Thoroughly bizarre reaction to this on the forum. These guys are running multi-million pound WRC teams. Not charities. Like NOT says this is real life - not some idealistic alternate universe.

I said it before, if Citroen or whoever beat this VW then people will say "you beat a privateer, who cares". But if they lose the whole thing switches around and they give huge PR to a rival manufacturer who paid a fraction of what you did. They also have to explain to their bosses why they got beaten by a team they allowed in. They have nothing at all to gain from a private VW being in the championship, except in the eyes of a few hardcore rally fans.