Quote Originally Posted by Maui J. View Post
Seems like these regulations are still somewhat vague as we still haven't heard any firm confirmation about anyone making a WRC27 car, with the championship less than 18 months away. Normally we hear at least rumours about new entrants years in advance before they actually hit the stages. For those who have been here for awhile, do we all remember the 'village idiots' coming with that new car!!! I wonder how those village idiots are doing now? Oh, that's right, they are winning everything. Anyway, back on topic...

My main concern is will the compulsory 10 cars put tuners off? Totally fine for Toyota or even M-Sport, and I can see where the FIA is going with this, but for a small tuner this is a massive investment without necessarily being about to sell them to customer drivers.

I do think the FIA is doing the right thing by easing the homologation rules and inviting tuners into the mix. Hopefully we will see a new era of WRC as we are seeing a new era in WEC. Teams such as Glinkenhaus, Vanwell and Isotta Fraschini could almost be interpreted as tuners. They were there (unfortunately all withdrawn now) mixing with the established manufacturers like Toyota, Porsche, Ferrari, Peugeot etc in endurance racing which was great to see, but they didn't have to make 10 compulsory cars. Is this going to be the thorn in the side of these new regulations?
I just think that 10 years ago (wow I can't believe it's been 10) Toyota announced that they would join the WRC in 2017 for the new regulations and there was already speculation Kris Meeke would join them...now, it's August 2025 and no manufacturer even from the existing ones can say they'll be there for sure until 2029....yes for sure Covid didn't help, but you'd think that in 10 years...someone would say they're joining, I honestly hope these regulations help or the WRC will die out before the next 10 years.