[WRC] News & rumours (part II)

Yes, I agree with the point above about being grateful for there existing some recognition of the need for significant changes. But there's no doubt in my mind that this particular proposal would effectively ruin the sport as we know it. Time was when things like rallysprints were a nice, non-purist adjunct to a healthy sport. I never imagined we would see them assuming any level of importance.

To me, all this seems to be skirting around the most important problem: the need drastically to cut the cost of competing in the WRC.

You can NEVER cut costs while manufacturers or other wealthy players are directly involved. They will always spend all their budget no matter if the car is completely made of wood and nails and driven by pedals or if the rally is one day long.

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Originally Posted by Mirek

You can NEVER cut costs while manufacturers or other wealthy players are directly involved.

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You can, but with difficulty. Unless costs are cut, the sport in the form in which we know it will die.

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Originally Posted by Mirek

You can NEVER cut costs while manufacturers or other wealthy players are directly involved. They will always spend all their budget no matter if the car is completely made of wood and nails and driven by pedals or if the rally is one day long.

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Agreed, but you can CONTAIN costs. R1 is the best thing out of the FIA for a while, maybe for a long time to come too!

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Originally Posted by Prisoner Monkeys

Personally, I think the best way forward would be to model the power stage on the Fafe Rally Sprint: run it at the end of each day, with points awarded to the top three drivers (possibly top five if more manufacturers and teams commit to the sport). Offer additional points to the driver with the fastest aggregate time.

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That could really be good point. Giving a point to the overnight leader, then running an end-of-the-day Power Stage on Friday and Saturday too, but reducing the overall points at the end of the event... that would be good enough.

All that IMHO.

Acropolis and Sardegna in a Ford Fiesta RRC, Spain and Wales in a Ford Fiesta R5 for Bertelli!

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Originally Posted by Motorsportfun

That could really be good point. Giving a point to the overnight leader, then running an end-of-the-day Power Stage on Friday and Saturday too, but reducing the overall points at the end of the event... that would be good enough.

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The problem with the points system is that it's the "universal" system that the FIA uses. It was originally introduced in 2010, when the Formula 1 grid expanded to include 24 cars, and there was a need to award more points to more positions for the purposes of the championship. However, the WRC doesn't have enough cars to make it feasible. The series has half the number of entries of a Grand Prix.

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Originally Posted by BDunnell

You can, but with difficulty. Unless costs are cut, the sport in the form in which we know it will die.

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How? The only possibility is to somehow limit budget of teams which is very difficult to control. Doing some mandatory financial audits as a part of sporting regulations is for me somewhat weird. However so far the actions were more pointed into simplifying technical rules but those failed for certain reason. Here another problem is that needs of manufacturers and privateers are completely different. For healthier sport cheaper for privateers I would prefer to get rid of homologations and let free space for alternative part suppliers etc. However that's something what manufacturers would never agree with.

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Originally Posted by jonlint

Agreed, but you can CONTAIN costs. R1 is the best thing out of the FIA for a while, maybe for a long time to come too!

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R1 might be good for one make cups supported by manufacturers but aside of them I can see no interest in these cars among competitors. For example here we have 50-150 cars in every event but the number of R1 cars in the whole country is less than 5. I think only 2 or 3.

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Originally Posted by Prisoner Monkeys

The problem with the points system is that it's the "universal" system that the FIA uses. It was originally introduced in 2010, when the Formula 1 grid expanded to include 24 cars, and there was a need to award more points to more positions for the purposes of the championship. However, the WRC doesn't have enough cars to make it feasible. The series has half the number of entries of a Grand Prix.

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Indeed, a new points system is needed in WRC. 25 and down to 1 it's not necessary at the moment in WRC.

I'm not sure why in 2014 they just couldn't start with covering each Power Stage at each event Live on TV as it was in 2011? build up to new concepts.

What were the complaints about that? No-one seemed to have many issues with that then?

Certainly all the drivers seemed to go 'balls to the wall' to win it. even with only 3 points on offer for the win.