Rally Sweden 2023

[mknight]

You need to see a doctor.

I just wrote that Serderidis at MSport is better than Bertelli at Toyota. How that involves Mikkelsen is a mystery to me.

[ictus]

"there's too little rally1 cars on the stages"
"Bertelli an Toyora is wrong"
"wathing Serderidis drive th puma hurts my eyes"
you people are sick

[mknight]

"there's too little rally1 cars on the stages"
"Bertelli an Toyora is wrong"
"wathing Serderidis drive th puma hurts my eyes"
you people are sick

I don't remember a single person claiming these 3 things at the same time.

That people have opinions is normal on a discussion forum. Bundling opposite opinions in one post is....

[er88]

I struggle to find anything positive with Bertelli at Toyota.
Even Serderidis at MSport has a positive with supporting MSport so they have money for development.
Bertelli at the richest and now most dominant team is just wrong. Maybe for people at the stages it is good with extra Rally1.

It's one more rally1 car on the stages which is better than nothing.

If you had the money like Bertelli, why would you pay Msport for a puma when you can rent a potentially better (and much more reliable) car?! Reliability is massive for a privateer pay driver, and Msport/the puma keeps showing that it can barely get through a rally without annoying gremlins

[AnttiL]

For me, these gentleman drivers in Rally1 cars are not a positive thing. I mean, nothing wrong with realizing their dreams or just having a nice hobby, but the problem is they are shown on TV (instead of a WRC2 driver actually going for the class win) and it makes the sport appear ridiculous. Also, I'm sad for Bertelli taking his money to Toyota instead of M-Sport where it would be needed. I know that some people just want to see more top class cars, no matter how they are driven, but I cannot agree with that thinking. But we all have our opinions.

[rp]

It´s definitely a bad thing! Gentleman drivers should be after WRC2/WRC3 drivers, because they are not scoring Manufacturers points and in general slower than top WRC2 drivers. If they want to drive and use their money they can do it, but not show them in AllLive.

[mknight]

Precisely.

For a fan on that one single next rally it is good with extra Rally1. Personally when spectating I rather see two more lower class cars being driven on the limit, but here I agree opinions might differ.


In even slightly longer view they are purely negative. Just as AnttiL listed:

1. They take screen time and reduce the broadcasting value of the sport. 2nd and 3rd day they usually start first so you have significant part of the "show", that you pay for, showing rather poor driving.
2. More screentime for them, means less screentime for WRC2, which means you often miss the WRC2 competition and it also reduces the sponsor base for WRC2.

These two points can be fixed by simply moving them further down the fied, behind top seeded WRC2s.

3. (minor point), They take cars that someone competetive (at least Greensmith) could drive. This point is the smallest issue.


Note that when 2017 WRCs came there was some talk that only "certified" drivers should drive them cause they would be much faster and dangerous. I think it took only a few rallies before they stopped it. For comparison Loeb was denied F1 start even after posting good laptimes in training cause the did not have enough KMs in the car.

------------------------------
The point about Bertelli using money at Toyota should be obvious to everyone.

More money and data from running more cars to the best team => best team gets even better => boring competition and/or Hyundai/Ford(not MSport) leave.

[mknight]

If you had the money like Bertelli, why would you pay Msport for a puma when you can rent a potentially better (and much more reliable) car?! Reliability is massive for a privateer pay driver, and Msport/the puma keeps showing that it can barely get through a rally without annoying gremlins

No doubt for Bertelli himself it is the best and most logical choice.
But Bertelli enjoying himself is not of much interest for me.

[seb_sh]

If there were 20 Rally1 it would maybe be less noticeable. But a really bad "gentleman driver" does make the sport look bad. Especially when you start the broadcast with him. The clown commentators going on about how cool it is that you can do this in rally and no other sport. That kind of goes against WRC being top drivers and so on. I also agree with the points above about less airtime for WRC2.

But i think this is less a problem that needs to be tackled directly and more a symptom of the bad health of the WRC.

[J4MIE]

Surely all the snide comments need to be aimed at those who make the rules and decide on the coverage, rather than Bertelli…