2022 WRC News & Rumours

[Fast Eddie WRC]

It's not tough position. It's M-Sport business strategy to fill every new class before their competitors start selling own products.

It is if they want to pay for top driver's to promote them vs the competition.

This especially like for their Rally2 car that we were discussing. They are not 'filling that class' before anyone, the others are coming with new Rally2's all the time.

[mknight]

Afaik they were first R5 available.

Lately when others use a lot of money for developing Rally2s, MSport doesn't.
Instead they seemed to focus on being first in other classes like R3 ( and R5 previously).

Their current "troubles" getting driver for Rally2 development seems to be due to:
- drivers with lots of own funds use the best cars they can buy (see Gryazin, Lappi, Suninen, or Skoda drivers) or where they extra starts in competetive WRC ( Veiby last year, Solberg now, Suninen from Spain)
- former WRC drivers like Østberg or Mikkelsen go where they get paid

MSport doesn't seem to pay well (at all?) and the car seems to be behind on gravel (though competetive on tarmac and maybe even the best on wet tarmac).

[Mirek]

This especially like for their Rally2 car that we were discussing. They are not 'filling that class' before anyone, the others are coming with new Rally2's all the time.

They did that with the first gen Fiesta R5 which was even intentionally downgraded compared to the limits given by the rules just to speed-up the development and to take the empty market 1-2 years ahead of the competitors. Recently they rushed the Rally3 while undoubtebly they had to reshuffle some of the available people and money from the Rally2. Was something in the Rally3 sacrified for the sake of speedy introduction and taking of an empty market? I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised at all.

[Eli]

https://mailchi.mp/fia/jja3q9igfw-64...12pmcg-6491707
Some more information about next year's regulations, some stuff that I didn't catch (or just weren't there) last week when the calendar for 2022 was introduced.

[Andre Oliveira]

[Andre Oliveira]

[WRCStan]

"As a result, the Junior WRC3 Championship will form the WRC3 Junior section of the FIA..."

I see confusion where juniors are not included in the junior championship. This will happen if other manufacturers produce a Rally3 and it has a younger driver within 3 years, or if junior drivers just want to do one round and not the full JWRC package.

Could JWRC be in the style of best 5 from any 7, with M-Sport committing to an arrive and drive campus at every event? Unlikely. If it's a set 5 event calendar I again see confusion where Juniors driving a Fiesta on many rounds of their choice will not be included in the Junior classification.

OK this is not a massive issue, but the FIA and M-Sport should do better secret-handshake deals than this.

[WRCStan]

Wait what?

"A prize drive opportunity in a Fiesta Rally2 on four European rounds of the WRC3 in 2023 awaits the 2022 Junior WRC championship."

[Mirek]

I'd like to know what is the AISC meant to be used for. I have spent quite a long time in a company developing such automotive systems, so it would be interesting for me to know for what purpose they want to use it.

[jonkka]

I'd like to know what is the AISC meant to be used for. I have spent quite a long time in a company developing such automotive systems, so it would be interesting for me to know for what purpose they want to use it.

FIA's own press release gives some more info:

Starting from 2022 the FIA Artificial Intelligence Safety Camera (AISC) will become mandatory in all Rally1 cars. This forward-facing in-car camera will continually scan the special stage and its direct surroundings, identifying the shapes and analysing the position of spectators in the environment, hence helping to supplement the work undertaken by the FIA Safety Delegate to address unsafe situations. The crew-facing High-Speed Camera (HSC) currently in use in all Priority 1 cars will no longer be mandatory but only recommended.

Source: https://www.fia.com/news/fia-announc...l-decisions-23