2023 WRC News & Rumours

[the sniper]

I'm not sure how the short period of longer, more characterful rallies in the early/mid 2010s, seemingly pushed by Jean Todt, came to be deemed a failure and we ended up with the mindset they have now? To my mind it was part of the momentum the WRC built up around that time in terms of interest, along with VW and Hyundai joining, before launching into the 2017 WRCar era. We're now back to the mid 2000s, with formulaic convenient itineraries which give the impression of allowing the manufactures/promoter to just go through the motions of fulfilling their obligation to do another rally...

Obviously, the current formats are cheaper. But there comes a point when you prune the things so much that you have to ask, what have we got left and what is it worth?

I can honestly say my interest in the WRC has never been lower (since I began to follow it properly), I've barely even followed the results this year. It's not like I've lost interest in rallying, I'll have attended around a dozen national rallies here in the UK by the end of the year, but I just feel largely indifferent about the WRC lately, I can't even believe it or understand it myself really, as pre-2020 I imagine I'd have been considered one of the hardcore. Inevitably the loss of Rally GB has been a big factor too though, as following the WRC, everything led to attending that each year.