WRC future

[wyler]

We keep seeing brands, from all sectors, using personal stories of resilience from their sponsored athlete’s to promote their products; for sure rally drivers bravery can also have marketing value.

Not really imo, foe this to work you have to know the athlete.
the % of general public that knows rally heroes is very low. you can't compare the mediatic power of rally athletes to soccer or nba...

[the sniper]

I've got to be honest, I feel like now is almost* the most despondent I've felt about the future of the WRC. At least in 2009 the only way was up! Back then everyone knew the WRC was in trouble, now it feels like they're sleep walking into a worse situation. Back then we had two manufacturers. Now we essentially have two manufacturers, with M-Sport increasingly feeling like a zombie manufacturer team. But unlike 2009, the two manufactures seem more selfish in a way now. The future WRC car regulations don't seem to be being crafted sensibly given the current circumstances. At least in 2009 there seemed to be more of an understanding of the necessity to support the running of more WRC cars for the benefit of the sport. Back then I didn't feel like M-Sport or Citroen would disappear, but Hyundai seem uncertain to me. I know a lot has gone on this year, but Adamo seemed weird this weekend. M-Sport seemed rather detached from proceedings. Lappi's casual announcement at the end of the Power Stage that he wouldn't be back, though not unpredictable news, was quite striking to me a way.

Listening to Julian Porter talking glowingly about having a few more rallies like Rally Monza was depressing. Rally Monza was a good idea under the circumstances of this year/Covid, which ended up being made much better by unplannable weather intervention. If Porter is as usually on message as anyone on WRC+, the official mouth piece of WRC Promoter, I fear this is the direction the WRC wishes to go. As if that is a surprise. We've already lost so many of the classic rallies. Rallies are getting shorter still. Now we're aspirationally looking at what would once have been considered a joke, WRC rounds becoming glorified single venue events... How low can the WRC go? Is anybody interested in protecting the integrity of the WRC or has that ship long sailed?

This is the first time in a decade that I've felt underwhelmed by the prospect of the following season.

*The main difference between 2009 and now, there's a lot of talented young guys now that could flourish in a revived WRC. Whereas, in 2009, there was only one name, Sebastien... It almost makes the situation worse now though, as we could see so much talent wasted...

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Hyundai testing for Monte this week. So at least they seem committed to another season in WRC and not bailing to an electric series.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Ogier is now off The Sniper's christmas card list...

https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/1...showcase-evnts

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Autosport @autosport

The Monza Rally was an unusual way to end an unusual #WRC season, and while far from ideal, without it the series could have faced serious ramifications. To persuade stakeholders to commit to an uncertain future, Monza was an important showcase.

Anyone have access to this ?

http://www.autosport.com/wrc/feature...-necessary-one

[wyler]

Autosport @autosport

The Monza Rally was an unusual way to end an unusual #WRC season, and while far from ideal, without it the series could have faced serious ramifications. To persuade stakeholders to commit to an uncertain future, Monza was an important showcase.

Anyone have access to this ?

http://www.autosport.com/wrc/feature...-necessary-one

try using outline[dot]com

[the sniper]

Ogier is now off The Sniper's christmas card list...

https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/1...showcase-evnts

It'd be nice if he and Adamo would actually specify what it is that other event organisers are supposed to take from this event, because we all know, when the WRC bubble says jump, most of the organisers will oblige...

The main challenge seemed to be presented by the weather conditions, which also cancelled one stage and indirectly led to another being stopped. The weather probably can't be replicated, thus what is it that we're taking from this event and replicating? To me the likely results will be:
- We wave goodbye to Sardinia, as the WRC finally forces the ACI's hand on returning back to the mainland/Monza.
- We lose at least a day of Rally Catalunya to doing a few laps of Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and its car parks.
- Wales Rally GB gets a late reprieve with the organisers getting their cheap day(s) at Oulton Park, a venue that'll be "perfect for spectators" but is still in the middle of nowhere with poor access.

Maybe there is something to be taken from Monza, but I can imagine some unfortunate interpretations.

[AnttiL]

Ogier is now off The Sniper's christmas card list...

https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/1...showcase-evnts

BTW these quotes are directly from the FIA press conference.

https://www.fia.com/news/wrc-s-ogier...s-been-special

[the sniper]

Autosport @autosport

The Monza Rally was an unusual way to end an unusual #WRC season, and while far from ideal, without it the series could have faced serious ramifications. To persuade stakeholders to commit to an uncertain future, Monza was an important showcase.

Anyone have access to this ?

http://www.autosport.com/wrc/feature...-necessary-one

Looks something like this...

Over the years, the Monza Rally Show has brought colour to the close season when our thoughts are usually preoccupied by the dark, wet trudge through winter. It has also provided a mini Race of Champions, bringing stars from different disciplines together - not least the allure of those other-worldly types who race in MotoGP.

Monza without the megawatt star power of Valentino Rossi, without crowds and with little more than a grim determination to draw a line under 2020 was rather different. The sight of WRC cars endlessly pootling around the same muddy stage was unedifying at best. But be in no doubt that this was arguably the WRC's most important event for decades.

