Quote Originally Posted by cosmicpanda
Ideally, splits would be banned to cars, and teams would make a gentlemen's agreement not to indicate splits to their drivers on the stages.

Splits allow the top drivers, when they're not first on the road, to control the pace of the rally too well. This discourages them from pushing and is boring because instead of setting up final-day fights (unless you're Loeb and in Finland), it benefits the driver in front and allows them to use their running position to maintain a lead over the rest of the field.
That is a noble gesture but the gentlemens' agreement would not last, especially when a possible championship win is at hand. If it not written in the rules or regulations, then someone will eventually do it. In fact, everybody does.

Before the current rules were brought in, the rally was virtually over by Saturday afternoon with Sunday almost not worth bothering about. Yet despite the current fun and games seen on a Friday this year, we have seen some very close and unpredictable finishes on the Sunday including the closest ever finish in WRC history.

Various methods have been tried in the past and not one of them is free from criticism. They all end up being flawed in some way because of the need of the teams to make the most of the situation. There is no perfect remedy for this.