Michelle Mouton and WRC Rallies

[MJW]

British motor sports publications Motorsport News and Autosport both running the story this week that Michelle Mouton is rumoured to have been offered the rallying portfolio under FIA President Jean Todt. Sebastien Loeb has said that between them Jean and Michelle that rallying will be in safe hands. Malcolm Wilson also commented positively, saying that Michelle has a great knowledge of the sport and also due to her RoC experience understand the commercial realities. Michelle does not confirm anything about being offered the post but is reported to have said "WRC has a great future and potential, for too long now we have chased the sprint element and its time to return to older style rallying.

[AndyRAC]

British motor sports publications Motorsport News and Autosport both running the story this week that Michelle Mouton is rumoured to have been offered the rallying portfolio under FIA President Jean Todt. Sebastien Loeb has said that between them Jean and Michelle that rallying will be in safe hands. Malcolm Wilson also commented positively, saying that Michelle has a great knowledge of the sport and also due to her RoC experience understand the commercial realities. Michelle does not confirm anything about being offered the post but is reported to have said "WRC has a great future and potential, for too long now we have chased the sprint element and its time to return to older style rallying.

Bravo!!

[WRCfan]

+1

[Josti]

Excellent.

[J4MIE]

:up:

[BDunnell]

Wow. If true, that could be an excellent appointment.

[Tomi]

Wow. If true, that could be an excellent appointment.

Agree, but the commercial realities and long rallies dont go hand in hand, and at the end usually the commercial win.

[J.Lindstroem]

Everybody have to see the commercial realities, these days it is not possible to go back to the long stages and stuff like that, we have to have more live material that the public atcually can see but still save the wrc from what FIA has formed it as. I think that there is a great balance to find in the middle, with a Wrc that looks more like yesterday but stll has a lot of live material and media coverage.

This is all good, i think. Rallying is nowadays i great hands i think with Jeans and Michelles passion and knowledge of the sport!

All good mates!

[ShiftingGears]

Wow. If true, that could be an excellent appointment.

Yes, agreed.

[HaCo]

Everybody have to see the commercial realities, these days it is not possible to go back to the long stages and stuff like that, we have to have more live material that the public atcually can see but still save the wrc from what FIA has formed it as. I think that there is a great balance to find in the middle, with a Wrc that looks more like yesterday but stll has a lot of live material and media coverage.

1) Things in the past always look a lot better then they actually were. Not only in sports.
2) Commercial reality's? Sorry, but that shouldn't be the highest priority of any kind of event. Imagine they shorten a marathon because it's commercially more interesting.
3) The manufactures. Leave them out of the decision proces. A lot of people are bashing FIA for decisions in the past, but what do manufactures bring in positive? Subaru and Mitsubishi delayed the cheaper WRC and where are they now? We lost maybe 2years because of them. Then Citroen and Ford with there tactics: great kind of sporting!
4) The sport and the competition itself should be in the center of the whole debate. It should become popular because there is great competition, because ppl are impressed by the cars, the drivers, the stages, ..., the sport! and that will make the sport automatically commercially attractive. If it becomes a popular platform, manufactures will come automatically to the sport because it is commercially attractive to them. The decision will be made a lot easier when the development and running cost of cars is low.

Is it a good thing Michelle Mouton is offered the rallying portofolio? Because of ROC? Not at all! ROC has nothing to do with rallying! Because she was ones a good rallydriver? Well there are a lot of other rallydrivers out there. I'm not saying she's a bad candidate, just wonder what the hell makes her a good one?

[N.O.T]

another savior for the WRC..... nice.

[HaCo]

LOL, just wanted to give my opinion. Do we agree that the sport needs to be saved?

[Rallyper]

MM is the icon the sport needs to get back to where it was.
- one serie not divided in two bigger ones (WRC and IRC)
- technical rules that will bring down costs
- more manufacturers represented
- innovations for the the future cars
- media and public minded :up:

[Josti]

1)
Is it a good thing Michelle Mouton is offered the rallying portofolio? Because of ROC? Not at all! ROC has nothing to do with rallying! Because she was ones a good rallydriver? Well there are a lot of other rallydrivers out there. I'm not saying she's a bad candidate, just wonder what the hell makes her a good one?

I guess it means, organisatorical, she knows how to handle a big event. Let alone her 30 year experience of WRC (albeit just partly as a driver). And I wouldn't doubt Todt in this, he knows how to put the right people in the right places.

[Tomi]

1) Is it a good thing Michelle Mouton is offered the rallying portofolio? Because of ROC? Not at all! ROC has nothing to do with rallying! Because she was ones a good rallydriver? Well there are a lot of other rallydrivers out there. I'm not saying she's a bad candidate, just wonder what the hell makes her a good one?

