Quote Originally Posted by NickRally View Post
Journeyman racer, if you don’t mind me asking, how old are you? The reason I am asking is that you were probably not there in 1986 – WRC displaced F1 from the so called pinnacle of motorsport, I know as I was there. It didn’t last long, but only because F1 had Mr Ecclestone, who is the real reason F1 today is what it is. If he fancied WRC, or any other form of motorsport for that matter, then that is what would have been the “pinnacle” today.

I know people will jump saying the 1986 story couldn’t have and didn’t last long due to the fatalities, so change was needed – that is correct, but not the way the WRC was dealt with, i.e. banning the cars that made it great. When in the 1960’s, the fatalities in F1 were coming every other week, they didn’t ban the cars and turned to “production” models, they improved the safety of the cars that made F1 special. It could have happened in WRC, but there was no one to defend its corner.
I'm 37. Idk in what context WRC would've replaced F1. It doesn't matter in the sense that it still would've been the premier car racing class. From the history I know of, I'm led to believe that in the 60ssportscar racing had an more clout due to the smaller F1 cars and smaller fields.

I'm not sure how much influence Ecclestone had? I think it's more that he made the most of the popularity of motor racing which was always there. Failure to make it commercially powerful would be akin to the premier league failing to be popular in England.

Fair enough if you guys are passionate about Rallying. Despite being a premier motorsport competition, it's not perfect. You can't deny F1 it's place at the top, even if it's not alone. The cars are much more powerful which in itself legitimises it, and has the complication of traffic. Being able to deal with traffic is part of being a great driver.

Not only does Rallying not have traffic, but is essentially a touring car that can handle the off road. Touring car racing has always been a couple of steps down from F1. But Rallying has the difficult conditions to drive in and the lack of repetition circuit racing has.

It's certainly not inferior to F1, it's just it's never going to take the sunshine away from F1