WRC Calendar 2023

[Steve Boyd]

nobody cares about australia and nobody ever will.

Until the marketing people from the manufacturers see that Australians buy 10 times as many cars as Greeks!

[NOT]

Until the marketing people from the manufacturers see that Australians buy 10 times as many cars as Greeks!

Acropolis rally has historical value which is far bigger value for a manufacturer to win it from a promotion of the brand.. like finalnd sweden monaco corsica ects... you are a 25million country... you can buy 10 cars each and still none will care... so trying to sell the car market point is retarded.

australia is an irrelevant country, nobody cares about australia or australians.

the only value australians have is entertainment value for your accent.... you are like zoo animals offering entertainment to the rest of the world, except i feel bad about zoo animals.

[J4MIE]

NOT I guess you had an Australian girlfriend in the past and it didn’t work out

I’m off to visit Australia in a few weeks and it’s a fabulous place, I wish I could live over there, much better than the UK. Unfortunately I’m a week late for the local rally and then leave when the Coffs Coast rally is on, so miss out as usual.

Who gives a crap about Greece as well, you give it enough put downs so why would anyone else like it?

[NickRG]

NOT I guess you had an Australian girlfriend in the past and it didn’t work out

I’m off to visit Australia in a few weeks and it’s a fabulous place, I wish I could live over there, much better than the UK. Unfortunately I’m a week late for the local rally and then leave when the Coffs Coast rally is on, so miss out as usual.

Who gives a crap about Greece as well, you give it enough put downs so why would anyone else like it?

Don’t pay attention to him, he’s being an a**hole, I’m Greek and I’d love Australia back in the calendar

[Sal yet again]

Finishing the championship in a dry (no alcohol) Muslim country it will be interesting how the WRC PR machine is going to polish that particular turd when it comes to talking up a "party to end all parties season ending finale" like they normally do. Its going to be a bit of a damp squib

[rallyfiend]

Finishing the championship in a dry (no alcohol) Muslim country it will be interesting how the WRC PR machine is going to polish that particular turd when it comes to talking up a "party to end all parties season ending finale" like they normally do. Its going to be a bit of a damp squib

All the top drivers seem to run to the airport / airfield and get on their jets as soon as possible on a Sunday anyway. Not sure it'll affect the party too much

[WRCStan]

party lol.

[flat_right]

Has this Sulayem boy done anything else to WRC apart from pushing his agenda for Saudi event? Haven't heard anything since 'WRC needs superstars, not just winners" and "Two and a half manufacturers in WRC is not enough". It's almost a year now since he became THE boss.

[philippebugalski]

Having events like NZ or Australia doesn't give any return for investment for the Manufacturers and for the WRC itself.
They are limited markets for the Manufacturers, the companies doesn't invest in funding neither drivers programmes nor the championship itself, and it's quite expensive travel to justify it at the Board meetings.

The difference with rallies like NZ/AU and Japan for example, it's just that. Japan brings you a Manufacturer and two global partners. I'm quite sure that Saudi Arabia will pay the bill to bring the teams for free down there and if the Promoter is smart enough, can get a global partner for the championship as well (like Aramco or their new brand "Sabic").

For 2024 I would ditch easily Croatia to bring back Catalunya and then Estonia in favour of the US-based event between Atlanta and Nashville.

Have to mention that having 3 events in about the same timezone would boost a lot the tv-rights sales in North and South America. This would bring a lot of visibility for the manufacturers as well and boost their stay in the series (plus it might attract new ones).

In the first part you are mentioning ''marketing/financial'' aspect but then you ''would easily ditch Croatia'' which was 2 years in a row most attended European event + probably most entertaining event in 2022 season.

2 years on calendar, 2 winners decided practicaly on the last corners of powerstage.
If you ask me Croatia is perfect in every aspect, geographical very accessible, it's completely different tarmac rally compared what we are used to in past years ( Monte, Spain, Belgium, Italy...)
Drivers are completely loving it, huge crowds on the stages, plus it is basically in the capital city which opens alot of other possibilities for fans.

Maybe I'm delusional because tarmac is my preference, but I've visited quite some tarmac rallies and this one is special.

[PLuto]

Has this Sulayem boy done anything else to WRC apart from pushing his agenda for Saudi event? Haven't heard anything since 'WRC needs superstars, not just winners" and "Two and a half manufacturers in WRC is not enough". It's almost a year now since he became THE boss.

Yes. He pushed for Central European Rally to be part of calendar...