WRC future

[the sniper]

Maybe time to flip it on it's head a bit... Let's face it, fast hatch backs are becoming less and less popular because of the fact that people are increasingly likely to think of a fast driver as a dick, for several reasons (environmental and safety mainly.
Their day is done, hence why the championship has acknowledged this and paved the way for more SUV based rally cars.
So if this kind of vehicle is becoming the norm, then does a manufacturer stand to gain more benefit from advertising the car as something that can rip along a few roads, over couple of days, faster than its rival, or would it look better if it dominated it over a (still quick) event that celebrated more of a reliability victory?

Erm, if this is the problem, no Motorsport program is the solution... Unless you're talking about the WRC becoming the World Regularity Rally Championship?

Then the point goes to generating a big enough audience to be relevant for the markets. How you do? Marketing! Media as prime option, then events. TV and internet. Nothing long is really working nowadays there -not liking it either, but it is how it is-. you have 2 ways then: working on the general or became a very strong niche. they're working on the big numbers because the manufacturers want it. let's face reality: how was rally heritage useful for lancia or fiat/fca in the last decade? zero. not even to save world most known and winning brand. one thing is what we like, or we would like. Another thing is nowadays world. Rally needs lots of money. Rally needs investors. They follow the market. at the moment market demands very fast and very catchy short content. not time for hardcore fans niche. not time to go there. best example '17 cars: not in the spirit of pure rally: too focused on sprint and speed, too aesthetic. they worked for media and non-fans. still not enough to move real things, but starting.
Events: short spectacular things, concert/live events philosophy. Not having people in the woods, having them in a square (stadium?), with food, drink, gadgets and -again- media. You can't sell 100k people in 50 km street. You sell 100k people in a square, let's say end of a power stage maybe? Then brands will give you cash to have their name there. again: not liking it, but it is what it is.
Becoming a strong niche would be great, but you need big money to start, and again that's not the time.

How do you explain the success of professional cycling? It does everything that rallying once did, which we're told no longer works as a format...

What about ... shorter events ? The 3 days format with 9-12 and 2-5 driving is ridiculous - sounds more like a government employee's job than sports. So is the sunday which is pretty much useless in every rally result-wise. This was made for TV way back then (late 90's) - Nowadays is the age of internet (aka Rally-Live), who cares of a sunday at noon ending ?

Way back then, the tour of corsica was a 24hours events and it was by no means an easy walkover. 1000 Lakes rally was also a 2 days affair and nobody seemd to think it was a walk in the park.

Wouldn't money be saved by shaving of 1 day ? and since stages are mostly the same year after year, coudn't recce be also shortened, at least for the top teams that have been coming to these stages year after year ?

What about the idea of dropping off shakedown ? I now teams would hate it, but we, as fan, may enjoy a bit of unpredictability in the result by having a few surprises if some team would come up with the wrong set-up . One of the big issues of rallyes today is that it is always the same drivers that win - not as bad as F1 but close...

And last bnut not least since i am seldom logged into the forum (but reading everyone's posts vivivdely), can't we get rid of Rally2 (super rally) ? I know manufacturers want exposure for their cars, but this aint' the spirit of rallying. Rallying is about speed on normal road (for which people can easily materialize how incredible these drivers are) but also has the notion of endurance built into it. Not anymore 60's style where drivers would seldom sleep for 4 days, but at least if you break your car, you're out, as simple as that. This may sound a bit oldies (which i am), but if we lose this (and we are close to), we lose the whole perception of rallying for the fan/people - we may as well go rallycross.

Does anybody think a two day rally will be anything other than the current itineraries, maybe with slight longer days, but with no Sunday? We ain't going back to 24hr rallies...

Personally to me these event shortening suggestions just make attending a rally, particularly one abroad or one you have to travel and stay locally (the case with many WRC rallies), far less attractive for spectators. Dropping Shakedown, dropping days, dropping Restarts... Many people will have had to wait all year to see just two days of top flight rallying! Okay, maybe in places like Finland you might get to see 4 stages in a day if you're willing to chase the cars, maybe 8 over two days. In Monte or GB though? You might go from 8 opportunities (including Shakedown) over the course of a four day event to 4 stages over a two day event. For what, the teams saving one night's hotel fees?