As someone said on the recent Dirtfish podcast, WRC should make the events an 'Adventure Experience' for VIP's, following the rally into the stages.
The current hospitality for guests in the SP structures is like a 'poor man's F1'.
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As someone said on the recent Dirtfish podcast, WRC should make the events an 'Adventure Experience' for VIP's, following the rally into the stages.
The current hospitality for guests in the SP structures is like a 'poor man's F1'.
I don't know about other rallies, but Rally Finland has a huge number of VIP guest paddocks on the stages, complete with catering, drinks, TV screens, celebrity hosts, even helicopter flights. It's a big business, mostly run by individual entrepreneurs, not the rally organization. I know that not all rallies have the terrain to make it, but the open fields allow you to put up a tent and give space for helicopters to land. Probably Colin's Crest in Sweden has something similar?Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
You must understand that the lack of sponsor interest for rallying nowadays comes from a totally different issue than the event formatQuote:
Originally Posted by AndyRAC
It's far easier for sponsors to justify giving up on something when it already no longer serves the wider public it once reached. Many aspects affecting the future of this sport are outside of the control of people in rallying, event formats largely aren't.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
https://dirtfish.com/rally/stohl-its...l-electric-now
Here’s another view to the future.
Don't think it's doable in the very near future as the charging grid is not so widely spread. For some reason I presume the charging times he mentions are with the highest power output.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
And that's not even to think about the potential safety hazards.
But from a marketing point of view, it could be good. Just think how many automobile manufacturers are trying to find their way in the EVs currently.
Yes, lots of challenges still for full EV's, but still promising to hear the charging wouldn't be an issue.
EV's should have their own series or class before being taken to WRC level. It doesn't happen overnight.
No offence, but I've watched enough sports over the years to know what does and doesn't work. I don't need to understand anything.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
To give some perspective here (in a positive way), a high performance motorsport battery, i.e. the F1 kind for example, can be fully charged in less than a minute, it takes a design with proper cooling to achieve this, but it is and has been doable for many years now. Life may not be as long as the battery in your mobile phone, but neither is the F1 or WRC IC engines' longevity as good as the one in the average road car. The problem is it takes vast amounts of power to charge these batteries in less than a minute, which in an F1 car is available through the extremely "violent" braking events, but obviously significantly less so at the average roadside charging station. So the ball is entirely in the charging facilities court currently as far as motorsport on "open" roads is concerned. We need service vans with 1MW diesel generators on the back positioned strategically along the route or chasing the cars :)Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
That'll be fun! Trucks with 7 to 8 ton generators on the back charging round the countrside. Not sure the environmentalists will be happy though.Quote:
Originally Posted by NickRally
Yeah, a bit of sarcasm on my part there - unfortunately to sometimes portray ourselves (human beings in general) as environmentally friendly, we damage the environment even more.Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Boyd
Currently the cars are chased by fuel trucks, what’s the difference?
I guess the reason there are fuel trucks chasing the cars is that the WRC engines require the special/contracted fuels for them.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
Obviously, if you have access to it in the countryside, electricity is a bit more of an universal medium, despite the differences in some parameters both sides of the pond, so if the infrastructure was there, it will be a lot more efficient to tap into it rather than having generators of unimaginable size being transported around.
But to return to what you said, quoting "what’s the difference?" - isn't that the point, we want it to be different, if there is no difference why do it.
As I said, my outlook on electric cars is very positive, but what I am saying here is, we need to put a bit more substance behind our efforts to be "green" rather then just portray ourselves as "green".
Actually to add, I understand that companies would do the above for marketing reasons, but as I said, I prefer a bit more substance to projects.
I thought the diesel generator example was exaggerated, but I wanted to add on it. I would want to believe some of the charging stations to be used for WRC cars would have access to a high voltage network instead of having to rely on diesel generators. However, still electric power generated on diesel generators creates less emissions than ICE's, because EV's are more efficient, at least in road cars.Quote:
Originally Posted by NickRally
I've said earlier that the point of hybrid (or electric) WRC cars is not so much about making the emissions of the sport smaller, but more about the manufacturers wanting to market more "green" models and technologies - or furthermore, not wanting to market non-green technology.
