2024 WRC News & Rumours

[Andre Oliveira]

2024 The half World Championship. JOKE. FIA should be ashamed of that.

[Rallyper]

We need to have at least two thoughts in mind at the same time here, folks.

Kalle is one. Championship another.

[Andre Oliveira]

For championship is terrible.

[doubled1978]

It is a bit sad we will likely have only Evans/Katsuta, Neuville/Tanak and what, Fourmaux/Munster? Doing a full season next year. The reality of that is 3 guys really competing for the series.
The individual rallies should be mostly ok with the part time guys, but I do agree it’s not a great look for the series.

[seb_sh]

I think it's not so much about Kalle, he made his personal decision and I think for him it has more to do as he said with taking some personal time. I think he worked a lot behind the scenes and wants to take some pressure off. I remember during the pandemic when everyone was streaming sim racing I caught a couple streams of him practicing RBR. Sometimes he was alone but sometimes he had Jonne on the notes and they were doing it like a serious practice, not goofing around etc. That's the level of his dedication. He probably wants to have some fun, he's 23, when I was 23... well better that I not say :P

As for the championship I think there is A LOT of frustration about the current situation from everyone (fans, crews, teams etc) and this latest rally with the retirements and lack of interesting things and Kalle's announcement was a catalyst for everyone to say that opinion. I think everyone is right in some way but I don't see a quick solution, other than suddenly finding money to field 4 cars for each manufacturer on most rallies. I think the mistakes are in the past and there is a chain of "fixing the wrong things" and lack of vision. WRC has suffered from this for a long time, going back even since David Richards forced to go to 16 rallies and reduced to 2 car teams, and the cloverleaf format and so on. And since then they tried a few things but they are always a minute late and a dollar short. I think they fundamentally need to look at the "product" of rallying as a whole and how make it watchable and attractive without losing the essence. Right now it's mostly for hardcore fans. And it's not only the length of the rally either, the WEC is doing great when a few years ago it was almost dead. The tickets for the Le Mans race have just been put on sale and they are sold out already since 17th of November 2023 for the 24h race of June 2024!

[AndyRAC]

The WEC is doing great when a few years ago it was almost dead. The tickets for the Le Mans race have just been put on sale and they are sold out already since 17th of November 2023 for the 24h race of June 2024!

Sportscar racing has peaks, and troughs, and we accept that's how it is. We're in a great period at the moment. However, even during poor periods, they don't panic, and make drastic changes to be more popular. If those running the WRC ran Sportscar racing, they'd have made all races 2-3 hours, as 6 hours is too long for attention spans.

None of the other major motorsport series continually shoots itself in the foot making stupid 'short term' decisions.....and then wonder why they never work.

[rallyfiend]

Sportscar racing has peaks, and troughs, and we accept that's how it is. We're in a great period at the moment. However, even during poor periods, they don't panic, and make drastic changes to be more popular. If those running the WRC ran Sportscar racing, they'd have made all races 2-3 hours, as 6 hours is too long for attention spans.

None of the other major motorsport series continually shoots itself in the foot making stupid 'short term' decisions.....and then wonder why they never work.

But that's not at all true, though is it?

WEC is called Endurance but has events that range from 6 hours to 24 hours.

F1 and MotoGp have all introduced Sprint formats recently.

Formula E is full of gimmicks.

The new Dakar World Championship has a variety of lengths and formats that change from year to year.

[EstWRC]

Five GR Yaris Rally2s expected to start 2024 Rallye Monte-Carlo, Latvala reveals

https://www.wrc.com/a/news/w26999_Fi...Latvalareveals

[WRCStan]

I think the mistakes are in the past and there is a chain of "fixing the wrong things" and lack of vision. WRC has suffered from this for a long time, going back even since David Richards forced to go to 16 rallies and reduced to 2 car teams, and the cloverleaf format and so on.

Looks like 2024 will be more like pre-Richards than any since. How may drivers and teams were regularly doing 'full' seasons before? Can't blame him for everything.

[seb_sh]

Looks like 2024 will be more like pre-Richards than any since. How may drivers and teams were regularly doing 'full' seasons before? Can't blame him for everything.

Not for everything but he did a good job digging part of the whole. The decisions at the time were made to make money out of TV rights like F1. An yes there were plenty more drivers and especially stars. In fact that decision led to the WRC losing its brightest star. Even though he was maybe past his top going to 16 rallies reduced seats which meant McRae was out. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.