Quote Originally Posted by itix View Post
I don't understand the promoter sometimes. Get off your lazy asses and do your jobs. It is logistically difficult? Well buuhuu for you...
Italy and France are two of the biggest nations for rally in europe with big, competetive and thriving national championships. They also have a lot of prominent and active rally media. Most of rally following comes from those two. Corsica is a classic and dare to do things differently. Sardegna has become a modern classic and can't be dropped from the schedule.

'Tis a massive shame that we can't extend the calendar (I assume team economy is the issue).

Australia is not my absolute favorite but I am against dropping that because it wouldn't be a world championship if we didn't go outside europe!
It is not logistics but the sheer cost of having a long haul tarmac event. The extra spares and gear needed would break the budget for many privateers in WRC2 or WRC3. They are already having to run two separate cars, one in Europe and one circling the globe without the need for a third tarmac car for a single event. WRC factory teams could possibly afford it but you do need more entries than them.

The only saving grace for a tarmac round in China could be a fast freight train, currently only 14-16 days (a third of the sea voyage) across Russia etc to China. Maybe the Chinese will help fund teams to transport their gear overland but I doubt it. By the way, BMW send engines this way to their Chinese factories.