[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

[tommeke_B]

+1 N.O.T. For me personally this the way it's done now is perfect for spectating. In Sweden we went on thursday (skipped shakedown) to see the first stage in the evening, after the last stage we went to the airport and on monday we were back to work. In Sardinia we arrived on wednesday, but also got home on sunday night after the event. Going to events with a group of 4 (max 5) people (one car, one appartment/house or 2 hotel rooms) makes it easy for me to do something like 5 WRC events per year for a very affordable price. If we have to stay one day longer (pay one day more car rental, an extra day for staying, dining, and most of the times more expensive flight tickets on mondays) it means we can do at least one event less for the same amount of holidays/money.

I would like the idea of a "full" sunday, but then the WRC needs to throw away the system of the powerstage and the system of Rally2. If every leg is equally long they could make seperate day-classifications and reward those with points (let's say 5-4-3-2-1). It's good give the previously retired drivers something to fight for as well, without being between slower drivers in overall classifications. After all if you are retired you don't belong in overall classifications anymore. Same could be applied in WRC2/3/JWRC.

[Lundefaret]

What would You guys think about cutting the event down to two days?

Ex friday and saturday (so to not compete with F1), or saturday and sunday?

Ex it could start at 12 the first day, and be driven to midnight (reintroducing the endurance spectacle whitin a short time period, and reintroduce night time driving on every event), and finish on the second day with a live stage.

Could this be something?

[6789]

What would You guys think about cutting the event down to two days?

Ex friday and saturday (so to not compete with F1), or saturday and sunday?

Ex it could start at 12 the first day, and be driven to midnight (reintroducing the endurance spectacle whitin a short time period, and reintroduce night time driving on every event), and finish on the second day with a live stage.

Could this be something?

Finland tried similar in 2010. They've moved back to 3 days now. Not sure exactly why though.

[Mirek]

What would You guys think about cutting the event down to two days?

Ex friday and saturday (so to not compete with F1), or saturday and sunday?

Ex it could start at 12 the first day, and be driven to midnight (reintroducing the endurance spectacle whitin a short time period, and reintroduce night time driving on every event), and finish on the second day with a live stage.

Could this be something?

Making the event shorter goes directly against the interest of local economy. You can't look on WRC only from the perspective of the teams and spectators. The other point of view from the side of local hotels, restaurants, shops etc. is also important as the WRC event is a big touristic attraction. Usually the local governments support WRC events by a reasonable amount of money and they want to see it is an investment worth spending. It's all connected and there must be a balance between both sides of the coin - the event must be profitable for local economy and in the same time must not be too expensive for the teams and spectators to come.

[AL14]

+1 N.O.T. For me personally this the way it's done now is perfect for spectating. In Sweden we went on thursday (skipped shakedown) to see the first stage in the evening, after the last stage we went to the airport and on monday we were back to work. In Sardinia we arrived on wednesday, but also got home on sunday night after the event. Going to events with a group of 4 (max 5) people (one car, one appartment/house or 2 hotel rooms) makes it easy for me to do something like 5 WRC events per year for a very affordable price. If we have to stay one day longer (pay one day more car rental, an extra day for staying, dining, and most of the times more expensive flight tickets on mondays) it means we can do at least one event less for the same amount of holidays/money.

I would like the idea of a "full" sunday, but then the WRC needs to throw away the system of the powerstage and the system of Rally2. If every leg is equally long they could make seperate day-classifications and reward those with points (let's say 5-4-3-2-1). It's good give the previously retired drivers something to fight for as well, without being between slower drivers in overall classifications. After all if you are retired you don't belong in overall classifications anymore. Same could be applied in WRC2/3/JWRC.

I agree with you, it's good also for spectators. I just don't like the day-classifications, it makes just things more complicated in my opinion.

[Gregor-y]

WRCs format is fine, an endurance event (just one) like safari would be nice of course but apart from that if you increase the Kms you will end up with huge differences in a couple of stages and then cruising for the rest of the event like in the 80s were women could win events.

I hold out hope you meant to say 'Audis.'

[AL14]

Bertelli's saga continues http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/119553

[N.O.T]

Bertelli's saga continues http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/119553

if they had just banned women from the WRC none of this would have happened... now its just useless blah blah for the media.

[CWJ]

to be
World Rally Championship Commission president
and pray
http://www.fia.com/fia-action-road-safety
you can't talk like this against drivers...

[makinen_fan]

+1 N.O.T. For me personally this the way it's done now is perfect for spectating. In Sweden we went on thursday (skipped shakedown) to see the first stage in the evening, after the last stage we went to the airport and on monday we were back to work. In Sardinia we arrived on wednesday, but also got home on sunday night after the event. Going to events with a group of 4 (max 5) people (one car, one appartment/house or 2 hotel rooms) makes it easy for me to do something like 5 WRC events per year for a very affordable price. If we have to stay one day longer (pay one day more car rental, an extra day for staying, dining, and most of the times more expensive flight tickets on mondays) it means we can do at least one event less for the same amount of holidays/money.

I would like the idea of a "full" sunday, but then the WRC needs to throw away the system of the powerstage and the system of Rally2. If every leg is equally long they could make seperate day-classifications and reward those with points (let's say 5-4-3-2-1). It's good give the previously retired drivers something to fight for as well, without being between slower drivers in overall classifications. After all if you are retired you don't belong in overall classifications anymore. Same could be applied in WRC2/3/JWRC.

Actually, what you say makes perfect sense if you visit lots of events, like yourself and a few other people. I wish I was able to do that, and I dont care if the events were even just 2 days. But if you visit just one WRC event a year, you would expect to have a much fuller experience without the huge anti-climax of the Sunday as it is at the moment. They introduced the power stage to spice up the Sundays, but I think it makes it made it worse.

Actually, my original comment was referring to following the events from home - anyway the whole concept was introduced so that the live TV is at the same time for every rally. I just feel the timing is not great, everything is so rushed on Sunday. The majority of peoples around the world are free at home on Sundays to follow their favourite sport on internet/TV. And by midday everything is over. But maybe no TV is interested to show it live in the afternoon, when more popular sports are shown on TV.