[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

[macebig]

Citroen hang on Loeb for too long.Had they heard Quesnel and support Ogier for 2012 and gave Neuville the 4 rallies that they instead chose to spend on a pointless partial campaign for Loeb in 2013 they would still be conquering WRC.I dont think anyone here believes that an Ogier-Neuville pairing would nt be heavily favored against anything that came on their way.Probably the only youngster that can be close to WR material is Bergkvist.He is very much available and they should give him a year in a R5 car and see how he goes.

[PLuto]

Citroen hang on Loeb for too long.Had they heard Quesnel and support Ogier for 2012 and gave Neuville the 4 rallies that they instead chose to spend on a pointless partial campaign for Loeb in 2013 they would still be conquering WRC.I dont think anyone here believes that an Ogier-Neuville pairing would nt be heavily favored against anything that came on their way.Probably the only youngster that can be close to WR material is Bergkvist.He is very much available and they should give him a year in a R5 car and see how he goes.

Citroen had two choices - support once again french hero Loeb for another year (which was almost sure there will be another title) or give a chance young guns (fast, but still not champions)...

[macebig]

Yes,thats what I wrote.Hindsight is 20/20 but they made the wrong choice(win 1 championship and lose 3 and counting...)

[Rally Power]

I have read C3 many times instead of the DS3 for 2017. It would make sense now with DS' "total" split from Citroën.

The new C3 is due to be released in earlier 2016. It may look even worse than the current one...

http://www.largus.fr/images/images/n...3-iii-2016.jpg

Hope they're going for the new C4, but the calendar may not help.

[Andre Oliveira]

Should C3. Cars of same segment.

[Eli]

The new C3 is due to be released in earlier 2016. It may look even worse than the current one...

http://www.largus.fr/images/images/n...3-iii-2016.jpg

Hope they're going for the new C4, but the calendar may not help.

yeah hard to see how that's C3 gonna kick the Polo's ass...

[Andre Oliveira]

The difference is driver / mechanic... What the hell beauttie means on motorsport performance?

[GigiGalliNo1]

Loeb has left Citroen for good and gone to Peugeot. They won't bring him back again.... or will they?

[rallyace]

The C3 could end up being quite good, actually. I can see the 2017 specifications helping a lot regarding its appearance (even though this obviously has no impact on its performance, yet people are still voicing their concerns about its appeal, which I partially agree with), as making the car wider and more aggressive could make it fascinating to behold.

Also, the C3 chassis could be a lot better for a WRC car than the C4. Just a thought.

[rallyace]

I was giving this some thought the other day and I came to the conclusion that the WRC+ service should be free to all. Rallying, as we all know, is struggling for exposure and is facing more and more competition from other televised/ web broadcast motorsport. Making WRC+ free would surely increase interest and viewing figures, giving the manufacturers and sponsors more of what they are in the sport for in the first place.
The WRC really should be doing everything is possibly can to attract as much interest as possible.

This might be a bit of an optimistic and over-idealistic way of seeing the service. I would agree that rallying would likely attract more people if WRC+ were a free service, but the consequences of it being free would be hard not to spot. I can see both positives and negatives coming from this.

First of all there would be advertising during live stages (and probably highlight shows as well). This would be the only realistic way of WRC Promoter earning some cash while they're at it. Also, when you and I pay 39.99 € annually (which isn't much) for our subscription, we're contributing to WRC Promoter to make the service better. This allows for more cameras, more renowned colour commentators (Luis Moya, Craig Breen etc.) and better equipment in general. We help fund these broadcasts through our annual payment.

I do however agree to quite an extent with what you're writing. I just propose a different way of doing it. It's quite baffling to me that you cannot test WRC+ for an extended period of time before purchasing it. The best WRC Promoter has offered all season is "Try one month for 1 € if you sign up for our newsletter". Despite 1 € not being much, it's still hardly a bargain as just one month isn't a long time. You only have about one rally to make up your mind.

The first full year should be free to all. Full stop. Also, they should target new fans of the sport. Why not give schools and other institutions codes to pass onto their students? This could be sort of a "save 50-75% on your subscription for as long as you're in school". This would not only bring in more young fans (and seeing that your friends are enjoying rallying could make you jump on board as well) and let's face it, the youth is the future of the sport. Let's get kids interested in rallying - and schools being able to offer big savings on a subscription (or perhaps even being able to make it free for their students) would be a massive boost to WRC+ as well as our sport in general. This would also (hopefully) secure these fans for the future, where they'd be paying subscribers for a long, long time after they've finished school.