The rally bit from today's FIA meeting

[MJW]

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

Commencing 2011 each World Rally Championship (WRC) event must include one special stage on the final day for the purpose of enhancing television coverage. The fastest drivers and co-drivers will be awarded additional points (3-2-1) in accordance with the general classification of this stage.

An FIA Production Car Cup for drivers of 2WD cars entered in the Production Car World Rally Championship (PWRC) will be introduced in 2011 to encourage competitors in Group R cars. At each round of the PWRC, a separate classification will be produced for the drivers of 2WD cars and points allocated according to the same scale as the Championship. The Production Car Cup will be awarded to the driver who has scored the highest number of points. As entrants in the PWRC, drivers of 2WD cars must nominate their events from a list and can score points in both the PWRC and Production Car Cup.

From 2011, cars eligible to contest the FIA Super 2000 World Rally Championship must have a normally aspirated engine with a cylinder capacity of less than 2000cc. There will be no FIA WRC Cup from 2011.

After the fourth event in the 2011 WRC calendar, Manufacturer and WRC Teams are permitted to use a maximum of two engines per car for the remaining nine events.

Commencing from 2011, all cars will start special stages at one-minute intervals, to increase interest for spectators.

From 2011, Priority 2 drivers who have contested more than two consecutive rounds of the World Rally Championship will be awarded Priority 1 status for the remainder of the season. These drivers must then comply with the regulations pertaining to WRC Teams.

A specialist group representing interested parties will review the possibility of introducing GT cars to WRC events.

The FIA in association with the WRC promoter will establish an Academy for young drivers.

[MJW]

so no pre even tests for PSWRT next year, like Mexico, Jordan, NZ and Japan this year. If as expected PSWRT is a private team in 2011 they will be bound by the same rules if more than 2 consequtive rallies entered.

[MrJan]

Commencing 2011 each World Rally Championship (WRC) event must include one special stage on the final day for the purpose of enhancing television coverage. The fastest drivers and co-drivers will be awarded additional points (3-2-1) in accordance with the general classification of this stage.

Oh dear. Why does this make me remember this advert?

sjI-qh37xf0

[AndyRAC]

Not sure about the bonus points, was tried in 1999 at Corsica and Finland - and promptly dropped. Will MotorsTV or Dave have each stage live?
Let the GT cars in ASAP.......

[AndyRAC]

Not sure about the bonus points, was tried in 1999 at Corsica and Finland - and promptly dropped. Will MotorsTV or Dave have each stage live?
Let the GT cars in ASAP...

[RS]

Just when it looked like WRC was on the right path...

TV stages good, bonus points bad. And what is the thinking behind the 1 minute intervals? That will cause havoc on dusty gravel events.

[Francis44]

1 minute intervals?! Well dusty stages will be a problem.

[AndyRAC]

Having seen the F1 Calendar, which finishes 27th Nov, what will happen with the WRC calendar? Surely they want to avoid clashes, and finish after the F1 has finished. I somehow doubt it though.

[MrJan]

I hadn't seen the bit about 1 minute interval. Who thought that having an ex co-driver at the head of the FIA would lead to rallying being treated better? Firstly, it won't increase spectator interest in any way. Secondly, it'll ruin spectating on gravel events because you won't be able to see the cars.

[bassist]

1 minute intervals?! Well dusty stages will be a problem.

HaveI read this correctly? 1 minute is fine if it`s chucking it down with rain, but in Dry Dusty conditions??? Where is the safety element for competitors/officials/spectators here???? Common sense lost again to pander to TV requirements???

[stepunk]

Commencing from 2011, all cars will start special stages at one-minute intervals, to increase interest for spectators.


Interest for spectators? Probably we cannot see the cars in the dust!
And one minute interval will be a safety problem for drivers!
Oh my god, this is totally crap!

[Alvaro_Rally]

Maybe one min interval will bring something good... now drivers starting in first position apologize for sweeping the stages for the rest of the crews. Now they will have a great advantage -no dust at all-.

