Thread: Future format of WRC events?
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29th May 2022, 10:38 #1
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Future format of WRC events?
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29th May 2022, 12:12 #2
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It's quite odd, when people are talking about visibility/popularity etc, rallying is always compared to Formula 1... Comparing rallying to F1 is like comparing cycling to football. Now everything seems centered about all live, but I really wonder how many (or few) people are watching it. I'm a big fan, have a subscription, but apart from the powerstages I've seen maybe 3 or 4 stages live on it, this year...
For the sport itself and the service-park vs remote service, I think it should be up to the organizers to decide their format. What works in Finland or Croatia does not necessarily work in Acropolis or Wales.
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29th May 2022, 12:56 #3
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Historic reference for the subject;
https://www.motorsportforums.com/sho...ghlight=future
In my book we need more difference in the WRC calendar, not only the sprint format they use today.
Listening to Michele Mouton on how it was in the past, with longer rallies that could have 40-60 different SS.
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29th May 2022, 15:27 #4
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There's not necessarily anything wrong with the events if the promoters responsibilities, commercial structure and regulations could be tweaked. To Adamo's points, I'd start there. Moreover, any change to events would be pointless without revolution here.
On the idea of 'Monzas' though, finish them with a single-venue Sunday rather than a power stage. Combine them with a World Rallysprint Championship on the Sunday. Co-drivers optional. Fly in your VIPs then. If travelling service parks make combining special stages and single-venues more feasible, do it.
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29th May 2022, 17:29 #5
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29th May 2022, 18:06 #6
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I'm not saying every round or the classics, and still have 2/3 days of special stages, just something different for one day. In fact it's traditional in GB to have a 'Stately homes day', I just put it at one place. Ypres '21 was pretty much it, Spa was just underutilised (Covid rules? Can't remember), Germany could use the Nurburgring or Baumholder maybe. Spain, circuit Catalunya. Monza doesn't work for me in December. Perhaps getting circuits can be tough but other single-venues could be available?
Should be a show, a spectacle. Get Rallycross on the same weekend even. Same promotor FFS. Get Walter Rohrl displaying the Audi, Neuville said it. MBS can get his stars doing the rallysprint... etc.
What is it you don't like?
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29th May 2022, 18:15 #7
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the way I replied was tongue-in-cheek, but I do think this is a load of rubbish. F1 doesn't need road shows every weekend to stay relevant and bring itself to the masses, and crucially those street shows aren't at all part of the competitive portion of the sport. Rallysprints and rallyshows have no place in the pinnacle of rallying for me: the sport is a spectacle in itself, it just needs better marketing! Nobody wants to see a rally sprint or a gymkhana show anymore. If they did, then World RX wouldn't be dead.
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29th May 2022, 20:06 #8
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This is part of my base case of a ground up reform. Super-Sundays are not a hill I'll die on by any means, was trying to stay relevant to the thread.
I think the conversation on how the sport is run, promoted, regulated, who for and who gets to make money out of it is the discussion to have, but perhaps it's been covered to death here and sometimes the only prominent answer is "they should do more free coverage", but I'd always enjoy that thread if it returned.
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29th May 2022, 21:15 #9
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I am philosophical about this. There is nothing in the nature of rally that lends it to doing the same thing as F1 (except in one crucial way they should absolutely imitate -- getting a very skillful documentary filmmaking team to document seasons behind the scenes a la Drive to Survive, which multiple non-motorsport-fan American friends and family of mine have repeatedly recommended to me, unprompted). Suggestions to build the sport by not doing the sport, or doing a different sport/event alongside it, seem like desperation. Desperation to achieve what? Parity with F1?
Why can't WRC be second fiddle to F1? Why does it always seem to urgently need so many more viewers, so much more visibility? The money, right. But then, is it a good idea in the first place to cost X millions to run a single car at the top level, so as to require a very high level of world market visibility to bring value the manu's that compete?
I don't know, if there was a lot less money in the sport I think I would still find it entertaining to see the best drivers in the world compete. If they were all driving slower cars, I'd be a little disappointed, sure, but driving skill does still show and HP by themselves are not so expensive. Others have said before, less tire and suspension and grip technologies and more HP also makes for a more spectacular driving style, if slower stage times. But oh no! That sounds like a regional backwater event.
What makes a WRC event special compared to a regional event? High level cars and high level drivers. In a regional event a rich gent can run a used WRC car competitively while the most talented driver in the event might be running a FWD. So WRC does need special visibility in media, from organizers, and from manu's and teams to try and find these good drivers and put them in the best cars to avoid that fate. Currently, this does happen in WRC to some extent - they do look for actually good drivers because it will win them rallies. Most of us would agree that current and past champions have not gotten there through luck of being the best funded guy (or on the best funded team, though you could argue that unequal teams do affect the championship a lot). If WRC maintains enough prestige so this system of talent scouting continued to exist, ensuring actual competition between actually skilled drivers, then I'd accept it never being F1.
If you are WRC and you "be yourself" - that is, don't chase money that requires you to try to change your sport into F1/rallycross/motogp etc., and if that means less money, regulate less money in the ways you can to still bring value to participants, it opens up opportunities in other ways. Format experimentation that keeps things still rally. Old timey nostalgics can suggest 5000 mile rallies that take 8 days or whatever. Corsica 8x 50km stages. All that stuff that feels more "pure" rally because it takes what makes rally special and increases it, rather than diminishing it.
And get people who know how to film this kind of thing not as sports coverage but as Film with a capital F. That's the biggest lesson to take from F1. Cinematic drama draws people to your live events/coverage.
Just some thoughts. The discussion always seems to be this desperate focus on being like the more successful motorsport when it can never be. Working with the differences as selling points seems like a better idea than pretending they don't exist.
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29th May 2022, 23:08 #10
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Great post but some points run contrary to a widely misunderstood fundamental. This championship serves WRC Promoter, not the other way round. That's a reality I consider when I posted.
I think we can all spot that things aren't great for the sport but not really see or agree why, which is why we have these discussions. It isn't because we all think it should be as big as F1. Don't think Adamo even made that point.
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