[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

[RAS007]

Nowadays WRC rallies aren’t challenging enough at the eyes of common public. The 9 to 5 schedule and the clover leaf itinerary (implemented by the mandatory use of single service areas) made WRC boring and tasteless.

The adventurous side of rallying has been lost and surely the VW/RB final day shootout plan will make things even worse, simply because it’ll put WRC even further from its original spirit.

We don’t need to be 100% purist and get back the classic layouts, but somehow there should be ways to WRC become again a physically demanding challenge for drivers and machines with huge popular recognition.

Give that man a cigar.

[Doon]

Why not relax regulations and go back to the Group B format. 200 specials, keep 20 for yourself, and make a monster. This is far more appealing, and joe public will be scrapping for one of the remaining 180 cars on sale. They need to create a buzz, a sense of something special. (btw, I think they are special enough in their current form)

Someone will stay, 'but the manufacturers can't, because their cars need to appear eco friendly, small engines, low CO2 etc', but what about RX? They are getting away with it.... for now.

[Nornbugger]

Can we keep this in perspective? What I was refering to was an article attributed to a senior empoyee in a manufacturer's competition department who said WRC is too expensive and does not offer the rate of return on investment that the car manufacturer he works for expects. Peugeot had a massive publicity success rate on Pikes Peak 2013, and then Bruno Famin said the whole project cost less than a privateer spends on a wrc programme. In this article on maxrally he also said that rallyx gave them what they wanted. Face it WRC is in a crisis, we are nearing half way through year 2 if VW's guaranteed commitment of a three year programme. What next?

Peugeot did well with the Pikes Peak program, but only they or Audi could have got the same reaction to doing what they did, and now for Peugeot it wouldnt work the same to do it again this year so while what they say cost wise may be true it isnt really relevant

[Nornbugger]

I think the FIA, teams etc can make all the changes they like and the WRC will still never be a very popular sport. The masses want glamour, if Ogier was dating Jennifer Laurence, Neuville playing the field with supermodels, Hirvonen married to Cheryl Cole and Latvala seeing a bikini model, you can bet your bottom dollar that the WRC would become popular. Its sad, but in the late 90s and early 2000s driver salaries were higher and this created more buzz, more news coverage, and thus more followers. Example of this was McRae signing for Ford, loads of media attention, Focus tv adverts, more computer games etc etc. Apart from Loeb in France ive not seen a WRC driver promoting a branded product, for years.

Funny you should write this, several years ago I advised Meeke to date (any)one of the girls from Girls Aloud, it worked for several footballers and it would have made him 100% more marketable. I'm sure his wife is lovely, and she has a good motorsport pedigree which may bode well for their children if they are blessed with them, but she did nought to raise his profile.

[Nornbugger]

nothing of these points is true. the first one to add to my ignore list after the forum has been renewed.

Are you saying Doon has watched Dakar and didnt realise or forgot?

[Mirek]

Are you saying Doon has watched Dakar and didnt realise or forgot?

From 2012 official partner TVs of Dakar

EUROPE
Pan-Europe - Eurosport
CzechRepublic - Czech TV
Germany – N24, RTL, ZDF
Hungary - RTL Klub
Italy – RAI
Lithuania - Baltijos
Netherlands - RTL 7
Poland – TVN
Russia - RUSSIA 2
Spain - RTVE
Spain - Esport 3
Ukraine –1+1 &2+2

AMERICAS
Argentina - Canal 7
Brazil – Fox
Canada - RDS
Chile – TVN
Guatemala - Canal 7
Paraguay - Telefuturo
Peru– ATV& IRTP
USA – NBC

ASIA/AUSTRALIA
Australia - SBS
China - Hunan TV
Hong Kong - TVB
Japan - J Sports
New Zealand - Sky Sport

PAN-REGIONAL
Pain-Africa - Supersport
Pan-South America - Fox Sports
Pan-Asia - ESPN Star and Eurosport Asia
Pan-Europe - Eurosport
Pan Middle East - Al Jazeera Sport

