The solution to the WRC

[rjbetty]

The 2003 WRC season was one of the best motorsport seasons I ever saw. I remember it fondly and knew it was a special one at the time.

Check out the driver line-up:


PEUGEOT:
2 x World Champion Marcus Gronholm
1 x World Champion Richard Burns
Multiple Rally Winner and popular character Gilles Panizzi
Rally Winner Harri Rovanpera

FORD:
Markko Martin
Francois Duval
Mikko Hirvonen - All very promising talents

SUBARU:
4 x World Champion Tommi Makinen
Future 1 X World Champion, 3 x runner-up, and hugely popular character Petter Solberg

HYUNDAI:
Rally Winner Armin Schwarz
Promising driver Freddy Loix

SKODA:
1 x World Champion Didier Auriol
Promising talent Toni Gardemeister

CITROEN:
1 x World Champion and hugely popular character Colin Mcrae
Future 9 x World Champion Sebastien Loeb
2 x World Champion Carlos Sainz



Amongst the 16 full time works drivers, there were no less than 14 drivers who won or who would go on to be rally winners, while the World Champion count was 7! That is quite astonishing.


Which leads me to the solution for the WRC. Why not just change the rules to how they were around 2001-2003? It seems very simple that if the WRC moved back in that direction, it would regain it's soul and become great again.

Bring back 3 scoring drivers please, and be done with the abomination of superrally, which I loathe, forever.

Absolutely awful gimmicks proposed for 2015 have finished the sport off for me for good now I think, and I sadly rarely post here now. A slide which began with Max Mosley's new rules for 2004.

[PLuto]

Which rules you would like to change? And how?

[N.O.T]

Go away and come back when you are 18.... or not at all.... F1 is far superior stay there.

[rjbetty]

Which rules you would like to change? And how?

Just simply reverse all the bad ones from 2004 onwards, which got rid of Colin Mcrae and others, and caused the mass exodus at the end of 2005.

The 2 changes I really want is 3 cars teams to return, so we get more quality drivers in top cars, therefore more potential winners. And getting rid of superrally which is a cover up for the lack of competitors these days. I also really miss the old pre-2011 cars but I understand they won't be coming back.

The rules of the last 10 years have got rid of drivers like Mcrae, Duval and Galli.

And scrap the proposals for 2015 immediately. These will destroy what is left of the soul of the WRC for me...

[tommeke_B]

I don't think that the "exodus of manufacturers" that started in 2005 is caused by the rules. The rules didn't change dramatically back then, as far as I remember (only SupeRally arrived in '06). I think it's more about the manufacturers individually changing their marketing strategy...

About drivers... Don't blame the rules for McRae, Duval and Galli leaving the scene. It's quite obvious why these drivers didn't get (or should I say take) any chances...

[rjbetty]

Ok, I think it was caused by the extra 2 rounds up to 16 in Mexico and Japan for 2004, which increased the costs, which was the reason cited for most of the pullouts. Also, manufacturers were only allowed 2 cars meaning just 10 works cars per rally, rather than 15, making things much less interesting.

[PLuto]

The 2 changes I really want is 3 cars teams to return, so we get more quality drivers in top cars, therefore more potential winners. And getting rid of superrally which is a cover up for the lack of competitors these days. I also really miss the old pre-2011 cars but I understand they won't be coming back.

But we have 3 cars teams - Citroen has Meeke, Ostberg and Al Qassimi, VW has Ogier, Latvala and Mikkelsen and Hyundai has Neuville, Sordo/Hanninen and Paddon, M-Sport has Hirvonen, Evans and Kubica...

[PLuto]

I think there is more factors why WRC is in situation where it is. To have complex reason it should take more time to think about it, but in very short:

a) very bad promotion of WRC (promoter ISC was not working perfectly, but its followers were/are much worse)
b) not stable regulations, it was changing all the time, not sure view for more years
c) Citroen and Ford were talking to this regulations so much...
d) Sebastien Loeb and his unbeatable era
e) not interest about "rest of the field" from organisers/promoter/FIA ; on WRC events everybody is interested only about WRC drivers...
f) not so good changes in calendar, when legendary rallies are going out and are replaced by noname or not so interesting events

[tommeke_B]

g) global warming and the whole change of marketing, where cars have to be green, eco-friendly etc. Rallying doesn't fit in their marketing strategy anymore as it did more years ago.
h) FIA took too long before replacing the 2L cars. Almost nobody was still making production 2L cars in the category of cars suitable for making a WRC of.

[PLuto]

ad g) I dont know, if people really wants to have "more green cars" or it is mainly part of marketing...