so you get rid of SupeRally and make it MORE expensive for the teams to compete?Quote:
Originally Posted by stefanvv
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so you get rid of SupeRally and make it MORE expensive for the teams to compete?Quote:
Originally Posted by stefanvv
Well if factory that earns billions/year can not put one more car on start list but they can take the car to the rally and lease it to some rich guy for 150 000€, then maybe they're not interested enough for the sport. FIA/Richards/Wilson are responsible for bad decisions. That's my opinion.
SR is not healthy thing for sure but there are pros and contras - if sometimes we are live on a WRC round travelling 1-2K km's it's very painfull to see on the 2nd-3rd day less WRC cars without super rally. At the time when it was 20-25WRC at the entry list it was not so painfull but today's time we are happy to have 15. Same for local spectators, same for joung talents in WRC car they can collect less km without SR.
It worked pretty well when it was that way before. Besides, teams didn't HAVE to run 3 cars - Subaru usually didn't do so.Quote:
Originally Posted by rallyfiend
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rally Hokkaido
I think I tend to doubt that's the main reason... leg points would be very important for the championship and would be a pretty good incentive. Besides, the car would still run the stages and show the sponsors. Not sure if they would still get points for manufacturer's championship or not... but even if not, there's plenty of incentives to continue (+ to test other setups for next rallies, which was common when a driver was far back).
But, with only 1 or 2 manufacturers/official cars, there's a higher probability to be much faster than the privates (sometimes even a matter of minutes in just a few stages), and the Super Rally allows them to return the next day and pretty much compensate for the 5min time penalty.
In some rallies, the top 3~4 factory drivers are separated by only seconds, but then the rest of the top 10 is like 10~15min away... this means, if one of the top drivers crash/quit and return in super-rally with 5min penalty*, there's still a considerable probability to be, at least, 4th or 5th in the end of the rally... and that's 12 or 10pts / + manufacturers points(I think). Sometimes in extreme cases, even with 5min penalty, they might not even loose a place...
* And since the service area is never that far from the stages (standard current format favours a close central location), then the probability of missing stages is also reduced, compared to the old marathon format.
The ERC system is much better, drivers who drive fast, stay on the road and fight for the lead are rewarded in the end by the points they deserve. Those who return in Super Rally will still be part of the show and will have the incentive of doing "damage control" by trying to get Leg points going faster, and that way they also have less to loose, meaning they can risk a bit more.
I think WRC can easily adopt it in the next few years, specially when more manufacturers join the championship, and with the intention of the FIA to allow longer rallies to provide a bit more endurance and unexpected drama, this will be great for everyone.
I don't think one more car is such a burden. The more expensive part is the program itself and cars development. Besides 3rd driver would be usually junior, so he wouldn't need millions of salary.Quote:
Originally Posted by rallyfiend
When we have only two works teams I don't think adding two cars makes really a difference.Quote:
Originally Posted by stefanvv
Well, if I take for example some Rallies this year when both Ford drivers retired at day 1, the team still would have very good chance to fight for a podium spot with the third one. I think it makes some difference.Quote:
Originally Posted by DonJippo
When You mention Ford. It's funny to see how they are proud on the record of million events finished on points in a row. Such record under superally rules with recent number of manufacturers is totally meaningless. As a rally fan I feel like someone is trying to fool me when I see such headlines...
so true!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mirek