[WRC] News & Rumours 2019

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Sad fact is that no region in England or Scotland has enough interest in rallying to organise a WRC event.

Like Wales, N.Ireland has that interest as its people are big rally fans. Plus it has a great rally scene and WRC drivers Meeke (& Breen).

They also seem confident it can be funded even without a functioning Stormont.

I think it would be brilliant. Not the same as Wales of course but still brilliant.

[mknight]

I wonder what is going on at Citroen and Hyundai in terms of upgrades.

Citroen was spotted testing aero upgrades multiple times at the start of the year, notably before Mexico. Comments were made from drivers and leaders that "they won't have time to introduce them for Portugal/Sardinia", implying they should make it to Finland.
Hyundai said around Corsica that they were aiming for big gravel updates before Finland supposedly including (front) aero.

....now there are no new testing vids from any of them and no announced upgrades yet.

The first big question is related to rally Estonia, they could try to introduce upgrades before that so that they can test them and find setup for Finland, but that gives them two weeks less time.
On the other hand I think especially Ogier is really not eager to go to Finland with new aero upgrades without a lot of testing beforehand after he struggled bigtime last year. (even though that could have as much to do with damper change as with aero change).

Interesting what comes up at both teams. The success (or not) of upgrades will likely be crucial for both Ogier's and Neuville's championship as well as Hyundai's manu charge.

Didn't hear anything from Toyota but they typically don't announce upgrades much beforehand. For them sorting reliability (including suspension + rim related issues on tarmac) and preparing for Turkey where they struggled last year is likely the biggest priority.

[Mintexmemory]

We have had this geography lesson before. Northern Ireland (aka Ulster) is part of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is a short form of the country - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is the largest island in the group called the British Isles and comprises Wales, Scotland and England. So glad as I am that Kris Meeke is from the UK he is not from GB. Nor would a rally held in NI ever be one that should be called Rally GB (as my learned friend, The Sniper, has already said.)
It should also be noted that the 2 editions of WRC Ireland were not universally acclaimed successes. The same issues that applied to those events still exist. As for the ‘Task Force’ anyone with the slightest understanding of the nature of NI politics can see the problems that no amount of PR can hide

[wia5958]

So in equal measure rally italia sardegna shouldn't be run on sardenia because it's not on the mainland? If they change the name to UK rally Northern Ireland would that be satisfactory

[AnttiL]

So in equal measure rally italia sardegna shouldn't be run on sardenia because it's not on the mainland? If they change the name to UK rally Northern Ireland would that be satisfactory

Yeah, name change would be appropriate. Maybe WRC Circuit of Ireland? But the main point of this switch is to get a new tarmac rally to replace Corsica and/or Germany.

It's also weird that teams disliked Corsica and Sardegna because of the difficult island logistics and now they're making the UK rally similarly difficult. Well, at least Sardegna got three more years...

[Mintexmemory]

So in equal measure rally italia sardegna shouldn't be run on sardenia because it's not on the mainland? If they change the name to UK rally Northern Ireland would that be satisfactory

Sardegna is part of the Republic of Italy. The Isle of Mull is part of Scotland and so part of GB. Northern Ireland is a special case among EU countries and this attempt to hi-Jack the GB forest rally to a different location smells of 5day dead rodent

[T16]

Rally GB should be a tough, ideally wet, forest rally.
England, Scotland, Wales, or all three.
End of.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

'Rally GB' was a new name given to the Network Q Rally when it moved to be based in Wales. It has never been a 'GB rally' since, but in reality a Welsh one. No-one complained about this.

N.I. is part of the UK and I see no reason why it shouldnt be allowed to run Britain's round of the WRC if they are willing and able to so..

[T16]

'Rally GB' was a new name given to the Network Q Rally when it moved to be based in Wales. It has never been a 'GB rally' since, but in reality a Welsh one. No-one complained about this.

N.I. is part of the UK and I see no reason why it shouldnt be allowed to run Britain's round of the WRC if they are willing and able to so..

I don't understand the point you're making in your first sentence.

I get that you and others are happy for this round to be ran in Ireland, but for me, I can travel around and watch it without having to get a ferry or a flight, if it stays on UK mainland and most importantly, it's traditionally been a gravel rally, not tarmac.

There's something special about Rally GB / the RAC/ Network Q, or whatever you want to call it and that something pulls a lot from the surface and the time of year the event is ran.
I just think moving it to Ireland will take away it's soul completely and it's as good as dropping the round for a different event.

[Mintexmemory]

Only potential problem I can see if the UK round of the WRC moves to NI is finding stages that allow for a large number of spectators to view the action safely and easily. Been to a fair few events in Ireland and a lot of the the roads are narrow and hedge lined. Looking at quite a lot of the footage online from rallies there recently and a lot of taped off areas. Will be interesting to see how that issue is tackled.

You make a great point, Irish rallying is a grass roots event and hugely difficult to marshal. With so many points of access crowd control is a major issue and certainly not amenable to getting spectators to pay for the privilege of watching.
The facilities for teams outside of Belfast and Dublin are slim to non-existent, while accommodation for fans during the 2007 and 2009 editions of Rally Ireland (both of which I attended) was extremely problematic.
This is the quote that is complete bull from the original article:
"Paisley believes that the WRC coming to Northern Ireland "is a real prospect" despite the lack of a local government at Stormont.
"Technically it can happen without Stormont in place, but it makes sense that the political drive is from our government," said the DUP MP."

There is no money from 'government' without Stormont in place, hence no underwriting of costs. Paisley is perhaps hoping for a massive bribe for the DUP from the Conservatives but I wouldn't be backing plans that relied on Boris Johnson being able to control his own bladder let alone the UK government!