Quote Originally Posted by ictus View Post
Marketing and brand creation reasons,
Why do you think Block had permanent 43, or Pastrana 199? And many others from Nascar or Supercross
I understand that it was marketing purpose. But rallying is different world than circuits. Also community is different. Block was using 43 everywhere, not only in rallysport. It was part of his marketing. Same like for example Valentino Rossi. But I dont think anyone else in WRC has marketing based on the starting number. In rallysport always the best drivers were with small numbers, on the top of entry list. It is quite strange if you look at the entry list and it is not starting with 1-2-3-4-5, but with 69-8-11-33. It is not logical for fans of rallysport and not logical for "normal" people. If they go to watch the stages and they see car 33, they would like to look into entry list and find, who is it (driver, codriver, car). As the numbers are not in numerical order, they need to look through and try to find it. And one thing which was logical for all - fans and also casual - number 1 was always reserved for current champion. Now it looks like there is no champion from previous year. Or it looks like he is not proud of being champion...