[WRC] Rally Sweden 2024

[CeskyOndra]

Alongside pointscoring discussion - wasn´t it a very good rally Sweden? Good PR for snowrallies, weather, 360´s; you had it all. Also good coverage from RallyTV.

I enjoyed Rally Sweden a lot from my computer.

No big mistakes from Rally.TV, this season started really well in terms of entertainment.

[Jarek Z]

The question is if you want motorsport or a over the top show? In the past rallies were rarely a fight to the finish, cruising was normal, with five minute gaps like we had quite often in the past drivers usually knew it didn't make sense to push like mad. We just don't remember it because there was no All live/Rally TV. By the current logic of plenty of people around here rallying as a sport should have been killed off by 1977 or so.

Exactly. Look at this:
https://www.ewrc-results.com/final/1...te-carlo-1980/

Walter Roehrl wins and his competitors lose 10 or 20 minutes. Roehrl is cruising! Rallying as a sport is dead! It should be killed off! Where are power stage points?! Sunday points! New points system!!!

[wyler]

Exactly. Look at this:
https://www.ewrc-results.com/final/1...te-carlo-1980/

Walter Roehrl wins and his competitors lose 10 or 20 minutes. Roehrl is cruising! Rallying as a sport is dead! It should be killed off! Where are power stage points?! Sunday points! New points system!!!

i don't think the issue is sportwise. in 80ies a cruising car was still a good look. now is not (when extreme cruising)

[Jarek Z]

i don't think the issue is sportwise. in 80ies a cruising car was still a good look. now is not (when extreme cruising)

So by this comment you admit that it is not cruising or a points system that is the issue, but something else.

[WRC1]

i don't think the issue is sportwise. in 80ies a cruising car was still a good look. now is not (when extreme cruising)

i highly disagree!! cruising in the 80ies means someone had a lead of MINUTES and really cruised through the stages....cruising now means that Lappi for example looses 1sec/km to the Top Guys....and the normal Rallye Fan on the stage will not see a difference! a cruising Lappi is still faster than a 100% driving Rally2, so not that big difference!

[wyler]

i highly disagree!! cruising in the 80ies means someone had a lead of MINUTES and really cruised through the stages....cruising now means that Lappi for example looses 1sec/km to the Top Guys....and the normal Rallye Fan on the stage will not see a difference! a cruising Lappi is still faster than a 100% driving Rally2, so not that big difference!

nope. sunday cruising was definitely visible last year. this year idk, missed monte and will see live events later on...
anyway, my point was general, not on sweden. as i said, i've nothing against cruising if it's still enjoyable to watch, but that was not the case last year.

[wyler]

So by this comment you admit that it is not cruising or a points system that is the issue, but something else.

er...i admit what i think and say in all of my posts. i've nothing against the new point system (maybe i would prefer a less prominent sunday reward and a more overall related balance, but still, i don't mind it that much). i'm against some extreme exploitation of rules that penalize the whole rally complex (sporting and show together). no more!

[Eli]

If anything I wish the rally was longer and ended in the evening, have a proper 100-110 kms of stages on Sunday, seems a bit 'meh' to me, especially when you consider you only have a 5km stage on Thursday night. Really not looking forwards to Sardegna, can't wait for Kenya though!

[focus206]

that's very wrong. last time i saw a live wrc event (italy 2023) a lot, really a lot of fans on site just bypassed sunday morning, 'cause it was terrible. power stage aside, other stages were dull. i must admit i was very disappointed as well, going to see a wrc takes some effort, and that was really a waste of it. i don't blame the sporting side, drivers are sensible to cruise on sunday, but sideroad it was disappointing. it was almost the feeling of a stopped stage for many drivers. i remember something like sordo down 1 min in 10 km "tyre management". when you're out to see the only live action u can get in a year, it makes huge difference to the fan base.

EDIT: to be clear, what i mean is sunday cruise was so extreme to become a problem. it was extremely visible. i don't mind cruising when it is "normal" (losing 5-10-15 sec in a stage) sideroad looks like a fast car anyway, losing 1min made the car look wrong.

You are talking about fans who go watch the event live for the weekend, which are a fraction of the fans who are following the event remotely - and the first contact that a fan has with rallysport is almost always from far away, especially in this day and age. You usually won't go from barely knowing rallying to spectating a WRC event in the blink of an eye, there's lots inbetween.
New fans or fans that are not so passionate (yet) to go to a WRC event will instead rely on highlights (almost non-existant, which is a problem), free coverage to follow some stages and have an idea how WRC works (non-existant, which is a problem) and All-Live. And I guarantee they'll ask way more often "Why only 8 cars in the top class?" than "Why are drivers going slower in the last stages of the rally?", if they can even notice drivers going slower, that is.
Hence my point: you "solve" this Sunday cruising problem and you'll see little effect on the fanbase. More people stay on the stages on Sunday morning? That's not much at all.

[wyler]

You are talking about fans who go watch the event live for the weekend, which are a fraction of the fans who are following the event remotely - and the first contact that a fan has with rallysport is almost always from far away, especially in this day and age. You usually won't go from barely knowing rallying to spectating a WRC event in the blink of an eye, there's lots inbetween.
New fans or fans that are not so passionate (yet) to go to a WRC event will instead rely on highlights (almost non-existant, which is a problem), free coverage to follow some stages and have an idea how WRC works (non-existant, which is a problem) and All-Live. And I guarantee they'll ask way more often "Why only 8 cars in the top class?" than "Why are drivers going slower in the last stages of the rally?", if they can even notice drivers going slower, that is.
Hence my point: you "solve" this Sunday cruising problem and you'll see little effect on the fanbase. More people stay on the stages on Sunday morning? That's not much at all.

that's a bit mixed up. some things are true, others are totally unrelated.
true that most of casual fans occur from far away, but they are also fans with little to no interest in how points are collected. they are ok with a classification. regulation is on hard fans, that most likely follow roadside.
for new fans, official footage is getting ok, like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxlpMvWndh4. The same goes for how it works, there was some special content on official media, that was ok as an introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XQeec-c9k4 shakedown is free, so non-existent is a bit too harsh. You seem to underestimate the effect of having fans in the tv coverage. The best way to convince a show is good is to see people there. proves that the most engaging content from monte was people and fireworks on the tourniquets, way more than results. as u said correctly, new fans/general fans get in love with the atmosphere, best way to boost the feeling is to have real participation shown on tv. also, i don't have data from rallytv obviously, but thinking that there are similar fans on a loop of stages than on rally tv could be not so ridiculous. generic tv is another thing.