[WRC] News & Rumours 2021

[the sniper]

I'll be amazed if the UK round happens.

[EstWRC]

why then?

[AnttiL]

We have to consider event pairing also, they have to use same basic setup for those, so car may not suit to other driver.
(I don´t know 2021 pairings)

For example in 2019 Argentina and Chile were paired, as were Sardegna and Portugal. Still the driver lineups changed from event to another with Sordo giving his car to Loeb from Argentina to Chile and Loeb giving his car to Mikkelsen from Portugal to Sardegna.

[meh]

Here comes this WRC2 vs WRC3 (or whatever will be those names in the future) problem - if some "manufacturer" puts their team out, pays more/extra money (compared to WRC3 entry), then they want to have some publicity, then want to have their time in LIVE-coverage, in news etc. Which is all understandable.

... and then comes some without-WRC-seat star or just some other talent driver in WRC3 entry and beat all WRC2 entries... and this is problematic for at least 2 reasons:
* WRC2 entries are a bit embarrassed maybe
* a lot of people (like most of the forum members here) start whining, why they don't show WRC3 entries in LIVE coverage (like Mikkelsen and Solberg in Monza for example)

My logic says - the more publicity WRC2 teams get, the more they want to take part of that. But some need to understand here, what is difference between WRC2 and WRC3 business, before start asking "more WRC2 teams and more live-coverage for WRC3 entries" (which are in conflict a bit).

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Mikkelsen and Solberg in Toksport Škoda Fabia Rally2 WRC2 program?

http://planetemarcus.com/mikkelsen-e...wrc-2-en-2021/

Strange this one. Any confirmation ?

Chris Ingram tells me he had no idea this was happening. He was expecting Toksport to run his WRC2/3 program in 2021...

[mknight]

Here comes this WRC2 vs WRC3 (or whatever will be those names in the future) problem - if some "manufacturer" puts their team out, pays more/extra money (compared to WRC3 entry), then they want to have some publicity, then want to have their time in LIVE-coverage, in news etc. Which is all understandable.

... and then comes some without-WRC-seat star or just some other talent driver in WRC3 entry and beat all WRC2 entries... and this is problematic for at least 2 reasons:
* WRC2 entries are a bit embarrassed maybe
* a lot of people (like most of the forum members here) start whining, why they don't show WRC3 entries in LIVE coverage (like Mikkelsen and Solberg in Monza for example)

My logic says - the more publicity WRC2 teams get, the more they want to take part of that. But some need to understand here, what is difference between WRC2 and WRC3 business, before start asking "more WRC2 teams and more live-coverage for WRC3 entries" (which are in conflict a bit).

In Monza it approached ridiculous levels when they have free TV time (cause there are few WRC cars due to retirements) and you have few WRC2 crews. The TV crews are there at the stopline often with fixed TV cameras around. So they interview some WRC2 then they skip to studio/somewhere else for top WRC3 cars that are all within top 10 overall and finally they switch back to WRC2 running minutes later (Formaux).

When a WRC enters with some "privateer" (Bertelli etc.) they still show him even though he is not entered for manu champ or anything like that, but skipping cars on 6-9th place overall in the rally is ok cause they are not entered in same championship?

Sportwise its off course bad for WRC2 cause they are often not fastest, but have no motivation to actually be faster and risk points due to crash fighting with someone in different category

To sum up:
- WRC2 (drivers) can get embarrassed while forced by teams not to compete with WRC3
- WRC3 get little coverage
- Fans get less competition to watch cause WRC2 generally don't care about WRC3 ahead of them


The whole idea was that "manu" teams with massive budgets were competing with "privateers". This was at a time when Skoda was throwing lot of money and testing more than some WRC teams.
Problem is that there are now "privateer drivers with factory support" (Solberg, maybe partly Huttunen in later part of the season), since there are no rules prohibiting what WRC3 teams can do there is no limit to this, so you just moved the "manu vs privateers" problem one category lower and nothing changed.

To improve that either:
1. introduce strick rules on testing etc for WRC3 crews = pretty impossible to control. Testday limits?, ok we enter some local rally that is similar (see WRC teams), part limits, even less tires?
or
2. merge WRC2/3 to one category again and show the fastest cars in that single category

I am totally for 2.

[mknight]

Strange this one. Any confirmation ?

Chris Ingram tells me he had no idea this was happening. He was expecting Toksport to run his WRC2/3 program in 2021...

Imo it's just speculation.

[AnttiL]

When a WRC enters with some "privateer" (Bertelli etc.) they still show him even though he is not entered for manu champ or anything like that, but skipping cars on 6-9th place overall in the rally is ok cause they are not entered in same championship?

This has already been changed, we didn't see anymore the gentleman WRC drivers in the 2020 broadcasts. Well, a bit of Jocius on the first days but not on Saturday anymore. Already in 2019 Finland there was this Serderidis-level Finnish guy and we only saw him on SS1 (where the organizers can choose who gets on TV). Same goes for Estonia this year, Georg Gross and one Finnish gentleman driver took part with WRC but didn't have onboard cameras or airtime.

I agree with your suggestion about merging WRC2 and WRC3. However, we should still have the team championship where the teams need to nominate drivers and take part in a certain number of events, it just wouldn't affect the drivers championship. Furthermore, like Jonne Halttunen suggested, a privateer cup could be held within WRC2, like ERC has the junior cup.

[Hartusvuori]

Strange this one. Any confirmation ?

Chris Ingram tells me he had no idea this was happening. He was expecting Toksport to run his WRC2/3 program in 2021...

Couldn't Toksport run a third car? I thought they are hiring their services.

[AnttiL]

Couldn't Toksport run a third car? I thought they are hiring their services.

I think WRC2 rules allow only two manufacturer cars per rally, but of course there is always WRC3