[WRC] Safari Rally Kenya 2021

[AnttiL]

Rallying's DNA is about diversity. Snow, gravel and dirt. Coping with dreadful wheather/poor road conditions (no safety car in rallying when it starts raining !). Amazing (and diffferent) sceneries. Multiple categories running the same event. Amateurs mixed with professionals. Etc ...

And this is still how it is in WRC. However, I'm sad to see mixed surface events being taken away again for the sake of expenses. In the past most of the South European gravel rallies were actually mixed surface, such as Portugal and Acropolis (in addition to Sanremo, of course).

So in the end, I understand that the world is so different then in the 60's, that the costs have skyrocketed . But the value proposition argument (no manufactuer wants to spend a lot of money on rallying those days) is a bit of a chicken and egg thing. And i am conviced that if rallying would forget about the boring "identikit" format, it could raise its appeal.
So long story short, why wouldn't the championship mix short and long events, fast flowing and slow endurance events ? Monte Carlo could be a bit longer with night stages (the "final night", arriving in Monaco at dawn is a PR's dream, isn't it ?). Safari, Acropolis, Turkey, Cyprus or whatever on the rough side (not necessiraly long, but having drivers managing their effort) and then the actual super-fast, to the second sprints. In this picture, a somehow extended Safari (400 ? 500 km ? No one is talking of 5000km anymore !) could then be one of the series crown jewels, as it is iconic. Inversely, some sprint events could be shortened. Corsica used to be only 24hours ways back then and god it was one of the drivers preferred event !

Yes, I'm sure we could have 300 km rallies and 500 km rallies run with the same cars and roughly the same budgets (my thoughts on that here https://itgetsfasternow.com/2018/01/...not-have-both/) But how much does this make a difference to someone who has a problem with rallies being too short or similar with each other?

Night driving is not really a PR dream. Today the point is to get social media buzz going on, with posts at the ends of the stages gaining exposure, and you don't get that in the nighttime. You only have people finding out the results once they wake up. Same goes for live TV, not much to see on night stages, and not much people awake to watch the broadcast.

[Eli]

300-400 km has been used for years now, but during COVID-19 the have allowed shorter events to be arranged since it's less expensive.

Mind you even before Covid, back in 2019 they limited the events to 350kms max. I agree with PLuto, when things start to get more steady (Covid wise), they should extend the limit for a rally to say... 400km, and as for Rally Kenya, I would bring back the snorkels and stuff like that to make the event feel a bit different and more of an occasion.

[Tauri_J]

I personally didn't like the short "covid" rallies lasting 2 days. with 250-ish km. But I also don't see the point of much more than 3 days and 350-400 km.

- 1000 km "safari" would simply be incredibly boring to follow for everyone, even in the "modern" format Safari you had Sainz falling asleep on the stage while driving....
No, nobody would "binge watch" 1000 km rallies at "moderate" pace.

- Complaining how rallies is not the same as 40 years ago and then saying we should introduce points for every stage is somewhat funny.

- Comparing with LeMans which is the closest motorsport equivalent just doesn't work, they just run more rounds on same circuit. In rally would then do 4 passes per stage? (that wouldn't work on gravel)
Most notably LeMans is the main endurance competition, the other 6/12 hour races are something that acts as a "support" for the main event. Therefore the cars and concept are build to work for 24 hours and are then "downscaled" for shorter races. WRC is not build for 1000km+ competition nowadays.

Noone talked about binge-watching 1000 km.

Points for every stage would make drivers to be on the limit a lot more than right now...would be silly to think otherwise. It would be a rather easy fix and wont cost them a penny.

[AnttiL]

Noone talked about binge-watching 1000 km.

Points for every stage would make drivers to be on the limit a lot more than right now...would be silly to think otherwise. It would be a rather easy fix and wont cost them a penny.

It would really change the nature of the sport. Let's say you give one point per stage win, it would make 15-25 points per rally, as much as a win.

[AnttiL]

Mind you even before Covid, back in 2019 they limited the events to 350kms max. I agree with PLuto, when things start to get more steady (Covid wise), they should extend the limit for a rally to say... 400km, and as for Rally Kenya, I would bring back the snorkels and stuff like that to make the event feel a bit different and more of an occasion.

I personally would like to see longer events, but at the same time the impact is minimal. Many rallies were already close to the 300 km minimum rather than the 400 km maximum. Can you tell without checking which 2018 events were over 350 km in length? And did it affect the spectating aspect?

However, a bigger change was made for this season when they demanded a leg to have no more than four stages (excluding super specials) and two stages cannot be so close to each other that P1 crews will drive two stages at the same time.

And at the same time, stages longer than 30 km have become more and more rare, and stages over 40 km completely non-existent, although there doesn't seem to be any regulations about that.

I can only guess all these things are something that the All Live crew has requested because ever minute costs a lot to broadcast, and the transmitter aeroplane can be in the air for only a certain amount of time at once.

[focus206]

Points for every stage defies the nature of rallying.
Imagine the 24 hours of Le Mans assigning points after every hour, or circuit racing assigning points every single lap to the leader. There would be no "endurance" element, only sprint sprint sprint. And the winner of the event might end up 3rd in points for the weekend, which in my opinion should never happen, one power stage is enough for rallying.

[AnttiL]

I would also claim the classic Safari had more of a unique character than just the extensive length. It wasn't 5000 km of special stages, it was more like 5000 km of road sections, but without speed limits and very tight timetable. The drivers were even allowed to drive without helmets! And similarly, nobody attacked corners like they do nowadays, it wasn't that spectacular to watch.

The rallies were decided on road penalties and in turn that meant that the car which needed the least service time was a winner, not the fastest driver. That's why the RWD Group B Toyota Celicas were so good in African events, because they were so easy to service and reliable, whereas the 4WD cars had more parts that went broken.

Of course the 1996-2002 events were shorter and had proper special stages and designated service areas. In a way you could say that's when the event became like a modern rally, just with longer stages (but also very fast roads).

[AnttiL]

Points for every stage defies the nature of rallying.
Imagine the 24 hours of Le Mans assigning points after every hour, or circuit racing assigning points every single lap to the leader. There would be no "endurance" element, only sprint sprint sprint. And the winner of the event might end up 3rd in points for the weekend, which in my opinion should never happen, one power stage is enough for rallying.

Yes. I think the Sunday tyre saving issue is being exaggerated here once again, it doesn't happen every event, and conversely we've had very tight Sunday battles for the win during the last few years. If you don't remember, take a look at these events:

Argentina 2017
Sardinia 2018
Wales 2018
Catalunya 2018
Monte 2019
Monte 2020
Sardinia 2020
Croatia 2021

[Franky]

People's memory is short. We tend to forget that it's not always fighting for tenths.And to be honest, if you have every rally everyone separate by just fractions, you'll get used to it and it won't be anything special. You need to have boring for the good to shine. The moment everything is on equally good level, it's the standard and standard is not interesting.

[dimviii]