[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

There's no need to change the sport drastically; ideally, cars would be cheaper and we'd have more Manufacturers and drivers. But, 'gimmicks' aren't needed. You don't come into a sport and decide it might need changing... you simply don't do that. You accept it's plus and minus points and get on with it.

I've said before the main issue is the Promotion; and that is what the problem is. It's still pretty rubbish. The TV doesn't really capture the spectacular enough - I saw a video on Twitter last night from Sanremo 1997; it told a story of the event, interviews, had a small technical section on brakes, and this all in 27mins.

RBMH aren't doing enough - TV should be for highlights/ review type programmes. They have RedBull TV for live streaming....So why not use it more often? Too many promoters don't actually promote - but sell TV rights and think that's okay.

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Originally Posted by Mirek

The problem with something like gr.4 or gr.A is that the world has changed through the years. ..... What once worked sometimes work again but I'm afraid it doesn't apply for motorsport.

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Absolute nonsense. A formula like Grp4 or Grp A is simply that ... a formula. It can be applied/adapted to fit any era.
There is no reason why the sport could not adopt a specification that is affordable and accessible to domestic competitors and in which they can then step up on to the world stage and be competitive.
GrpN, in it's day, could have provided the platform but they wouldn't have been spectacular enough. S2000 & R5 are certainly spectacular enough and manufacturers are producing the hardware. The cars are affordable to buy but are they too costly to run? Something in between?

Rallyper is exactly right. It's not for manufacturers to come and change the sport to suit themselves. They need to apply themselves to the nature of the sport.

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

There's no need to change the sport drastically; ideally, cars would be cheaper and we'd have more Manufacturers and drivers. But, 'gimmicks' aren't needed. You don't come into a sport and decide it might need changing... you simply don't do that. You accept it's plus and minus points and get on with it.

I've said before the main issue is the Promotion; and that is what the problem is. It's still pretty rubbish. The TV doesn't really capture the spectacular enough - I saw a video on Twitter last night from Sanremo 1997; it told a story of the event, interviews, had a small technical section on brakes, and this all in 27mins.

RBMH aren't doing enough - TV should be for highlights/ review type programmes. They have RedBull TV for live streaming....So why not use it more often? Too many promoters don't actually promote - but sell TV rights and think that's okay.

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I think RBMH have no idea about WRC and how to promote it. We don't expect miracles but at least solid highlights on free view channels at the end of rally day, lets say same way as Eurosport used to do it in 2005-2009. Anything more would be great. But if RBMH don't get it maybe they should leave, since they came nothing new or better happened to WRC, it's even worse in fact.

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Originally Posted by rallyfun

I think RBMH have no idea about WRC and how to promote it. We don't expect miracles but at least solid highlights on free view channels at the end of rally day, lets say same way as Eurosport used to do it in 2005-2009. Anything more would be great. But if RBMH don't get it maybe they should leave, since they came nothing new or better happened to WRC, it's even worse in fact.

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Between 2005 - 2009 those highlights were just broadcast by Eurosport.

They were actually created by North One Sport. They were the same highlights that were on TV in Australia and a few other countries.

We’re happy to welcome our new Technical Director Nino Frison into the team @HyundaiWRC !
He will head up engineering teams & development of i20
Nino has a wealth of experience in international #motorsport from single seaters, including roles in numerous #F1 team, to the #WRC.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BoJbKmDIEAEBhGY.jpg


We’ve also revealed today that we have recently inaugurated our engine dyno to accelerate i20 #WRC engine development and testing processes

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114036, hope they'll come up with something good

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Originally Posted by Eli

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114036, hope they'll come up with something good

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On the same day as British publication Motoring News has a feature reporting what DR thinks is wrong with WRC and how 'he might like another shot at it' - In summary he says, forget TV, internet is the way forward, theer is no need for clover leaf routes (anymore - to be fair, especially as they were his idea) and he cant see teh benefit of R5 cars. DR says cars are too boring and should take a leaf out of GT3's book, "cars should be noisy, aggressive looking and something that people should aspire to, current cars dont have that"
We will see what happens.

Blimey, DR had changed his tune. Being outside of the WRC has made him realise what is wrong with it. He actually said a lot of those things in January at the Autosport Show.
Live TV is old news, it's all about streaming on the internet.

And I actually agree about the cars; who honestly aspires to own a DS3, i20, Polo R....When I win the lottery, I won't be rushing to buy one of them, albeit they're nice, solid, reliable cars.

Is anybody brave enough to suggest turning their back on the hot hatch/ family runabout? And going for something more spectacular? I don't think they are. More of the same I expect.....

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Originally Posted by Franky

Didn't Eurosport Events comment that RBMH had a better offer/package?

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How could they've said it if they have a global TV channel and the experience of IRC?! Plus, EE was the right player to get a synergy between WRC and ERC, avoiding a clash that will probably happen again in a near future. What could FIA expected better???

Like many of you are saying, RB/MH don't do enough, so why on earth doesn't the FIA throw out their contract? In any commercial association if one of the parts doesn't fullfit their purposes there's a legal reason to dissolve it.

I'm really disappointed with Todt's choice and current approach. Above all, he's a rally guy and surely knows that EE is the right partner to promote rally sport.

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

Blimey, DR had changed his tune. Being outside of the WRC has made him realise what is wrong with it. He actually said a lot of those things in January at the Autosport Show.
Live TV is old news, it's all about streaming on the internet.

And I actually agree about the cars; who honestly aspires to own a DS3, i20, Polo R....When I win the lottery, I won't be rushing to buy one of them, albeit they're nice, solid, reliable cars.

Is anybody brave enough to suggest turning their back on the hot hatch/ family runabout? And going for something more spectacular? I don't think they are. More of the same I expect.....

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TV still is a powerfull media toll. Don't throw it away too soon...

About cars tech definition, it's a permanent debating topic (now it seems to be Maxi Rally turn) but all we need is to make them more affordable.

R5 seems to be a nice compromise, but it would be better to open their homologation process in order to involve a larger number of tuners/builders.

The same for other R cars; it's ridiculous how few of this cars are homologated these days. In the 80's and 90's almost all makes had a reasonable number of Gr.A/N cars, now we only have a small bunch of manus involved at the sport, producing a very limited number of R models.