Why so important? Well, if Monza hadn't taken place then the WRC would have run less than 50% of its calendar. In the strictest reading of FIA law, the 2020 season wouldn't have happened at all.

That sort of detail can possibly get finessed away with an Act of God amendment or a force majeure clause, but without Monza the WRC may well have been in breach of its TV contracts and this would have been an infinitely bigger blow.

The WRC's host broadcasters do not bring in the sort of riches that Formula 1 commands - one broadcasting insider referred to the numbers involved as 'chicken feed' - but that's not the issue at stake.

The WRC is owned by Red Bull, which wants the maximum number of eyeballs on each event because its branding is plastered over the stages, the service park and most of the drivers. When it stepped in to save the series back in 2012, Red Bull was not acting out of charity. It knew that it had bought a property that could put its branding in the maximum possible number of living rooms worldwide.


Most global sports are trying to make money by selling themselves on pay-per-view. Red Bull makes money from the fizzy drinks that are advertised by the WRC and the strategy appears to be working very well. New records were set by the global audience for the three pre-COVID rounds of the WRC in 2020, leaping by 15% to 242 million viewers across a massive 2,679 broadcast hours.

Quite how the rest of the 2020 season has panned out is anyone's guess, but the 2019 figures make for astonishing reading. In total, 831 million people watched the WRC on TV last year. That is a billion shy of Formula 1's total, but equally it is more viewers than the next three biggest motorsport categories combined.

Quite how we go from the nervous confinement of Monza to the full, sprawling majesty of Monte Carlo in just six weeks is hard to comprehend
Formula E achieved 411 million viewers in 2019. The World Endurance Championship got itself to 255 million by counting Le Mans in both 2018 and 2019. NASCAR notched up 119 million viewers domestically across its 40 events.

Sustaining the WRC's global footprint is therefore fundamental to its future, and the show of faith given in Monza could well be priceless to that end. Nobody, after all, is under any illusions that our path towards the 'new normal' will be straightforward.

It is impossible to believe that the proposed 2021 calendar will run to plan as COVID-19 continues to menace the world. Quite how we go from the nervous confinement of Monza to the full, sprawling majesty of Monte Carlo in just six weeks is hard to comprehend.


For broadcasters to commit to that uncertain future, a show of faith was required and it is to be hoped that Monza delivered, because it was far from ideal in every other respect. The travelling circus had to expose itself to performing in Lombardy: one of the worst-hit regions in Europe during the COVID-19 crisis, where the number of deaths is currently at the same level that it was back in March.

Confining the teams and much of the running within the perimeter at Monza was sensible, if dull. But then, when the field was briefly able to stretch its legs in the mountains, crews found themselves trying to guess tyre choices and road conditions while their teams were stuck in the 'bubble' at the Autodromo.


The image of a marshal at the start of SS11 with his hand-written warning 'Maybe snow in the last 4km' will live long in the memory - all the more bitterly in the memories of Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin, of course.

"I think in what's probably going to be the hardest year, I hope, that we all have to ever go through, we've all done a fantastic job to pull together and make sure that we get these events running," said M-Sport team principal Richard Millener.

"And, yes, maybe they haven't been perfect or what we want from World Rally and what we expect, but I think we have to be proud of what we did in really difficult conditions."

The works teams are better insulated than M-Sport by having their budgets set in advance, but that has not made the battle to complete a meaningful season any easier.

"It's amazing to think what everyone has done to try to finish the season," said an emotional Hyundai team boss Andrea Adamo, who achieved his stated aim in defending the manufacturers' title. "I know what has been ahead of this, I spent difficult days. I'm not going to lament myself, but lots of tension, we had to justify our involvement."

At every level, the WRC community should be proud of what it has collectively achieved in 2020. Let's hope it brings new rewards in better days ahead.

I don't think anyone's doubting Monza served/serves a strong purpose in Covid times.

[mknight]

On the topic of Monza:

I too was thinking how interesting it was with rain, gravel parts etc on the circuit on Friday compared with the usual superspecials where everyone ends within 2s and only interesting thing is whether someone does a stupid mistake (looking at Meeke in 2017 GER, Neuville 2017 Sweden, Latvala in Poland 2009, Hirvonen Finland 2004...)

So when Tanak said on Friday evening that if anything is more interesting than this he would like to see it I was laughing like most other people.

And then we got onto normal stages and already on the first one with the new layer of slush at the end it immediately got more interesting than whole of Friday. In the afternoon it reached another level completely.
Guess we needed that to put the "excitement" of circuit stages into perspective.


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Sure Monza served its purpose, after all until a week before the start it was actually very likely that only the circuit stages would be done.

What could be done imo is to wastly improve the super specials using the ideas at Monza. Great Orme is in a way already an SSS of sorts. So 1-2 longer "superspecials" per rally would be quite fine for me. If the service park is at a circuit it can be set around it. So much better than superspecials with 3 donuts and 2 corners...