WRC future

[AnttiL]

So, it has changed; all those points you make are what makes it different. You can score points without doing the full event - and be classified ahead of somebody doing the full event; Loeb 2nd at Monte in 2006.

You can't say "it's a different sport". In 99% cases the big points are made by finishing the event.

[Lancia Stratos]

I could just about accept that type of 'one off' event if the 'classic' events were allowed to return to their proper format; running Monte from Tuesday - Friday night, for example. And there's no chance of that......well not in the WRC.

Why on earth would they want to do that? Sunday lunchtime power stage on TV in Europe is essential for the sport.

[AnttiL]

Why on earth would they want to do that? Sunday lunchtime power stage on TV in Europe is essential for the sport.

According to Jarmo Mahonen, in the past Southern European rallies ran during the weekdays so they would actually have less people spectating, because too much spectators was a safety issue, while the UK people had too much TV air time competition from other sports during the weekends

[djip]

No, the basic principles have remained unchanged from the 60's. The biggest change is that you can now restart in the rally (since early 00's)

This is a MAJOR difference ! Rallying,aside from speed, has always been about endurance as well (in the sense surviving the environment). Being able to retire, re-start and still be classified is taking all this away ... and does not exist in any other sports. Can a F1 driver that crashed on the first lap can rejoin the race later on ? Nope,and too bad for TV ratings (don't serve me this argument).

To my opinion, this whole concept has totally killed the sport. I junderstand manufacturers want the car to be seen, and that it can serve the urpose of testing (given that there is little off-events test days) , but why on earth would you still be granted rewards (points for you and potentially less for your opponents ?)

[djip]

I've always loved Harju as a super special, it has some proper drivable corners, a long tradition, and no artificial elements. I also liked very much the super special in Estonia. I'm fond of street stages when they use the actual natural corners of the street, not the barriers and donuts they usually put there..

+1
SSS on "natural grounds" (e.g. mickey mouse stages in the old RAC rally, street course , even a race circuit) make sense provided there are'nt too many.
When it's full of cones and hayballs it does not make sense. And honestly speaking, this was the case in Monza. The bad weather thankfully
made them somehow disappear, but would it have been under the sun it would have looked ugly....
and what to say when they cancel half of the real stages because the weather is "bad". Isn't driving in challenging conditions just the essence of rallying ? when they cancel Dakar stages because too much sand or too hot, or the sail races becasue too much wind, do you think people will still listen ? WRC is shooting itself in the foot by trying to make it TV friendly ...

[AndyRAC]

Why on earth would they want to do that? Sunday lunchtime power stage on TV in Europe is essential for the sport.

Is it though?? I take anything they say with a pinch of salt. Have they tried a Power stage on a Saturday evening/ night?

[AnttiL]

+what to say when they cancel half of the real stages because the weather is "bad".

https://www.motorsportforums.com/sho...=1#post1258652

Those who were angry about stage cancellation yesterday, some reading for you

https://www.severe-weather.eu/mcd/ex...lps-europe-mk/

It is exceptional situation and in exceptional circumstances, models does not work well, because they learn from existing cases.

If you go just a few tens of km-s north from rally route you can see already meters of snow. and if you read this article, you can see that maximum expected snow in the mountains region is over 5 meters, then you must understand that in the region hit severely by COVID and now by flooding and snowstorm, you just cannot direct all your best forces and machines to secure sport event. I know it is frustrating for us, but we have to understand also the general picture. Even if you have access by ambulance or firetruck along the stage (organizers put huge efforts to clean the stage overnight), if you access roads are blocked by snow and imagine the stage is blocked by crashed cars on the narrow steep downhill route, you just cannot take too much risks.

[AnttiL]

This is a MAJOR difference ! Rallying,aside from speed, has always been about endurance as well (in the sense surviving the environment). Being able to retire, re-start and still be classified is taking all this away ... and does not exist in any other sports. Can a F1 driver that crashed on the first lap can rejoin the race later on ? Nope,and too bad for TV ratings (don't serve me this argument).

To my opinion, this whole concept has totally killed the sport. I junderstand manufacturers want the car to be seen, and that it can serve the urpose of testing (given that there is little off-events test days) , but why on earth would you still be granted rewards (points for you and potentially less for your opponents ?)

You could claim there's now more endurance than in the past because you have to be able to run 80 km of stages and up to 200 km of liaison without servicing or changing tyres, other than what you have in the car. In the 80's you had service between every stage, even during the stage if necessary!

It's extremely rare that you do a restart and end up on drivers' points. The penalty for missing a stage has been increased for this season.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

I see an Extreme-E team (Hamilton's X44) has now signed up Loeb.

His famous name now associated with this new series will do a lot to attract more motorsport fans to it.

WRC should have signed him up as an ambassador promoting it as much as possible around the world. But instead he's effectively allowed to do this for their future rivals.

[scn]

Seeing what is happening with M-Sport, I think everyone should consider R5+, with just a considerably bigger restrictor, a 6-speed transmission and no other modifications from R5.
I love modern WRC cars, they are the best ever to watch, much better even than GrB or Gr4, but if only two manufacturers in whole world can afford them there should be a serious cutting in cost, soon. And the cheapest and faster thing to do is just this: R5+