I don´t think bonus points for super special stages is a good idea. And I dont´t like that rejoined drivers can score a point.

[RICARDO75]

"Commencing from 2011, all cars will start special stages at one-minute intervals, to increase interest for spectators."

This is stupid!
When there´s no wind on gravel rally, sometimes the drivers need 3 minuts for the dust to settled down.

[Sulland]

Nothing on R4/GrN/S2000 apart from the non 1,6T thing in S2000 championship ?

GT cars group is good !

1 min interval is dangerous some times. Can the chief of the rally change this if he see this has to be done due to security ?

[wwbroe]

Personally i think one minute interval is good for asfaltrounds, but is is a crazy idea on dusty events. It will create a big safety issue. For the rest i don't see anything about WRC 1,6T cars and engines. What about that for future?

[hari]

For sure they can change the starting interval when necessary.
For Asphalt round it is a good decision.

[bt52b]

Wonder how long for the rest of the 2011 announcements?

[pettersolberg29]

GT Cars - good.
Regulations for those competing in 2 consecutive events - bad for Petter, but fair so good.
In my view, the bonus points stage are quite good now, as 3 points means very little compared to the 25 for a win. If the winner only gets 10 like in the past, and a bonus stage gets 3 then its unfair, but I think now the difference is enough.
1 minute gap on dusty, gravel roads = stupid, dangerous and worse for fans.

[bennizw]

1 minute gap on dusty events isn´t only bad for the fans, but also for the media. Imagine trying to photograph in Greece, when the dust still is hanging like fog when the next car comes around the corner.
We are obviously in for more dusty tv-footage and images next year.

[ARF]

P3 and the rest have always been 1 minute. Unless there are events where P1 and P2 have 3 minutes and the rest have 2 minutes. I see no problem there.
If there's a really dusty event, they can always make amendments.

[Hartusvuori]

One minute interval shows nothing but lack of knowledge of the sport. Like said, on tarmac events it's fine and on wet gravel rounds, but other than that - ridiculous. And how exactly is it going to help tv broadcast? OK, you get more drivers in shorter time, but is it more interesting. First car gets a bit of footage from the stage, rest of the cars will be shown only running to end of the stage and of course being interviewed. I don't see long future for this rule.

[Sulland]

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

Commencing 2011 each World Rally Championship (WRC) event must include one special stage on the final day for the purpose of enhancing television coverage. The fastest drivers and co-drivers will be awarded additional points (3-2-1) in accordance with the general classification of this stage.
Could be fun, but not in the endurance rally spirit, more Rally Cross spirit.

An FIA Production Car Cup for drivers of 2WD cars entered in the Production Car World Rally Championship (PWRC) will be introduced in 2011 to encourage competitors in Group R cars. At each round of the PWRC, a separate classification will be produced for the drivers of 2WD cars and points allocated according to the same scale as the Championship. The Production Car Cup will be awarded to the driver who has scored the highest number of points. As entrants in the PWRC, drivers of 2WD cars must nominate their events from a list and can score points in both the PWRC and Production Car Cup.
Have I not seen this 2wd thing somewhere..... Yes in IRC :p

From 2011, cars eligible to contest the FIA Super 2000 World Rally Championship must have a normally aspirated engine with a cylinder capacity of less than 2000cc. There will be no FIA WRC Cup from 2011.
Makes sense, to give more time to make the regs for the new class, and also to give it championship status is good. With so many cars available, and prices coming down, this could be a fun year for SWRC

After the fourth event in the 2011 WRC calendar, Manufacturer and WRC Teams are permitted to use a maximum of two engines per car for the remaining nine events.
Should be doable, but what if a driver brakes two, is he out then ?

Commencing from 2011, all cars will start special stages at one-minute intervals, to increase interest for spectators.
As said here, on several events this is stupid, and it would be better with 3 min intervals. Not sure if the rally arrangement comity have some freedom here ?