I think it's pretty much the same who is working with rally, long as they have somekind of vision, but you can see now of the people Todt has choosed sofar, that he want to take a few steps back. First he choosed Kankkunen for adviser and now Mouton.

[AndyRAC]

1) Things in the past always look a lot better then they actually were. Not only in sports.
2) Commercial reality's? Sorry, but that shouldn't be the highest priority of any kind of event. Imagine they shorten a marathon because it's commercially more interesting.
3) The manufactures. Leave them out of the decision proces. A lot of people are bashing FIA for decisions in the past, but what do manufactures bring in positive? Subaru and Mitsubishi delayed the cheaper WRC and where are they now? We lost maybe 2years because of them. Then Citroen and Ford with there tactics: great kind of sporting!
4) The sport and the competition itself should be in the center of the whole debate. It should become popular because there is great competition, because ppl are impressed by the cars, the drivers, the stages, ..., the sport! and that will make the sport automatically commercially attractive. If it becomes a popular platform, manufactures will come automatically to the sport because it is commercially attractive to them. The decision will be made a lot easier when the development and running cost of cars is low.

Is it a good thing Michelle Mouton is offered the rallying portofolio? Because of ROC? Not at all! ROC has nothing to do with rallying! Because she was ones a good rallydriver? Well there are a lot of other rallydrivers out there. I'm not saying she's a bad candidate, just wonder what the hell makes her a good one?

Good post!! You've hit the nail on the head.
Get the sporting side right, then Manufacturers and sponsors will want to join. it will become a 'must do' Motorsport - that lots of Manufacturers will want to be seen in. This will bring in media coverage - were apart from Finland, it's really struggling from what I've heard.
Regarding the commercial realities of the sport - this is the way of the modern world. However, how many of the current WRC sponsors are 'Blue Chip' or 'Major' world businesses?? When the sport start attracting these type of companies we know we're getting there. At the moment we have Pirelli, Magnetti Marelli and Idox.....no, I've never heard of Idox either.

[Rally Power]

It’s more than obvious that Todts WRC outlook is far away from the one adopted by FIA since the mid 90’s.

Somehow this “french perspective” to renew WRC by promoting his own sport heritage, is the opposite of the commercial based format brought by Richards and continued by his former ISC partners, that has lead WRC to a atypical bunch of weekend courses, disputed by sprint drivers in their multimillion euros cars...

So, if Mouton has been chosen to bring back the old days spirit, we can only wish her the best of luck!

[N.O.T]

ok once the WRC is saved by all those nobodies of today and legends of the past...wake me up.

don;t want to miss the fiesta.

[Woodeye]

2) Commercial reality's? Sorry, but that shouldn't be the highest priority of any kind of event. Imagine they shorten a marathon because it's commercially more interesting.
3) The manufactures. Leave them out of the decision proces. A lot of people are bashing FIA for decisions in the past, but what do manufactures bring in positive? Subaru and Mitsubishi delayed the cheaper WRC and where are they now? We lost maybe 2years because of them. Then Citroen and Ford with there tactics: great kind of sporting!

2. Hmm. And how exactly should the teams fund their operations if there's no sponsors? Ideally sport and commercialism should be separated, but in reality that's not possible.
3. Great idea. Do not ask anything from manufacturers, just tell them that this is the way sport will go. I'm sure that would attract many manufacturers to join. :rolleyes: And aren't Citroen and Ford playing with the tactics because of the rules set by FIA?

I'd say any changes that would attract more manu's are the best ones right now. And even though I think that S2000 are mickeymouse -rallycars, those will attract more manu's to join, so that's a change towards right direction.

[Red bull]

hope she brings back the greatest safari rally.

[Donney]

I think she can do a great job, she was never afraid to call a spade a spade in the past, and she certainly has the knowledge.

Good luck to her, and to all rally fans.

[amilk]

Sport and commerical (promotion) in two hand . Will be important to have good discussion and understanding between them.

[I am evil Homer]

Of course...with no commercial benefit there will be no manufacturers.

However, the first agenda must be lowering the cost to develop, buy and run a car in the first place. Lower the entry barrier and more people will take part. S2000 is a start towards this but they have to be careful not to make it too prohibitive again.

To my mind "commercial" can mean many things not simply sponsorship. In today's age of Twitter, immediate news, blogs etc the WRC has to wake up and realise. The old days were fun waiting for hours to see who finished Kielder overnight but that's the past and doesn't work in 2010.