Hello from Antony Warmbold

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by adr17

i found this an interesting read having worked in wrc for many years .

i commented on a post on the blog which was about the spec of the customer cars at m sport answering when anthony was being negative against m sport ( which is fair enough as he sounds like he didnt have a great time )

however being in charge of a customer car at said WRC team i commented saying about the lack of differences and that we do give a sh*t about the drivers having the very best ( i certainly do) and after his comments saying the customer cars will be tweeked so they cant beat the works cars posted in april , next rally sardinia pg was quicks ford on 3 stages i believe and ostberg had very good times too

my post had to be given the go ahead by anthony to appear on the blog , but suprise suprise it never did so none of you guys could see the other side to the subject

im not saying anthony is not telling the truth because i wasnt there at that time but anthony is not there now so cant really comment

all im trying to say is there is two sides to every story

---

Hello adr17,

I believe this is the comment you are referring to. Not sure because this was posted by an anonymous person.


"hi, your blog is an interesting read . in answer to the current customer spec / work spec car sweden 2011 to current . i have the upmost respect for anthony but the answer to this is wrong and a bit of a bitter answer just because you had a bad experience doesnt mean it is still like it ! i am employed by m-sport and run/build a customer car in the wrc , there are very small differences between the castrol cars and customer cars however ones that are not that performance enhancing ! slightly lighter panels save bout 4 kg , however all cars are under the mininium so all have to be ballasted up to 1200kg , ride height control on castrol which means they can alter the ride by 30 mm by use of wheel brace just for superspecials how ever as they is normally a service before or after we do it to the customer cars in service , many of the drivers have tested different diffs and have ramps that they prefer . engine s!! the same !!! maps are constantly upgraged and all cars are done , experience of that is in sardinia my car was showing knock so had to take half a deg out of the ignition to make it last which shows it was mapped to the limit and it was only one rally old . the biggest difference is the drivers , what i mean is mikko and jari are testing all the time so have some much seat time compared to people like pg who was fastest ford on a few stages in sardinia and sweden in a customer car!!! reliability there have been some human errors but there have been many on the works team but they normally get covered up ; ) i have run a car for the customer team for 18 months and have never had a car build type failure / issue so i dont think you should tar us with the same brush because i have passion for my job and care about my driver getting the best for him !!! ( yeah there are some people that it is just a job and dont care but i do ) , with the new cars it is differnt to the last years when customer cars were just a year old hand me down from the works car but the fiesta era is different !!
By Anonymous on RSI on 5/21/11"


You were responding to my RSI post:
WRC behind the stages: RSI


I simply did not post your comment because I did not believe it belonged in my blog.

I think this subject could be better discussed by people here in the forum, in the Fiesta thread, for example.

Since I already mentioned in my RSI post various times, I don't have knowledge about the Fiesta. I merely gave my personal opinions because somebody asked.

I regret that you were offended by me not publishing your comment but unfortunately back then I had no way to contact you to give you a heads up. (Are you aware my email is available on the blog for anyone who wants to contact me directly?)

Thank you for your post on this thread so we could clear up the matter.

I was kind of waiting for this to happen:-) What were the differences, in say, the "yeti" engine to the "normal" one?

It's better to own the car then to rent it when it's not possible to be hired works driver. Last 2 years P.Solberg had very good results with his own car and when renting ds3 wrc, bad things happen alll the time.

That's maybe true, the car Y3 FMC that Warmbold drove should have been very good Sainz drove it some time before Antony drove in it, so they should have replaced all the good parts when Sainz drove it by rubbish parts for Antony then.

And for now u can't really rent a WRC besides the Mini I think all Fiesta's and DS3's are being serviced by Msport or Citroen Sport.

Anthony, I want to wish you the best of luck with the Mini project. I will look forward to seeing you in the Rally NZ in the future. I really hope it amounts to something. This may sound a little premature but is money going to be a factor at Prodrive as it was at Ford. I hope it doesn't meant that you will get an inferior car this time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daniel

Of course he did.... He didn't just say thanks and walk away....

---

Aha!

Antony, thank you for providing an interesting insight into the sport at the top level. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog, as have several people I have shared the blog with.

I am interested in hearing your thoughts on the suggestion to offer open access to all press to WRC rounds (in the poll provided on your blog). This interests me, as Australian press (most that cover the national championship) are highly unlikely to gain access to local WRC rounds due to the small coverage the sport receives in Australia. We simply don't have the interest in the sport to satisfy media accreditation requirements at the highest level. While I see the reason for providing exclusive access to media that cover multiple WRC rounds, it would be good to see local media that are working in this country use their local knowledge and photography/videography skills to add to the WRC profile.

Currently the only way Australian media (outside of say two or three photographers at most) will shoot the event is to fly into private property, and shoot from behind the fence line. Those with a passion for the sport will still capture brilliant images and video. I have little knowledge of how the top WRC shooters operate, but I would assume that they concentrate on covering those most likely to be on the podium as local media do for our national championship.

Thanks
nigel

The WRC cameracrews actually have a list of people who they have to film. Once the last guy on the list passes, they are gone.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MSP AU

Antony, thank you for providing an interesting insight into the sport at the top level. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog, as have several people I have shared the blog with.

I am interested in hearing your thoughts on the suggestion to offer open access to all press to WRC rounds (in the poll provided on your blog). This interests me, as Australian press (most that cover the national championship) are highly unlikely to gain access to local WRC rounds due to the small coverage the sport receives in Australia. We simply don't have the interest in the sport to satisfy media accreditation requirements at the highest level. While I see the reason for providing exclusive access to media that cover multiple WRC rounds, it would be good to see local media that are working in this country use their local knowledge and photography/videography skills to add to the WRC profile.

Currently the only way Australian media (outside of say two or three photographers at most) will shoot the event is to fly into private property, and shoot from behind the fence line. Those with a passion for the sport will still capture brilliant images and video. I have little knowledge of how the top WRC shooters operate, but I would assume that they concentrate on covering those most likely to be on the podium as local media do for our national championship.

Thanks
nigel

---

Hi Nigel, indeed I think it is a shame. I remember back in 03-05 sometimes we went to the press rooms of WRC events and there you could see how limited the press attendance was. The organisers were apparently obliged to provide huge press rooms with dozens of desks... that remained unused.

If you'd ask me to cite how many different reporters I had seen...Well lets see: France 3 press guys (autohebdo-echappement), Germany 2 (1 TV crew from RTL), Italy 1, Spain ?, Finland 1 TV crew, Britain 3 maybe 4, belgium 1 TV crew. The rest was photographers, maybe a dozen different ones who followed the Championship. I remember a couple from France, Japan, Czech Rep, Italy.

I am not sure why it's like that. Either it's too expensive to get accreditation, or denied because credentials are not good enough.

So most teams brought their own press guy and if you were private that was basically the only way your story was getting out.

Jean Todt would do well, in my opinion to open up the barb wired gate and let the press in. I don't think the sport is in a position where it can ignore potential extra coverage.

Think of the private drivers, for example. The more press the better for their sponsors.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Franky

The WRC cameracrews actually have a list of people who they have to film. Once the last guy on the list passes, they are gone.

---

I was only appearing on TV when I crashed, except a couple times when I got inside the top 5 and still then it was not sure.

You have to pay them if you want to be filmed for your sponsors.