The new FIA WRC-car concept 2017

[itix]

I also agree that the schedule is stupid...

I know Mads Østberg does not agree with me, but he can say what he wants... He is the complaining type anyway.

Night stages need to return... They did a few seasons ago and then disappeared again, what the hell happened there?

The promoter absolutely need to stop being so damn lazy. It is laughable how little of the current spectacle that gets translated to the TV.

Rallying is unique in the sense that it is not done on a boring track in a populated area where there is potential for the local bored people to walk down to the track and watch something go in circles for two hours. Rallying lives on visiting fantastic locations... That stage they do on top of the volcano in Azores is a perfect example. My desktop background on my work station is a very sideways Craig Breen followed by a helicopter on that stage with a massive drop on either side. I don't care that the logistics is difficult. The modern age with camera drones and phones that shoot better quality video than professional camera equipment from 5 years ago should mean that you don't have to ship 15 helicopters out to an island anymore.

... And since Rallying is such an effort to follow live the promoter really need to do a better effort to get the sport out. You have people paying ridiculous prices to go see formula fancy because ultimately people are lazy and he effort is almost nonexistent. Going many kms between stages to spectate, having to climb mountains and walk through bushes and stuff is an effort most are not willing to do in a day and age when a drivers license is becoming rarer and the population are urbanised.

I don't believe in mega lengthy events... There is the Rally raid series for that (and I don't see much of that so it can't be very easy to promote). People these days have a short attention span, which is why formula boring is doing so well. Those who watch it casually watch the Sunday race, the nerds follow all three days of action.

I think the calendar needs more versatility. Either scrap the Sunday as described above so that we don't interfere with F1, or use the full length of the Sunday and scrap the Friday. Also again, where are the night stages? The drivers need rest, sure but extend the rally into the night and given them more sleep in the mornings at least on one of the days... There can be a service Park party the other day. Nobody likes to party two days in a row anyway.

[stefanvv]

There was night stage at Monte this year and it was live, it was great. Difficult to make it happen broadcasted as most of the time is the complain, but they did it, so probably they're lazy indeed. At least they should do some effort we can watch live onboards on wrc+, in that case I wouldn't miss TV broadcast much.

[AL14]

Live onboards would ruin our lifes. Imagine yourself on sunday afternoon after there days in a row watching a screen all the time, your girlfriend would take an other man that weekend and you will take a whole week to go back to the real world.

[Jack4688`]

There was night stage at Monte this year and it was live, it was great. Difficult to make it happen broadcasted as most of the time is the complain, but they did it, so probably they're lazy indeed. At least they should do some effort we can watch live onboards on wrc+, in that case I wouldn't miss TV broadcast much.

I didn't like it at all. It was almost all helicopter shots, which I am not a fan of, and being in the dark that made you able to see even less. Then there's the perennial problem with the onboards - all I saw was some snow lit up by a headlamp pod, not the driver wrestling with the controls. I remember seeing coverage on youtube of Monte 1991 or '92, something like that, and the opening stage was at night, but because they found a couple spots to take some road-side footage from it was pretty good to see. OK it was only a few minutes of the hour-long round up of the whole rally not an hour's live coverage. I'll stop now as this is massively off topic!

[EightGear]

The event highlights are poor as well. I tried watching the 52 minutes programme today... So much bullsh*tting around, way too many slow-mo shots and barely any interesting stage-side shots.

But most of all: it doens't tell the story of the rally! They just seem to pick some random drivers and tell a bit about them. It may be interesting for the casual viewer, but not for someone who wants to know what has been going on. And I personally can't stand Jon Desborough commentating, but that may well be just me.

[Eli]

. And I personally can't stand Jon Deborough commentating, but that may well be just me.

not just you

[Lundefaret]

A lot of good comments here, and many of them revolve around the same: WRC has lost its "story-line."

The promotors dont tell "The Story", the cars are not "Story-worthy", and there are very few "Storytelling" profiles in the sport. (I hope by God that we dont loose Kris Meeke).

Rohrl in Arganil, the Audi story, Monte Carlos night stages, 2WD vs 4WD in the Kit Car/WRC era, sweat and toil, and so on and so on. The Story needs to be worth telling.

The Cars, The Rallies, The Drivers, The Teams etc etc, the need to represent stopries worth telling.

