Vodafone Rally de Portugal 2015

[Rally Power]

I would add another question: why a pathetic windbag moron is the President of the WRC Commission?

Barbosa has a arrogant style, but he's a competent leader. It was him that put Portugal back in WRC and now, even with a perfect rally scheme on the south, he choose the successful return to the north, that many thought it was risky. I'm sure he's the kind of guy that can stop the implementation of WRC promoter crazy ideas, like the shootout final day, helping to keep the sport closer to it's roots.

On this Bertelli issue, he knows what he's saying, otherwise he would be a easy target to Prada family lawyers...

[dimviii]

http://www.ewrc.cz/images/2015/photos/vodafone_rally_de_portugal_2015/jca_rallyportugal2015_jca%2058.jpg

http://www.ewrc.cz/ewrc/fotogalery.php?events=19123&fotograf=345

[sollitt]

http://www.irallylive.com/ir_news.htm?00008154&10

After a lot of speculation surrounding Lorenzo Bertelli's accident on SS10 at Rally de Portugal 2015, Carlos Barbosa, the President of the WRC Commission, has spoken out - and he hasn't held back.

Many rally fans have called his comments 'too personal', and rightly so.

"Lorenzo Bertelli was very anxious to go to the arms of his mother, that's all it was." said Barbosa.

"He wanted us to stop the stage so his mother could fly in in the helicopter and pick him up so he didn't have to wait.

"That might be how it works in Italy, but that's not how we do things here in Portugal.

"He was completely OK, but he got very excited and made a big noise about having to wait.

"He thinks because he is the son of Prada this changes everything."

Lorenzo Bertelli responded in a professional manner, but it was clearly difficult for him to mask the emotion in his words. "After 20 minutes I nearly fell to the ground and felt really sick. I asked Gio [Bernacchini, co-driver] to hit the SOS button.

"After we waited already two hours, the spectator who was a medic called to the organisers again and said for us to wait another hour to hour and a half was too much.

"What is the point of having the button if we push it and the organisers do nothing?"

A fine question indeed, and one that rally fans all around the world have been asking non-stop since the accident occurred. After all, if a driver changes his status from OK to SOS, that means that something is wrong and that it needs to be dealt with immediately. But should the organisers of Rally de Portugal really have left the situation in the hands of a spectator who just so happened to be a paramedic?

"We had a paramedic with him and he was reporting his condition every five or 10 minutes." Barbosa said. This paramedic, a spectator at the event, has said very different things according to Bertelli's camp. Barbosa's comments haven't put this topic to bed. In fact, they've shaken it up and made it a whole lot worse.

Barbosa also added, "I have the best rally in the world. We have no problems with the event at all."

It's very clear that there are problems, and the problem isn't with the event itself - it's with the people who decided to put Bertelli's health on the back burner and leave him stranded inside a stage for three and a half hours. Bertelli went to hospital, stayed overnight, had two CAT scans and only left the next day after doctors pronounced him fit to leave.

A head injury is a head injury. The ambulances are on-event for a reason: to go in and retrieve drivers who require medical attention, and if Bertelli's incident was so minor, he wouldn't have had to go to hospital at all.

The question that fans are now asking is this: why has the President of the WRC Commission made personal comments about Bertelli's background and family in relation to an accident he had on an event, and perhaps more directly, what does his family name have to do with asking for medical help?

But the real question comes from Bertelli himself, and we will repeat it again now: "What is the point of having the button if we push it and the organisers do nothing?"


That's an excellent article, dimviii, and quite clearly shows who has a grasp of reality and who's a little bit too full of themselves.

[AL14]

Barbosa has a arrogant style, but he's a competent leader. It was him that put Portugal back in WRC and now, even with a perfect rally scheme on the south, he choose the successful return to the north, that many thought it was risky. I'm sure he's the kind of guy that can stop the implementation of WRC promoter crazy ideas, like the shootout final day, helping to keep the sport closer to it's roots.

On this Bertelli issue, he knows what he's saying, otherwise he would be a easy target to Prada family lawyers...

Is he a competent leader? It depends of what he is leader of. If he is leader of "portugues patriots that miss Salazar" he is a competent leader, if he is a leader of a worldwide organization than the last thing you should say is a stupid offence to a country that is a part (and made the history) of that organization, and if you want to explain your point of view in a controversy you don't put it personal, speaking about families, mothers and so on. Just explain the situation, otherwise someone can think you are just a windbag and maybe Bertelli is right.

You are making only assumptions about the fact he is against shootout so I don't give credit to it (with all due respect to you) and in any case it doesn't change anything.
One last thing, the fact he "knows what he's saying" makes only things worst.

[N.O.T]

Prada bambini will be pampered in his home event this week to forget this traumatic experience of not allowing his mama to stop a world rally event for his favour because he was bored, so all is good... he can spent some extra allowance on the local media to praise him a bit more as well.

[AL14]

LOL :)

Don't worry, Bertelli is almost ignored in Italy like he is outside.

[Rally Power]

Is he a competent leader? It depends of what he is leader of. If he is leader of a "patriots portugues that miss Salazar" he is a competent leader, if he is a leader of a worldwide organization than the last thing you should say is a stupid offence to a country that is a part (and made the history) of that organization, and if you want to explain your point of view in a controversy you don't put it personal, speaking about families, mothers and so on. Just explain the situation, otherwise someone can think you are just a windbag and maybe Bertelli is right.

You are making only assumptions about the fact he is against shootout so I don't give credit to it (with all due respect to you) and in any case it doesn't change anything.
One last thing, the fact he "knows what he's saying" makes only things worst.

Salazar?!?...your arguments are becoming ridiculous!

I'll say this once more: the Bertelli incident is a BS issue that has been overvalued in a way that makes one wonder why some people are so interested in minimize the portuguese organizers excellent job on this year rally.

Gladly, FIA main officers noticed this great job and the wonderful behaviour of portuguese fans! http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/119317
http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/may/mouton-on-portugal/page/2405--12-12-.html

[hype]

It's maybe written somewhere in this thread, but how was Portugal in terms of spectator friendliness?
How were the marshals and the police? Was it possible to move around the stage?

[MartijnS]

From what I heard really bad again, but wasn't there ;)

[Andre Oliveira]

The event was great. The public behavieur was good too. The freedom of choose place to watch was restrictive. Here at Portugal only with time and testing the event, could be open.