[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

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Originally Posted by SlowSon

That's why the rally sport must be centered around the privateers, as it was in the beginning - rich people enjoying their expensive hobby. But with this greedy corrupt french governing body this will realistically not happen soon.

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With respect, who wants to see an FIA World championship that is mainly about 'gentleman drivers'? We want to see the best drivers competing against each other and preferably with a high level of competition rather than someone walking their way to the title. Not some drinks magnate who's bought himself an expensive rally car.

WRC needs manufacturers otherwise where are the cars going to come from? The problem at the moment is we don't have everyone involved pulling in the same direction. Namely Jost Capito's insane idea to change the basic concept of what rallying should be and a promotor that seems to have had zero tangible influence on the championship in just over a year.

@Jack, "privateer drivers" aren't the same as what you refer to "gentleman drivers". But I do understand that, due to the poor condition of the current WRC, you think it's one thing. Current WRC is too expensive for privateers. A privateer can be a promising young driver too, who is driving with help of a federation (quite rare) or sponsors and/or private fundings. Don't forget that EVERY current WRC works-driver used to be a privateer...

The sport MUST be accessible for everyone, in my opinion. It must be a step-up to the top level of rallying. All WRC championships (WRC, WRC2, WRC3, JWRC, DMack Trophy and everything around it) don't offer the needed return for the investment they require. Comparing to ERC (IRC in the past) they have a very bad score. Plenty of extremely talented people who are stuck on a national level, as they can't take the "big" step up, to international rallying. They can't persuade their sponsors to invest in something that costs much more and gives no return at all.

But ok, continue complaining there's nobody to beat Ogier, and wonder why... ;)

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Originally Posted by tommeke_B

All WRC championships (WRC, WRC2, WRC3, JWRC, DMack Trophy and everything around it) don't offer the needed return for the investment they require. Comparing to ERC (IRC in the past) they have a very bad score. Plenty of extremely talented people who are stuck on a national level, as they can't take the "big" step up, to international rallying. They can't persuade their sponsors to invest in something that costs much more and gives no return at all.)

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I think you're flattering the ERC a bit there. It's not exactly thriving and flush with a big field of regular drivers. How many events have been cancelled in the IRC / ERC in recent years?

Whereas if you look at the WRC championships:
- WRC 2: record numbers at events
- Dmack: oversubscribed
- JWRC - big field (so far...)

What are all these people doing if they're not getting their return on investment? What are they doing in the WRC if there is a viable alternative in the ERC? The fact is, in many cases the ERC is not a viable alternative. It doesn't have the footprint that the WRC has. It's shown on Eurosport at 1am in the morning and occasionally they do Live. At least the new WRC promoter has created Live (up to 3 hours per event) from every single event so far this year (where it can be seen is a separate matter...).

Sometimes people can be a bit too negative about the WRC. It's important that people don't let perception be seen as reality....

About cancellation of ERC events you are right, unlike the WRC events which remain the same year after year, without much of a change, ERC has many unproven events next to some "classic" rallies (Ypres, Barum, Corsica, Valais). The main problem of ERC at this particular moment is that the S2000 cars are outdated and the R5 cars are not quite there yet. I expect national importers to support some projects again next year, as we have seen during the great "IRC" years.

About WRC2 you are right, this year's championship is quite good (last year was quite a disaster in my opinion), anyway I don't like the system of choosing half of the events and being able to avoid competing directly against your biggest opponents, it could make it a meaningless title in my opinion, if some slower driver wins because he is doing other events than the faster guys...