From 2011, Priority 2 drivers who have contested more than two consecutive rounds of the World Rally Championship will be awarded Priority 1 status for the remainder of the season. These drivers must then comply with the regulations pertaining to WRC Teams.
What is their plan for this one ?

A specialist group representing interested parties will review the possibility of introducing GT cars to WRC events.
Splendid, perfect class for the Gentlemen drivers, and beautiful cars !!! Best point so far.

The FIA in association with the WRC promoter will establish an Academy for young drivers.
Takes over from Pirelli, will be interesting to see how they solve this one, but a good initiative.

[alexlake]

1 minute intervals?! Well dusty stages will be a problem.

how short do they think a rally fans concentration is?! because i am always so bored and walk away now with the 2 min interval. dicks. :rolleyes:

[Hartusvuori]

BTW - what kind of further safety freak out the one-minute interval will cause? Like said, even now when leaving stage after top guns the interval is already a minute, but somehow I can imagine this will have some effect.

[Josti]

Having seen the F1 Calendar, which finishes 27th Nov, what will happen with the WRC calendar? Surely they want to avoid clashes, and finish after the F1 has finished. I somehow doubt it though.

As for now, the WRC calender will finish before F1, on 13 November. But the F1 calender is bulking up with 20 races next year, so no wonder.

As far as the announcements of today, I agree with most people. The bonus system sounds cheesy and the 1 minute interval is too short for certain rallies, but ok for others tbh. Allowing GT cars to participate is a pretty nice consideration. Hope that one works out. The Academy for young drivers sounds promising (maybe it's the name), but I hope it won't be just another JWRC.

[jbmarcus21]

S-WRC is stopping in 2011 ?

[Mirek]

No, only WRC Cup

[Barreis]

After all Eurosport LIVE stages made media spirit more competative, finally..

[Steve Boyd]

I'm delighted to see the return to 1 minute intervals. The adoption of the 2 minute gap was definitely one of the factors that contributed to me stopping watching the RAC Rally (as Rally GB was called) about 20 years ago. Now if only they could get rid of the spectator ticketing nonsense and have a lot more stages we could get back to being able to watch the top 20 to 30 cars in 6 different places each day like we used to 30 years ago.

[bluuford]

Well, in Estonian championship there is 1 minutes caps between the cars. And there are some problems only on the back end where some drivers are really slow and might disturb faster drivers. But like someone said, there is 1 minute between P2, P3 and non priority drivers in WRC as well. We have not had too many problems. Lets take next year calendar:
13 February Sweden - no problems with dust
06 March Mexico- no big problems with dust
27 March Portugal
17 April Jordan- no big problems with dust
08 May Italy
29 May Argentina- no problems with dust
19 June Greece
31 July Finland- no problems with dust
21 August Germany- no problems with dust
11 September Australia- no big problems with dust
02 October France- no problems with dust
23 October Spain - no problems with dust
13 November Great Britain - no problems with dust

So, critical events are only Portugal, Italy and Greece. So, better to make rule that those who want can follow the 1 minute rule and those who can explain why they need longer time will be given more time.
Current rules did not allowed shorter than 2 minutes intervals for priority drivers. New rules allow to make it shorter but does not prohibit to extend the cap in specific rallies.

[N.O.T]

Commencing from 2011, all cars will start special stages at one-minute intervals, to increase interest for spectators.



Stupidity at its best... that fat midget is showing his full potential.

[GigiGalliNo1]

what the hell!?

[shurik]

1 minute gap is not that bad. You can always have 10 sec. penalty and have another minute. Could be interesting to see it as a part of tactics

[COD]

First I thought WTF, 1min intervals. But it makes sense, not for spectator interest, but for eliminating tactics for road positions. Which looses you more time, driving first with no dust, or driving say fourth with possible dust....