Coverage on French TV

Live coverage every day* from 6:40 PM to 7:40 PM and also on sport.francetv.fr
Le Dakar
Hosted by Gérard Holtz, Luc Alphand et Elodie Gossuin

One hour of Live broadcast from the heart of the race with:
- comments from Jean-François Kerckaert from one of the official helicopters from the organisation to follow the end of the stage in the car category
- reports by Richard Coffin and Gaël Robic from the Bivouac

Dominique Le Glou proposera par ailleurs chaque jour dans cette émission son Carnet de route, avec des reportages en immersion au sein des pays traversés.

Live coverage every day* after the Tout le Sport show
Le Journal du Dakar
Hosted by Gérard Holtz et Luc Alphand

Every day* in the late evening (26 minutes)
Bivouac
Gérard Holtz and Luc Alphand meet the competitors in the bivouac and comment the best images of the day.

On Sundays 8th and 15th January
Stade 2
With special reports Live from Copiapo (Chile) and Lima (Peru).


In statistics

In almost 190 countries, a total of 70 channels will broadcast the race. Every day three TV helicopters with capture the images of the special stage and send them in a race against the clock. The 22 editing stations installed near the finish line will work relentlessly to guarantee a fast and efficient relay capacity. A total of seven hours of program content will be broadcasted daily.
1200 program content hours broadcasted in 5 continents.

[Juha_Koo]

Interesting discussions

In Finland, where all kinds of motorsports are rather popular, Dakar gets pretty much attention only when someone dies. No broadcasts, very seldom even mentioned in sports news. Only exposure is Nordic Eurosport through which they have Finnish commentator for Eurosport dakar broadcasts.

[makinen_fan]

Why not relax regulations and go back to the Group B format. 200 specials, keep 20 for yourself, and make a monster. This is far more appealing, and joe public will be scrapping for one of the remaining 180 cars on sale. They need to create a buzz, a sense of something special. (btw, I think they are special enough in their current form)

Someone will stay, 'but the manufacturers can't, because their cars need to appear eco friendly, small engines, low CO2 etc', but what about RX? They are getting away with it.... for now.

I tend to agree with this, but doesn't have to be 200 specials. Just introduce prototype cars, that will bring the wow factor to an average spectator and I am sure a lot of people will rush back to stages and the manufacturers will get the return for their money. There was nothing wrong with Gr.B apart from safety (today can be much better controlled and regulated as FIA learned a lot during the past 30 years) and crowd control that can also be controlled. Their demise was hugely for political reasons in favour of F1.

I talked to someone in Filmworks, the production company and it's the FIA limiting them from positioning the cameras where they want
stating that mounting it on the seat "ear" could cause it to go through the seat or coming loose and hurt them.

You would have to crash pretty bad for that to happen, mine even stuck on during Østberg's ski jump with the stock gopro 3m sticky mount...

Why not force at least manufacturer entries to use special homologated seats with decent installation mounts for cameras. I am sure they can do it if they want and it should be that costly. Anyway all new WRC cars do not use off the shelve seat as they used to in the past.

[Juha_Koo]

People are never happy, when the onboard cameras were behind the drivers, everybody complained how they can't see the road properly... "Seats take too much space in the view", "I don't want to see rollcage but road" etc etc.

I understand FIA's safety concern, I always thought it is because of it that we dont see seat-mounted cameras (although we have seen them in the past, e.g. check 2011 Hirvonen Mexico & Finland onboards (Mikko used "hard-surfaced" Recaro seat that season)).

And unlike stated above, making and using specially designed seats would become really expensive. There's no need to make new seats as everything is possible with existing stuff.

Just check out Torstein Eriksen's video of Østberg Portugal test. Awesome footage with GoPros, only lacking the intercom audio.

[Mirek]

This is camera position of Václav Pech used by Czech championship promoter Mediasport. In my opinion this is absolutely perfect: http://www.mediasport.cz/rally/onboardy/6191.html