WRC2 news & rumors 2023

[mknight]

Since at least Estonia and Monza 2020 "everybody" in the rally world has seen Solberg can do quick stage times.

Since at least mid 2021 "everybody" has doubted his ability to transform stage times into results. This inability got him kicked from Hyundai

Claiming two years later that speed(= stage times ) is most important means you (purposely?) ignore last 2 years of his career. Funny that basically everyone commenting on the article on web and Twitter agrees yet here we always get a resident troll...

To be fair though, actually reading what Solberg says, he seems to be a bit more understanding of that himself (see last sentence). The article is mostly Dirtfish clickbait. I do hope team Solberg learned something about their approach in those two years.

Sweden and Portugal were great. Target for Finland has to be to make it to finish at around podium, instead of "showing" speed again and crashing 3rd year n a row.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Chris Ingram is planning to enter the new Central European Rally.

He hopes the new event with all drivers making new pace notes will make it a level playing field. The car/team isn't decided yet but it will be Toksport Fabia or a Polo R5 as he drove in Ypres.

[Corcaíoch]

It must be very dissappointing sometimes to be a WRC2 driver or sponsor. Its talked up as being a feeder series and a stepping stone to a Rally 1 drive but it hardly gets a look in with regards media coverage and exposure.
Take Finland for example we have the reigning champion Lindholm, former champion Mikkelsen, former Rally 1 drivers still trying to prove the deserve another chance Fourmaux, Greensmith, Solberg and local stars like Huttunen, Pajari, etc. Should be a very interesting battle in many ways. Also its fair to say Solberg has more of a profile / fan base than many Rally 1 drivers.
In spite of all this it hardly seems to get a mention in the rally build up. At least in the english language stuff I've seen. Don't think it was mentioned at all in the WRC+ preview magazine video, and the Dirtfish podcast didn't mention it at all either, if I remember correctly, not even a mention for Solberg who they rarely miss an opportunity to mention.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

There's lots of sports like this where only the top players / teams / leagues get the attention. It's the way of the world and always was.

In WRC the way to fix it is to make Rally2 the top class. Or the winner of WRC2 gets a guaranteed seat in a Rally1 car next season so more people will watch to see who that will be.

[wyler]

There's lots of sports like this where only the top players / teams / leagues get the attention. It's the way of the world and always was.

In WRC the way to fix it is to make Rally2 the top class. Or the winner of WRC2 gets a guaranteed seat in a Rally1 car next season so more people will watch to see who that will be.

no, it's not. will be the same as now, attention will be on the top spot cars/drivers, 99% of time will be manu's car.

fix is giving some exposure by fans/unofficial media. make blog post, fantasy rally, videos, articles, fan art dedicated to them. create demand for.

[Sulland]

Must say I have started to follow WRC2 more than WRC1, that have 8-9 cars in average. WRC1 have cars that in real life must be facinating to watch, but on pc or TV the speed difference btw RC1 and RC2 is not that great through the small screen.

In RC2 they are 30-50 cars fighting. Not the same crews are on top on all surfaces, so the competition is closer, and you will get a crew fighting in the top 10, sometimes higher.

RC3 is growing and getting better. i think they could get 1 more millimetre of air, to get them even a bit closer to RC2, if that will not kill the engine reliability of their engines.

If WRC1 class do not soon get a couple of new brands, it should be killed off, before it kills the rally sport.

[Jarek Z]

It must be very dissappointing sometimes to be a WRC2 driver or sponsor. Its talked up as being a feeder series and a stepping stone to a Rally 1 drive but it hardly gets a look in with regards media coverage and exposure.

Well, you are right, but it's worth to add that it was even worse a couple of years ago. There used to be no mention of WRC2 at all. Now they at least have some articles on WRC.com or Dirtfish and official event highlights on YouTube after each rally, like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV1FE7Y6HQE
so it's not perfect, but still much better than it used to be.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

no, it's not. will be the same as now, attention will be on the top spot cars/drivers, 99% of time will be manu's car.

fix is giving some exposure by fans/unofficial media. make blog post, fantasy rally, videos, articles, fan art dedicated to them. create demand for.

No, that's not a fix, that's a wish list that wont happen.

A fix is a change in Regs that will force more attention on all drivers in WRC2/Rally2 cars.

[wyler]

No, that's not a fix, that's a wish list that wont happen.

A fix is a change in Regs that will force more attention on all drivers in WRC2/Rally2 cars.

force attention by rules?
marketing/storytelling teaches the world that the juice is in the story, not in the content.
they could try to force more coverage, not. more attention

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Rich Miilener answered my question on WRC+ re a Puma Rally2 being in the pipeline.

He said they are looking at it, but it's not yet confirmed as they are still awaiting the future Regs as cars are generally getting bigger and this will need to be taken into account.

Does anyone know when the next Rally2 Regs will be decided?