Other than that, decisions made there still show how messed up WRC still is and how out of it the FIA really is

[bluuford]

This is just a press statement. On the final rulebook it will be clearly indicated that in-case of dust or any other problems (very long SS), the starting interval can be extended. Fantastic rule for tarmac, winter and muddy and cold rallies (I have watched rallies with 2 minutes and 1 minutes intervals, my thumbs up to 1 minute, if there is no extensive dust).

Like I said, you all seem to read this rule from wrong angle. I admit it is not very well written press release. You can also read it as: Organizers has a right to use 1 minute intervals for all the cars. Noone didn't take away the right to extend this interval to 2, 3 or even 5 minutes! But just those who want can make it more compact and more action for spectators and possibly use even more stages (less work hours for marshals frees up additional resources).

Positive sides:
1. You dont need to listen long talks about Colin's adventures in rally radio to fill the 2 minute caps. When the cap was 1 minute then he was busy to describe the condition of the car, tires and interview.
2. Roads less time closed, less expenses
3. Less work-time for marshals, easy way to make rally longer with fewer costs.
4. Spectators do not have to wait in cold or muddy rally for 2 minutes for next car.
5. On the live stage you have so many cars at the same time that you can choose the best shots and pieces of road for filming.

Only negative is the possibility of more dust and catching the car in front.

[N.O.T]

dust is not the only problem....when an accident happens 1 minute is way too short for the crew to get out and get the ok signal out...or even the spectators to push the car on or out of the road completely.

[bretddog]

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't there some news a while back about an Italian (?) company that won the contract for supplying new GPS system, and they talked about an in-car alarm/light etc that could be triggered remotely to signal other cars if the stage for such reason was not clear. Maybe this will be introduced.

[Mirek]

This system was used in IRC Ypres Rally 2009 and worked well. Maybe also somewhere else...

[N.O.T]

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't there some news a while back about an Italian (?) company that won the contract for supplying new GPS system, and they talked about an in-car alarm/light etc that could be triggered remotely to signal other cars if the stage for such reason was not clear. Maybe this will be introduced.

i think that in the case of a big accident its not very wise to depend on an electronic device no matter how reliable it is....

it was some years ago when rovanpera had a huge moment with pykalistos car in sweden....what would be the concequences if there was just 1 minute gap ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LyE4tpmAuM

[N.O.T]

some of the stupidest things in rallying happened for the sake of spectators...first it was the removal of the co-driver names because obviously all rally spectators suffer from retardation and cannot figure out why there are two names written on the car since there are two guys in there.....now its the 1 minute gap...

in other words a guy who attends an event will not visit it again because he first got confused of who the driver and who the co-driver was and on top of that he waited for 3 massive minutes for another car to pass by...i mean 3 minutes is a long time....why wasting it on waiting while he could.....boil 2 eggs in the meantime...

The fat midget should focus on what the drivers and the manufacturers want.

[serial jeff]

I don't see what the big fuss is about the 1 minute intervals... other classes do it with no problems, and regarding the dust, it clearly stated on wrc.com that, "As with the current system, however, the gap can be increased in the case of adverse stage conditions - like dust hanging in the air."

The bonus points is ok, but I'd rather see the bonus points awarded for the overall classification at the ends of days 1 and 2.

[Allyc85]

I dont mind the bonus points system but the live TV has to be for a proper stage as you will get too many idiots thinking all that rallying consists of is figures of 8 around a stadium!

[serial jeff]

you will get too many idiots thinking all that rallying consists of is figures of 8 around a stadium!

Welcome to America :(

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/08/real-gymkhana-3-will-debut-9-14-next-tuesday/

[bluuford]

Well, the bonus points is not so bad idea with the current points system. The stage winner gets approximately 10% of winning driver points. With the old points system it would have been 30 %. currently it will be big enough to force some drivers to go flat-out during the last stage but at the same time it will be nearly nothing compared to the total winner.