Just saying that the world is a different place than 20 years ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyRAC
Formula E generators runs on glycerin which is a by product of biodiesel
https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/...free-charging/
Electric Opel E-Corsa..
https://youtu.be/059NBHeNCTw
to me, it sounds weird only on hairpins, the faster parts feel surprisingly "normal".Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
my ears bleeding...
For once Matton is right: there’s no way full EV’s could get into the WRC without a major downscaling of the events, turning the series into a joke.
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/fia-w...ectric-switch/
Anyway it’s useless to compare a 6 laps/4 minutes WRX race on a circuit of around 1km with the normal length/duration of a WRC stage and suggest that full EV’s are ready for the WRC; they aren’t and they wont be any time soon.
Paddon is still working on his Hyundai EV:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.top...-bodykit%3famp
https://www.google.com/amp/s/dirtfis...irst-time/amp/
Delay on 2022 safety cell...
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/fia-r...ll-development
Still seems way more questions than answers for 2022.
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/the-r...rcs-hybrid-era
to me it seems only usual toyota's fuss.
It has already happened on super specials (or remember what Huttunen did on the Torsby stage in 2019)...I wouldn't be worried about this.Quote:
“And, from what we see from the early numbers, the battery and motor and all the new parts in the car is going to add a lot of weight. When you also take away the [center] diff and the changes coming in the suspension, I think it could be losing time to an R5 car in some places.”
and should be good for the sport.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
With a hot version of the 2021 i20, the i20N coming, is it safe to assume Hyundai will also keep the i20 hatch as the 'base car' for the 2022 WRC car ?
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/9...i20-n-pictures
If so all 3 manu's are staying with their small hatchbacks.
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/wrc-e...ars-from-2021/
Engine specs will be frozen in April 2021 for five years, meaning the teams cannot develop their engines during that time.
Also it says M-Sport are not bringing new updated parts yet because they have a stock of old-spec parts that need to be used first. The new engine will come in Monte 2021 and new aero maybe in Sardegna. Sad situation for them.
So basically the team that doesn't do a good enough job by then, is fucked for the next five years...Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
Also notice that the teams have requested this limitation. Even though you cannot change new parts, you can still work on the setup of things and focus the development on other areas in the car.
I dont think its a big issue for the teams, after all they all agreed to that. They know engines are quite close in terms of performance.
We all saw how well that worked in the f1.Quote:
Originally Posted by Franky
I’m sure I’ll get told off for posting this in the wrong section, but heck.... could things get any worse.!?
I get it, it’s just a consultation, but still a little worrying:
https://www.forestryengland.uk/news/...ations-forests
To be honest, I can't help but think that if the sport was run better in the UK, was more popular and received decent exposure which brought in all kinds of sponsors/££££££ then ForestryEngland wouldn't be bothered about motorsport on their land; in fact they may even welcome it. They even state it themselves that the sport isn't as popular as it was; yet you'll get some people, maybe even those in the sport saying the opposite.
We need as many people as possible to e-mail them and make them aware of the benefits that motorsport brings to Forestry and the surrounding areas.
There's no doubt about that in my mind. I fear it's too late, but if nothing else, this might give all involved a bit of a wake up call. The alienation of the public and failure to recognise the value of investing in creating/sustaining rallies as public events of note rather than just rallies has killed the sport. MotorsportUK should be ashamed by what the sport has become under their 'leadership'. No discernible strategy whatsoever, more like an unmanaged decline. I had hoped David Richards might turn the situation around, but he seems to me to have washed his hands of rallying, having failed as the WRC Promoter and presumably lost a lot of money in doing so.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyRAC
New Hybrid Rally1 car will be ready in 22 or 23.
What is lost if we go R5+ as gapfiller top car, with a bit more spoilers and maybe a bit bigger restrictor.
All customers should be able to buy an upgrade kit.
Toyota need to build an R5, but will be able to, and will mke money from it.
Tech upgrades will have to be frozen, or maybe one joker.
In These corona times, motorsport departments are struggeling to get the needed money from the board, so something that will save money will be welcomed.
and Ogier gave thumbs upQuote:
Q:
We are seeing with the new format of rallies now that Sundays have become a proper day. Would you prefer it to be that way in future?
OT
Actually I would say that, currently, the format is pretty nice. We can come to the event one day later and still we have a proper competition. It shouldn’t’ just be for this year, it should be generally like this.
https://www.fia.com/news/wrc-rally-t...e-transcript-0