Power Stage system

[Sulland]

The power stage is a concept constructed for the ether media once upon a time.

Today you can see all stages live, you can follow in-car, out-car, helicam, timing, splittime, live commentators, end stage intervues, comments in depot and so on.

Over time the scorecard for PS has gone from 3-2-1 to 5-4-3-2-1, from 2017.
So in one stage you get 1 point less than the person getting 7th place overall, fighting for 3 days, keeping the car working.

If you could score max points for PS on all rallies you will end up with 65 points. That would give you a 10th place overall in 2017.

Are the current rules of the Power Stage the best they can be, or do they need an adjustment for 2019, or being skipped al together?

[EstWRC]

Back to 3-2-1 IMO.

[Sub_Skoda]

Back to 3-2-1 IMO.

Yes!
Or delete it or launch a "Power Stage Championship" with some manufacturers bonus points.

[janvanvurpa]

Yes!
Or delete it or launch a "Power Stage Championship" with some manufacturers bonus points.

Smart!
Thinking about that it is the factory teams mainly who can do a complete rebuild of a serious crashed car..

So a driver who crashes the car completely to hell, he lose any point possibility.

But the manufacturer team which can put it back together, well OK, they win some Manufacturer points.

why not?

[AnttiL]

Without the power stage, would the last stage on TV be as exciting? Is there enough of second battles going on?

My rallying taste was acquired decades ago and that's why things like Rally2 still feel wrong to me, but I gotta admit I love the excitement of power stages, watching the battles for fractions of seconds, with the drivers having to balance between survival and speed.

I think 5 points or 5 drivers awarded power stage points is not too much. I still remember the days when only 6 best would gain points and the winner got 10, so gaining two points more by moving from 5th to 4th was 20% of the winner's points, the same amount than winning the power stage is.

[PLuto]

If it will be on me, I will cancel whole power stage... Or make it as special stage at the end, out of classification of the rally (like it was golden stage in IRC Cyprus).

[mknight]

3-2-1 or... 3 2 1.5 1 0.5

Without powerstage there often won't be anything to watch on Sunday. Doesn't help that all stages are live when there are no fights.

[Kaps]

I'd prefer it scraped altogether, but I see your point. Maybe, for the sake of keeping the interest alive a 3-2-1 could be kept as well...

[rallyfiend]

The Power Stage is designed for mass-market TV consumption (like all the Live TV stages) and to try to attract new fans.

All the other things (All Live, splits, radio etc) are for the existing hardcore fans

[Sulland]

But is it fair that the Rally 2 guys are allowed to fight for those extra points?

The teams fighting for overall points in both championships are trying to secure their place, a few dare to fight to get higher. Most are on status que modus on Sundays. More ss km on Sundays is welcome.

Powerstage points for those doing rally 2 could be championship deciders, and that is wrong in my book.
Maybe PS points only for those still in the real rally points scoring.