[jonkka]

1. You dont need to listen long talks about Colin's adventures in rally radio to fill the 2 minute caps.

He-he... I've given up WRR completely due to their innate ramblings and music choice over the real action but this is valid point.


2. Roads less time closed, less expenses
3. Less work-time for marshals, easy way to make rally longer with fewer costs.

Actually, these are hardly affected at all because only P1 drivers have had 2 min interval. Majority of the field have been on 1 min interval so this reduces road closure and marshal work time for just 10 to 15 minutes.


Only negative is the possibility of more dust and catching the car in front.

Plus - for online followers, on longer stages you'll have one helluva lot of cars on stage simultaneously.

[DonJippo]

Actually, these are hardly affected at all because only P1 drivers have had 2 min interval. Majority of the field have been on 1 min interval so this reduces road closure and marshal work time for just 10 to 15 minutes.

Actually rule says first 20 P1 and P2 drivers have 2min interval not only P1 but you are right reduction is minimal only 19min at max.

[bluuford]

Well 19 minutes is not too much for one stage. but when you have three stages in a row and you repeat them, then it will be 2 hours in total. If you have four stages repeated then you have nearly 3 hours already. If you have 60 cars, then this is saved time to organize another stage :-)

[AndyRAC]

Well 19 minutes is not too much for one stage. but when you have three stages in a row and you repeat them, then it will be 2 hours in total. If you have four stages repeated then you have nearly 3 hours already. If you have 60 cars, then this is saved time to organize another stage :-)

Aren't they trying to have less repeated stages though? That's why they've relaxed the rules/regs on event formats?

[OldF]

Where will the S2000 car built with the 2011 regulations fit in if they’re not allowed in 2011?

“From 2011, cars eligible to contest the FIA Super 2000 World Rally Championship must have a normally aspirated engine with a cylinder capacity of less than 2000cc. There will be no FIA WRC Cup from 2011.”

By this http://www.motoringfile.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Mini-rally-car-sales-package.pdf Prodrive have built both (Super Production and WRC).

“We are offering two different support packages for each MINI rally car: MINI Countryman World Rally Car and MINI Countryman Super Production.”

SUPER PRODUCTION: The MINI Countryman Super Production car is built to the new FIA regulations with a BMW Motorsport 1.6 turbocharged engine and Prodrive designed chassis and four-wheel drivetrain.

The MINI Countryman World Rally Car is also built to the new FIA 2011 regulations and is the same as the Super Production, but building on this comprehensive package with the addition of the WRC kit, which includes: an optimised aerodynamic pack - rear wing and front bumper - as well as uprated front brakes.

[ShiftingGears]

The 1 minute intervals and bonus points are very stupid. They're trying to cater rally to people who aren't that interested in it.

Todt's presidency has been pretty mediocre so far.

[bt52b]

Where will the S2000 car built with the 2011 regulations fit in if they’re not allowed in 2011?

“From 2011, cars eligible to contest the FIA Super 2000 World Rally Championship must have a normally aspirated engine with a cylinder capacity of less than 2000cc. There will be no FIA WRC Cup from 2011.”

By this http://www.motoringfile.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Mini-rally-car-sales-package.pdf Prodrive have built both (Super Production and WRC).

“We are offering two different support packages for each MINI rally car: MINI Countryman World Rally Car and MINI Countryman Super Production.”

SUPER PRODUCTION: The MINI Countryman Super Production car is built to the new FIA regulations with a BMW Motorsport 1.6 turbocharged engine and Prodrive designed chassis and four-wheel drivetrain.

The MINI Countryman World Rally Car is also built to the new FIA 2011 regulations and is the same as the Super Production, but building on this comprehensive package with the addition of the WRC kit, which includes: an optimised aerodynamic pack - rear wing and front bumper - as well as uprated front brakes.

It doesn't say anything about the differences in the S2000 and WRC 1.6l turbo engines.

Will be interesting to see if S2000 base weights for 2.0l and 1.6l turbo variants are adjusted.