I disagree.Quote:
Originally Posted by tommeke_B
I'm not inventing this, I'm pointing this with facts.
First of all in WRC, how many manufacturers were involved 10-15 years ago ? 7 or 8 !
And now ? With difficulties, 2. BMW was never interesting, Ford stopped, Citroën will stop ... thank for us, VW and Hyundai are coming.
Other point with small categories. How many manufacturers are involved here ? not a lot ... remember the 90', where all manufacturers homologated cars for all kind of regulations and part of the world.
In fact yes, there is a lot of people who are crazy of rally. As in all sports, people crazy of this will never stop loving this. But how many people does it done in term of percentage ? Not a lot ...
Other point, I will focus on France. We are one of the major country of rally.
20 years ago, at least even 10 years ago, all parts of the countries have a lot of events. Since, number of events is declining, as of course number of contenders. First of all, local governments don't like it. Local population too ... it's more and more difficult to find people who allow you to have roads to do rallies. It's rare to see politics who love rally ... (look at czech republic too !).
Then, you have to find money ... and it's more and more difficult to find sponsors who like to see their image linked to rally. It's a dirty sport. it's passing in your forest, close to your house, ... it stinks, it pollutes, it's noisy, ... it blocks your roads - the one who allow you to go to see grand'ma. And moreover, it kills people. You can't love this.
And as traduction of this, there is no diffusion on TV. The only channel diffusing it is ... Sport +. Small channel, no one have this. Before, it was TF1, one of the most important. And there was even sometime live diffusion ! (as in Monte)
On big media, what do you have ? Nothing. Sport Emission ? Nothing. TV news ? Nothing. Auto Magazin on TV ? More or less : nothing. Sometime the name of the winner.
When Loeb was winning, there was at least quick word on TV news. Now that it's Ogier, nothing. Noone knows him if you are not interesting in sport...
So, just imagine your young neighbor. At the same age as him, you develop your passion for this, thank to TV.
Now, as there is no media show, no rally in the area ... how would become a rally fan if you father ... isn't ?
Maybe this situation is specific to France. But I'm not sure of this ... for example too, in the past, there was a lot of local dealers involved in rallies. How many dealers are involved now in Europe ? Not a lot ...
Sorry, I would mean in emerging market. It's more spectacular than a clip with the local stars ... when you are entering a market where people don't know exactly what your are able to do, that's a good point to do motorsport, and moreover rally. A strong car, able to win on terrible roads place, that's impressive.Quote:
Here you say the best way to promote your car is motorsport, but in Europe that "law" does not count? :)
Also here I disagree that the manufacturers can take some advantage from going to these "new markets". It will pull the price tag of competing in the WRC even much higher than it already is now. Also I don't understand VW for example. Why have an event on a big market when rallying has no impact on it?? We learned that it takes many years for an event to become popular. For example Sardinia and Mexico, how many years have they been in the WRC before they got popular? I was in Sardinia in 2009, it was their 5th year in the WRC, right? In a country where rally is very popular (it's not on main land but still travel costs are not crazy for people coming from main land). In 2009 there were almost no people. There were even easily accessible places where we were completely alone, that doesn't even happen in regional events... In 2011 the number of spectators was at least doubled, in 2012 again much more, despite of the less attractive entry list. So we see it takes let's say 6 years on the calendar before it pays off. And that exactly is where I lose the current manufacturers. Why should they pay more for less return in the first few years? It's most likely they will stop their project after some years, then their competitors from the car market can jump into the sport to take advantage of that "development", paid by...
That's a good point. And that's where WRC has to learn. Some other motorsport disciplines learn about to make popular a new event, as WEC did with China. You have to create THE event. Make a strong promotion, doing clips in TV, etc etc ... that's sure if you are doing in the actual way, it will interest nobody ...
Oh please, we have three now ... if you are a bit intelligent, it can easily work. Take the contender of WRC, WTCC. He is traveling all around the world, doing only three rounds in Europe. And all the privates teams can follow the rythm without problems. Gosh, how can it work ? It works because they are intelligent. You will travel to China at the beginning of the year, and then come back to Japan at the end. No, you are doing only once the travel, and your car stay there. That the same story if you like to drive in South America. Do once the travel, stay there the time you need, and the back at home. That's only a question of logistic. Of course you have to work on various points, as media diffusion, find big partners to help to cut the costs (and not to put money in your pocket :) ), a.s.o. ...Quote:
Yes, some event on a new area would be good. But 4-5 events on another continent than Europe (where ALL teams are based) is crazy. That way you really kill the sport from the bottom out (by making it impossible for smaller teams to participate in WRC). But ok, that is what they are doing already. They kill the sport from bottom out by making everything crazy expensive. In WRC and WRC2 we see you need rather a bag of money than talent to compete. Doing more intercontinental events would make the difference just greater. Like it is going now, soon we will have more "Al-"names on the list than others (no offence to those people).
Keep the same logic with homologation than now. It's good, it's not a perpetual race to money.
For the second point, I agree ... but the problem isn't to the location of rally. As far as I know, there is a limited numbers of privates with talents competing there whereas we are for the major part in Europe... So it would change nothing.
The problem here are :
- the costs of the big cars, linked to the fact that actual manufacturers as Citroën or VW don't care about selling it. So the resell market is poor (for WRC).
- the costs to take part in a WRC rally, adding to the costs of the WRC ...
- the no media diffusion (which sponsor would like to promote a young guy in a discipline without media diffusion ? sponsoring is not a story of love, but of business too).
And for WRC 2, in fact this competition has no interest ... it's here to take a most important number of contenders of events, that's all.
Young guys have more to learn by driving for an official programm in ERC than in WRC 2, discipline who is historically for gentlemans (old PWRC never provides us a great talent).
WRC tried to copy Formula 1 with GP2 / F3, etc ... in existed more or less with the step to climb from promotion cars, to high national level, then european and at least WRC, but ... they want to control it. It's a fail and it always, because it costs too much, and it's hidden by WRC. it's easiest to promote your results if you win ERC than WRC 2.
