[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

Remember that 28 december is fool's day in Spain... and look to the source of the news.

Ok... and what date is it today?

27th december, but i bet it's a fool, in some hours we will know the true.

Playing the Devil's Advocate for a moment, the WRC would make sense for Vodafone. They have scaled back their sponsorship portfolio, but they haven't completely ended it. It's rumoured that they wanted to get out of Formula 1 because they were forced to havetheir logos on the McLarens at last year's Bahrain Grand Prix, and although they managed to get their name replaced by a local partner's brand this year, the damage had been done. As for V8 Supercars, that was a decision taken by Vodafone Australia, because they were spending lots of money on sports (they also sponsored the cricket), but were taking lots of criticism for their patchy network coverage (for a network provider notorious for bad coverage, the Australian network was regularly criticised by the parent company).

So while those sponsor programs have ended, it's not a total withdrawal ordered from on high. The company will no doubt want some presence in sports, and the WRC would be relatively cheap compared to other sports. Plus, it would get fairly good coverage in the European markets, since ten of the thirteen rounds are on the continent.

Seems to have gone quiet, maybe it was a Spanish hoax.

Having ended their F1 and Aussie V8 Supercar sponsorship, it would be slightly strange to the sponsor a WRC team - were the media coverage is still relatively poor.

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

Having ended their F1 and Aussie V8 Supercar sponsorship, it would be slightly strange to the sponsor a WRC team - were the media coverage is still relatively poor.

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True, although it would be a lot cheaper.

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Originally Posted by RS

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

Having ended their F1 and Aussie V8 Supercar sponsorship, it would be slightly strange to the sponsor a WRC team - were the media coverage is still relatively poor.

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True, although it would be a lot cheaper.

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Cheaper??? Do you actually know how much does a full-season WRC effort costs? :laugh: :laugh:

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Originally Posted by Motorsportfun

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Originally Posted by RS

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

Having ended their F1 and Aussie V8 Supercar sponsorship, it would be slightly strange to the sponsor a WRC team - were the media coverage is still relatively poor.

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True, although it would be a lot cheaper.

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Cheaper??? Do you actually know how much does a full-season WRC effort costs? :laugh: :laugh:

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Less than McLaren's?

More expensive than some second-level F1-teams.

VW has a WRC budget close to 90-100 millions per season, Hyundai is not far away from that (about 80)... just to let you understand what's needed to be at the top of the sport. :)

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Originally Posted by Motorsportfun

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Originally Posted by RS

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

Having ended their F1 and Aussie V8 Supercar sponsorship, it would be slightly strange to the sponsor a WRC team - were the media coverage is still relatively poor.

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True, although it would be a lot cheaper.

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Cheaper??? Do you actually know how much does a full-season WRC effort costs? :laugh: :laugh:

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I mean it would be cheaper to sponsor a WRC team than F1 because WRC has little commercial value compared to F1, which I guess is why there are very few "real" sponsors involved in WRC.