[WRC] Rally Italia Sardegna 2021

[AnttiL]

rallying used to be an exciting sport for drivers with big balls. nowadays they can't even swear anymore. the pussyfication of society tries to destroy everything.

I don't remember the greats like Mikkola, Röhrl, Vatanen, Kankkunen, Salonen, Auriol, Sainz, Loeb etc. showing their "big balls" through excessive swearing in interviews.

[AnttiL]

Regarding the Mads issue, while I'm surprised the FIA got involved, particularly to the extent they have, it isn't necessarily an incident without consequence for the sport. Personally it doesn't bother me at all, but from a UK regulatory point of view (sorry NOT, if you're out there!), if OFCOM (UK TV regulator) were aware of this being broadcast and were aware how often spearing was being broadcast pre-watershed (9pm) during WRC, they'd be fining BT Sport (UK WRC broadcaster) for repeated violations. Isolated incidents are fine, but OFCOM have been/are particularly bothered by repeated breaches of regulations where nothing is seen to be done to prevent a reoccurrence. An odd 's***' or 'f***' they'll get away with, but for some reason 'f***ing' is considered worse, and repetition seen as worse and avoidable by the broadcast for failing to intervene or cut away. A large part of why F1 went to delayed radio playout is because of OFCOM influence. Some context can be seen here for a far more minor incident in F1: https://motorsportbroadcasting.com/2...ttel-swearing/

While I absolutely don't want the sport having to bow down to UK TV regs, I'd imagine BT Sport is one of the higher paying rights holders to WRC, so the Promoter may have been warned by BT that they're putting them at risk of trouble/fine. The FIA probably acted on the Promoters behalf as they don't have a mechanism to do it themselves. Plus BT, as a big organisation, wouldn't want to be broadcasting that kind of language at that time of the morning regardless. UK rally fans are obviously a sensible bunch, as seemingly no one has complained about any of the swearing broadcast so OFCOM haven't been made aware. But I have to say this, I've NEVER heard anywhere near as much swearing on British TV pre watershed (9pm) as I have during the last couple of years on WRC live. It's literally an exceptional case.

EDIT: I should add, this was broadcast on BT Sport 3 rather than behind the 'red button' interactive service as it was a TV stage. While it may be a coincidence, the feed cut out a couple of times (which also wouldn't have pleased BT). After the Mads incident, when the feed dropped out, BT Sport didn't wait long for it to return and went to alternative programming instead.

Yes, this is an important point. For example movie ratings in the US allow you to use only once the F-word, otherwise it becomes Rated R.

[dimviii]

187 grams lighter dashboard at Mads c3

[AnttiL]

I think it's not drivers business to follow if it's a TV stage or not.. it's on AllLive anyway. As wrc+ is having troubles quite a lot with the live, tehn adding 10-20s delay wouldn't really change anything as livemaps works..

It does make a difference. All Live is shown only through the WRC+ service behind a paywall, they only have to be responsible to their users. But the TV stages are broadcast to various television channels, who are paying for the contract, and they might want to stop showing rallying at daytime or stop showing live broadcasts if swearing becomes frequent, and these are big sums of money.

[mknight]

Latvala - https://youtu.be/2ewRN8wWrVs?t=24

I am quite sure Latvala got a money penalty for that. The big difference there for promoter is that he is just angry not "blaming" tires (Michelin) or car.

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Anyway for my own part I don't care about their language.

But there are two things:
1. I sometimes watch with my son who is quite a bit below 10 years and speaks quite a bit of English. He didn't watch at this moment with Østberg but if he did I already know what he would ask. "What does f***** mean?"
"Don't watch with him" => less viewers (I go do something else with him), less future fans => less manus => less cars etc.

2. What sniper says and was mentioned before. TV channels get hefty fines for this kind of stuff if it is repeated. So they stop buying the broadcasts or move them to alternate channels => less promotion, less viewers => less manus => less cars.
"TV broadcasts are not important, fans watch on Alllive". This is wrong, TV broadcasts are important for getting new fans or hooking "semi-interested" fans. If you go for paying for allive you mostly already are hooked.

[dimviii]

lighter front subframe at Rossels c3

[AnttiL]

Anyway for my own part I don't care about their language.

But there are two things:
1. I sometimes watch with my son who is quite a bit below 10 years and speaks quite a bit of English. He didn't watch at this moment with Østberg but if he did I already know what he would ask. "What does f***** mean?"
"Don't watch with him" => less viewers (I go do something else with him), less future fans => less manus => less cars etc.

+1

I was also watching the power stage with my four year old who is starting to build interest in the sport. I wouldn't want my kid to hear one of the Finnish drivers pull out a similar interview as Mads did (luckily doesn't understand English yet)

[Franky]

Antti, all stages broadcasted are essentially TV stages by now. Just the "TV stages" have got more channels broadcasting.

[AnttiL]

I am quite sure Latvala got a money penalty for that. The big difference there for promoter is that he is just angry not "blaming" tires (Michelin) or car.

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No penalty for him in the stewards' decisions

http://www.rallyracc.com/2019/en/tablon.html

[mknight]

rallying used to be an exciting sport for drivers with big balls. nowadays they can't even swear anymore. the pussyfication of society tries to destroy everything.

So much this:

I don't remember the greats like Mikkola, Röhrl, Vatanen, Kankkunen, Salonen, Auriol, Sainz, Loeb etc. showing their "big balls" through excessive swearing in interviews.

In the past with all these (missing McRae and Gronholm deeply on the list) you very rarely had any swearing, the post 1995-ish generation also always got a mic right in the face at stop control.
Now when you see more swearing than before trying to limit it is "pussyfication" and "political correctness".

It's actually entirely the opposite. Proper characters can express their feelings without "cheap" words, sometimes much better. Takes control and wit to do that. Repeating a few swear words is something any simple person can do.
So if anything there is "dumbification" going on.