Quote Originally Posted by AL14 View Post
Some news from a sardinian newspapaper:

1) The alternative location in the mainland is not ready yet and require another year. The Promoter do not want to wait and maybe Sardinia can host the rally one more year. Or in alternative Italy will lose the slot for just one year, or lose it forever.

2)Main candidates to take italian slot should be Canada and Japan

3) Also Poland is going to lose the slot because of safety reasons and less money from Lotos.

4) There is a possibility that events can be shortened in future, with shakedown on friday morning and the start of the rally in the afternoon to cut costs.
A lot of these 'issues' are down to the Promoter not doing their job; i;e actually promoting the sport.

If events are more visible, there is more chance of raising proper sponsorship, rather than the 'hand-outs' from regional/ tourist boards.

There is only 1 place that the Italian round of the WRC should be and that is Sanremo. Why this event can't even get a place on the ERC just baffles me; why can't they get any money, yet Sardinia can?

Poland I think is the 2nd oldest rally, and so has the history; sadly, they moved to gravel so they could get in the WRC - another bit of short sightedness from the FiA.

Finally, shortening events? Really?? Sorry, but the sport has been dumbed down enough.....no more! Sunday's are already a joke; either get rid of them or increase the mileage on the final day. I keep saying it but the WRC should be a mixture of event lengths; all being the same doesn't work. Some events need to be longer 3/4 full days; e;g Monte, RallyGB. Whereas some would suit a 2 day event.

Before long, we'll end up with 1 day events - basically WorldRX.....