[AL14]

A lot of good comments here, and many of them revolve around the same: WRC has lost its "story-line."

The promotors dont tell "The Story", the cars are not "Story-worthy", and there are very few "Storytelling" profiles in the sport. (I hope by God that we dont loose Kris Meeke).

Rohrl in Arganil, the Audi story, Monte Carlos night stages, 2WD vs 4WD in the Kit Car/WRC era, sweat and toil, and so on and so on. The Story needs to be worth telling.

The Cars, The Rallies, The Drivers, The Teams etc etc, the need to represent stopries worth telling.

I totally agree with you with the concept of story. Or better with the one of storytelling. We should have a thread about it here because it is a very very important topic so thank you to have introduced it. I think rally's stories (please note, I didn't use the word "history") are the most powerful weapons and opportunities for the sport. They are strong, passionate but especially unique. As you said, the rallys, the cars, the drivers, the teams, and each weekend carry a lot of them and people all over the world would love them.

Said that, stories have a beginning and an end, they evolve, they change. We must take this into consideration too.

[janvanvurpa]

As I see this there are two different wishes for the future of the rally sport that meets.

One camp see that the manufacurer and promotor influence, that has gotten it as they want it with FIA in the latter years.
This goes both on cars and on format of rallies.

The others would like more freedom. Both on cars and difference of the rallies.

Rally has traditionally been the maverick of motorsport. Happening in the coutryside, either in a dark forrest on gravel or snow, or a narrow asphalt road. Cars have been made in garages, or by small teams.
FIA was all about racing, mostly F1. Bernie turned that into a money machine.

Then someone saw possibilities of doing the same thing with rally, but lost some of the magic in the process. It has become too industrial and streamlined.

How can we shape the future so both camps will be satisfied?

Then somebody saw the money one English megalomaniac was making by securing the world wide media rights---and decided he could do the same....."package it for TV" when he just happened to have secured the world wide "media rights"

And its been further and further and further away from the mass appeal since..
What was his name? Oh! Rave Dichards or sumpin? Once co-drove with a great man I think..

Central to almost all rally's at all levels problems I believe is one thing: TV.
It is the problem.
Even the tiny little 16 car rallys we have here in poor little America are full of guys in Blue Subarus all pontificating on the NECESSITY of TV coverage for their rally "career'....
It is imagine to be the cure--TV's implicit endless money---for everything.

And all the twitter and the dreadful Facebook crap is just a version of the same basic same thing as TV: it is a PASSIVE and "effortless" thing....

And that is what TV wants: passive consumers who evidently will leap up and run out and buy stupid baseball hats with Red Boule and grab "energy drinks" to sustain them long enough for the grueling 15 minute ride to the car dealer to buy a new shiny something that they just saw some weird thing with the same badge doing amazing things on the TV...

And perhaps they're right those that advocate the full 100% passive consumer vision of what rally "means" and if you believe that the consumers can only be "bought" by watching 4-6 guys in half million dollar cars, then a lot of money must come from somewhere...

But it isn't working---just like in USA, a country of 315 million people, the promote the hell out of 1-2 guys ---neither of which could win a Regional event in Sweden, much less a F-cup event in Finland---has failed to draw any interest ---and entries and events continue to fall off a cliff.

Folk har slarvat bort tänken på grunden i jakt efter pengar.

Grunden, or foundation or the base whatever.. That either gone or ignored...


Maybe we are all just supposed to be brainless couch-tomatoes (as my little girls say) and have pavlovian knee jerks responses to whatever is streamed to us and explained to us "this is exciting".

[Jack4688`]

The event highlights are poor as well. I tried watching the 52 minutes programme today... So much bullsh*tting around, way too many slow-mo shots and barely any interesting stage-side shots.

But most of all: it doens't tell the story of the rally! They just seem to pick some random drivers and tell a bit about them. It may be interesting for the casual viewer, but not for someone who wants to know what has been going on. And I personally can't stand Jon Deborough commentating, but that may well be just me.

Yeah he is a pillock. Just as bad as when we have to put up with Carlton Kirby on the British feed of Eurosport's ERC coverage. They both have verbal diarrhoea that their brains tells them is better than a few seconds of silence against whatever nice backdrop of the local landscape is being shown on screen. Desborough's worse though because he thinks he's a comedian.