Concerning return things are different from country to country (like in one country Dakar is a big thing while in another country it's almost invisible in media), but I dare to say that newspapers here have as much news of an ERC event as of a WRC event. When Neuville was in ERC we were seeing as much, if not more news about him than we see now, while he is in WRC... While I see something being written about Junior ERC or the previous 2WD Cup or Production cup, things such as WRC2, WRC3, JWRC and Dmack Trophy seem to be completely ignored in media (a bit like F1 is completely seperated from all side-events and nothing is written about those either). Visibility of WRC on TV is 0, nothing, you can only see it on a paychannel here. And again the lower categories are completely ignored on TV... Live-tv of WRC is non-existant for me. I'm not going to spend my time on a website clicking away banners while a low-quality stream is playing and buffering every 2 minutes, I'm probably crazy but not that crazy... With ERC/IRC there's Eurosport to watch, and during the "good years" with Loix and/or Neuville competing, we could see it on national tv as well. Also important is that the footage of ERC is much more exciting to watch than what the promotors of WRC produce. Although the quality of their images is a bit better and looks more professional, it's just boring to watch.

Don't understand me wrong. I like rallying, visit an average of 25 events/year, on regional, national and international level. Throughout the years I visited more than half of the different WRC events on the calendar. And I hope the best for the future of WRC, as the WRC contains the nicest events. But if you are being honest, you can't deny that the promotor of WRC is failing at their work, on many different aspects. There are so many examples of how things can be done better... And until those things are solved, I'm sure that ERC provides a better return for private competitors, on a smaller area but with a bigger impact.

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Originally Posted by tommeke_B

With ERC/IRC there's Eurosport to watch, and during the "good years" with Loix and/or Neuville competing, we could see it on national tv as well. Also important is that the footage of ERC is much more exciting to watch than what the promotors of WRC produce. Although the quality of their images is a bit better and looks more professional, it's just boring to watch..... But if you are being honest, you can't deny that the promotor of WRC is failing at their work, on many different aspects. There are so many examples of how things can be done better... And until those things are solved, I'm sure that ERC provides a better return for private competitors, on a smaller area but with a bigger impact.

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This^^^.

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Originally Posted by Jack4688`

Unfortunately I fear it's more likely the manufacturers will want to hit more markets, so long as they don't go back up to 14+ events like we had about 10 years ago. The manufacturers would have more sway in this matter too

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Want more markets? That's more expense. Less markets? Less expense. But include more criticism. It's a self-defeating circle.

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

I think going for 8-10 events would be better for the WRC; can it really support 14-16 events? Not in my opinion. Too many involved think the sport is bigger than it actually is.

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I wonder if regardless of the number of total rounds, x number/best of rounds count toward the title would be considered?

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Originally Posted by SlowSon

This is true. Manufacturers will always be unhappy with the length of the rallies. They only want to have the headlines "Driver X with our car did a great result" after spending as less as possible. They approve spending only when it gives them advantage for a certain victory.
That's why the rally sport must be centered around the privateers, as it was in the beginning - rich people enjoying their expensive hobby. But with this greedy corrupt french governing body this will realistically not happen soon.

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That's a point I have about Touring Cars. Then include manufacturers as an addition, who can come and go as they please. What is the problem, regarding the FIA?

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Originally Posted by wrc1600

Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I remember about 8-10 years ago Subaru's budget was about 80 mln euros. The biggest budget now is about half of it. Are all those talks about promoter problems or they just look for excuses as you noticed?

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Maybe 40 mil still could be too much for some. The value of money, and how it circles through an economy, is quite peculiar nowadays. The trend is to ask/expect more and more value for money. If it was 30mil, then that'll be too much. 20 mil and so on. At what point do you stop compromising you competition? Will it be a one day rally someday? I mean, 3 day rallies is already a compromise to a genuine, full blown WRC event.

Good to see Graig Breen will do two more WRC outings with a Fiesta, Finland and Germany
http://www.craigbreen.com/news.php?&id=520

http://www.rallye-magazin.de/rallyes...ein/index.html
looks like it will happen next year.....:(

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Originally Posted by Eli

http://www.rallye-magazin.de/rallyes...ein/index.html
looks like it will happen next year.....:(

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terrible, terrible idea... ruins the sport in an arbitrary way. you can't manufacture drama in motorsport, reality TV style, you can only assure an even level of competition and the drama will come. instead of working on the competition, they make it so the guy in 3rd can't attack the guy in 2nd at the end of 3-4 days of rallying, even if they're .5sec apart. hmm yes this will add drama.