I'll repeat the answer again. Time. Any change which is done less than two years beforehand is completely meaningless because it can't bring any new manufacturers.
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Rally2 could've been made the top class from 2025 without pissing off the current Manufacturers who all already have these machines.
Skoda and Citroen (Stellantis) could've then come in as factory teams.
The WRC2 Rally2 Regs could've been tweaked for a bit more power and aero.
Privateers could've bought them off the Teams and competed on an equal level.
but the last changes in wrc did NOT brought new manufacturers to the sport, anyway.
its even worst cuz we lost vw, citroen and 'half' of ford... AND we lost "teams" too, for obvious reasons.
i cannot agree with anything regarding "keeping rally1s'' or any other sentence about "new manufacturers".
its not working, we can see that.
rally2. thats it. theres no other solution.
now we are left with 2 more years with 6 full time entries. SIX. oh, and 2 of them are pay-drivers (msport)
the mighty WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP has 6 full time entries. SIX, man. this is unaceptable and THATS WHY they started to look for 'solutions'. who would have thought that the 'obvious solution", after months of thinking, was to KEEP the same rules, the same 6 full time entries in the TOP RALLYING CHAMPIONSHIP, u'know?
haha im not angry with you, sorry if sounded like that. im just really impressed on how on earth fia didnt stopped this madness. just run rally2 cars. its THIS SIMPLE.
imo its really simple: "rally2".
keep the "hey, manufacturers, the kit's upgrade calendar will continue the way they are, so you cannot build a 'rally1-' car inside the rally2 car". the rules is RALLY2 cars. dont want? piss off, theres couple of local entries for each neuville that doenst want to run a "slower car''
but i agree with other's opinions: they should have announced rally2 for 25-26 and the specs for 27, whatever they are.
i wish its rally2 for costumer and privateers and "rally2 on alternative power" for manufacturers.
idk how you equal that, but im sure theres enough experts out there to come up with the rules.
they already have Dakar doing that, right? they are having world rx with EVs vs ICE. they have WEC/IMSA with hybrids and non-hybrids. it is possible
Hyundai having Rally2 car doesn't mean they wouldn't be pissed off with that solution. It would mean money they used to improve rally1 programme had much worse return of investment than they expected, purely because of WRC lack of vision. Toyota and Ford would be similarly pissed. Skoda and Citroen would be big beneficients.
The fact of the matter is we now need to change the name of this thread to main class in WRC 2027 (in hopes it won’t become 2028 with the way things are being done). But in all seriousness, like it’s been said here before, they need to have a vision- what they want to achieve and then plan a way of how to achieve it.
1) Not true. The current Ford, SKoda and Hyundai cars are bascially obselete.
2) SKoda and Stellantis are currently in the sport to the maximum that their parent companies are willing to put up with. THis is not necessarily a reflection on WRC, but on the philosophy towards all motorsport that exists within the Group. This is why even they said they wouldn't produce a 'kit' for their customers....
3) Great, lets make there already powerful cars more unsafe, for little spectacle....
4) All the manufacturers said they wouldn't do that. And in any case, it was a poorly thought our strategy from FIA because it doesn't work that way with the current set up of engines with pop-off valves on the engine. They thought it was a quick answer - it absolutely was not.
Again, this 'Working Group' thought they'd 'solve' the WRC without any real thought, consultation by a bunch of people who haven't been in the sport for a long time. Everything they suggested was found out to be wrong or unachievable. Every single thing.