2022 WRC News & Rumours

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Originally Posted by Tom K

Long story short. Instead of forcing guys from my point c) to do what guys from point b) has done in 2021, they should do other way. So: If you collaborate with big team like Toksport, team will pay 10k, driver will pay 3k (I am sure FIA add this 3k for Open just to avoid Toksport, Sainteloc etc to split cost between X drivers). If you are on your own but want to register team: for example Adapta from Mads Ostberg, then you also pay 10k + 3k. But if you want to be Mads Ostberg and just score point in drivers/co-drivers then you should be able to pay only 3k euro for Open.

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Indeed that would make most sense, there are a lot of Rally2 drivers who now either need to put up a bunch of money for an entry or switch to Rally3. Otherwise the championship structure actually makes sense and also the fastest Rally2 car will win instead of the weird WRC2/3 split we had. Sure you can then make subdivisions for juniors/seniors and thats fine, rookie cups are a thing in many series and they work fine.

I still see another big problem and that is how events are selected. As I understand you compete in 7 and the best 6 count. With 13 rounds on the calendar that means it could be an indirect title fight. To me that's quite bad and uninteresting. It would be better to have a limited selection, and especially the last 3-4 rounds for WRC2 or 3 should be fixed and mandatory so we have a proper on-road fight. Also it would be good to split rallies between WRC2 and WRC3 as possible to allow them to get some nice coverage on TV and so on.

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Originally Posted by seb_sh

I still see another big problem and that is how events are selected. As I understand you compete in 7 and the best 6 count. With 13 rounds on the calendar that means it could be an indirect title fight. To me that's quite bad and uninteresting. It would be better to have a limited selection, and especially the last 3-4 rounds for WRC2 or 3 should be fixed and mandatory so we have a proper on-road fight. Also it would be good to split rallies between WRC2 and WRC3 as possible to allow them to get some nice coverage on TV and so on.

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I once had also the idea that each rally would have either WRC2 or JWRC, to get television coverage for both. But there's the problem that it's not equal for drivers around the world to miss their home event, and not good for the events to get less entries.

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/fia-r...aves-position/

Matton quits at FIA

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Anyone who thinks he 'quit' is naïve at best.

Allegedly he was the first of many to be shown the door by the new regime.

Seems they REALLY did not like him....

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Originally Posted by rallyfiend

Anyone who thinks he 'quit' is naïve at best.

Allegedly he was the first of many to be shown the door by the new regime.

Seems they REALLY did not like him....

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Same thing happened when Jean Todt came to power. Remember the Gabrielle Cadringher story?

He and Adamo have chosen to 'explore new opportunities'!

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Originally Posted by rallyfiend

Anyone who thinks he 'quit' is naïve at best.

Allegedly he was the first of many to be shown the door by the new regime.

Seems they REALLY did not like him....

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Going by the interview with Ben Sulayem, he was being diplomatic towards Matton; I get the feeling he feels the new regs are a disaster for the sport, and as a result Matton had to go.

Anyone with common sense would say that doubling down on the most expensive cars in WRC history is a disaster... We can only hope Ben Sulayem has seen it and is ready to bring the sport back to its roots.

Such exits are common when top management changes at organizations. It's usual that each boss will bring his own team, his own people. Let's see who comes, Matton wasn't a disaster but wasn't great either.

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

M-Sport could well be the only team who rents Rally1, it could be enough for someone like Gryazin or Loubet, whether the car is competitive or not.

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See Lappi this year vs Suninen. Better to run a top Rally2 and win something vs competition than drivig ad last Rally1 and compete only with your teammate. If the car is not competetive, I doubt Gryazin will be interested. Not after Acropolis experience.
Let's hope it is competetive.

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Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC

The problem for Mikkelsen is that if he does eventually decide to rent a Puma later in the season, he won't have any experience with it and generating/deploying the hybrid power.

If the car is competitive, the driver might not be...

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Actually I think the differences (between drivers) will be lower later than at the start.

During first rallies nobody has much experience on what is faster so someone who is fast learning (or lucky) can get a big advantage.
After a few rounds every top driver (and team) would have spent quite some time watching driving styles of the other drivers/teams and copying what works.
Just like with new stages and onboards. On new stages the differences are normally much bigger

The official site motorsport.hyundai.com is still down after one month or more. Was paying the hosting one of Adamo's jobs? Doesn't anybody else find this odd?