosen engine rules like in Dakar. Let the cars be powered by whatever you want.

[Oraamat]

Fully electric is the only thing that can attract new manus.

My thoughts exactly. I dont like full electric either, but i think that Fia were hoplessly late with hybrid. 2017 spec cars should have been hybrid and 2022 spec cars should have come full electric. That my opinion.

And if we talk about that publicity, fans, drama etc. Then its double sided sword in my opinion. On one hand some say that going electric will lose spectators, but other hand watching 2.5 manus fighting is getting boring aswell and probably will lose spectators aswell. Im so happy that Ott is in Msport next year. So every team have atleast one fast driver and there should be something to watch and spectate.

[[WRCRR]]

for the future you need to look at younger spectators, the 60+ old men talking about 80s will not be main customer group much longer. When I take my son to rally he wonders why there are no electric cars when everyone drives them and they accelerate much faster.

A key point many here seem to miss. For the record - I am also part of this old geezer group, and love all the nostalgia about "the olden days" - but future will not be defined by the past.

[Jarek Z]

Renault was talking about joining if it goes electric.

Renault? I wouldn't count on them. When was the last time they had a factory team in WRC? 40 years ago... or more?