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!