[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

[Eli]

http://www.rallye-magazin.de/rallyes...abt/index.html
and Brazil and China again being postponed

[focus206]

http://www.rallye-magazin.de/rallyes...ter/index.html

Translated with Google:
"I see myself as a hardcore rally fan and we do not want any of them lose," Capito said. "But I think that the hardcore fans have to be a little more open and interested should be in mind that more people excited about the sport. If the public's interest increases, then also increases the interest of manufacturers in this sport because they see that they can sell on the World Rally Championship their cars. If so are there more producers, it's also better for the hardcore fans because they see more cars and drivers. "

Go home, Jost...

[RAS007]

Go home, Jost...

+1

I wish Capito would just fuck off.

[PLuto]

I dont know if Capito is really so stupid or he is trying to show how big boss he is and what else he can say/do...

[Lundefaret]

If You believe that one of the worlds largest car manufacturers, when choosing a person to run one of its bigget and most important marketing and branding campaigns, hires a person that is "stupid" , then I think You are wrong.

I think that to call Jost Capito stupid would miss the mark by a huge margin.

There are probably a lot of people on this forum that know the details of his exploits a lot better than I do, and talked to him more often than I have (I have met him only once), but if You look at his track record You cant be anything but impressed of what he has achieved. This both in motorsports, but also in regular car manufacture, as the boss of Fords ST- and RS-products. It was Capito - and his team - that developed Ford ST, and RS to strong performance brands in the modern world (yes, I know that RS carries a heritatge.)

When talks are made about changes to the WRC, You also must remember where Jost Capito is coming from. He has to defend Volkswagens spending with how much media attantion and brand building this offers, against other activities they could spend their marketing budget on. If he cant defend or deliver Return On Investment, Volkswagen is out of WRC by morning.

The fact that there are curently so few manufacturers in the WRC, is a testament to how most manufacturers rate the value of competing in the championship.
If the sport of WRC should be a sport taath attracts manufacturers with big budgets, wich then again ables drivers, engineers etc to live of this sport, the marketing and branding return must be improved.

Jost Capito is a very strong ambassador for the WRC, both towards the board at Volkswagen, and towards the media etc. Its in his best interest that this sport grows as popular as possible. He has showed earlier with different projects that he knows a thing or two about marketing/brand building etc, so I think it is a bit ignorant to rule him out before he is even given a chance.

If Jost Capito reaches his aim of improving the broadcatsing, media coverage, brand value etc, we all win. This is because this will then attract more manufacturers, they will need more drivers, more mechanics, engineers etc, and this in turn will make our whole sport bigger.

If the shootout that is not a shootout is put in effect, I my self do not know if this will work or not, but I do know that big changes has to be made to the promoting of the sport to make it more attractive for more manufacturers. The WRC has had a steady decline in popularity, and I think that a change has got to come, and that we should dare to try different things in the hope of finding the magic ingredient.
I think changes like this would affect how we has hard core rally nerds view the sport only a small extent.

[dimviii]

When talks are made about changes to the WRC, You also must remember where Jost Capito is coming from. He has to defend Volkswagens spending with how much media attantion and brand building this offers, against other activities they could spend their marketing budget on. If he cant defend or deliver Return On Investment, Volkswagen is out of WRC by morning.

thats your answer Pluto.

but if he knows the right way to show,or he will destroy wrc, it is another talk.

[PLuto]

Yes, nice words from Ludefaret. I have never talked with Capito, but I am following him lot of years. He has made a big success at Ford, for sure. But all the time he is fighting only about HIS interest. And interest of HIS employee. For him (and it looks like also lot of other people at the top position) is not important success or rallysport or bright view to the future of this sport, they are interested mainly about their money. And that is the biggest problem, that is why rallysport is where it is...

[AndyRAC]

VW are no different to any other Manufacturer; they want a Return on Investment. And the best way to achieve this through the various media; not just TV. Just what type of coverage are they expecting? All non F1 series would like more coverage; and there is a battle between them all to be 2nd after F1. At the moment the series which seems to be attracting more Manufacturers is the WEC - yet doesn't have great TV deals; MotorsTV and Eurosport...niche channels. So, what are the WRC manufacturers wanting?

I can't think of many sports which have changed so much over the years as the WRC - and yet still they meddle. F1 is still 1h30-45mins, Sportscars still has 6, 12, 24 hour races; yet the WRC gas chopped the mileage and number of days dramatically - and they're still not happy. What happens if this 'shoot out' doesn't work? What is the next hare brained scheme?

With the the route for RallyGB announced yesterday - compare an old RAC Rally to RallyGB; and that tells you everything about the modern WRC. Just 212 stage miles, with 25 miles on the final day. It's just another gravel Rally - I know we can't go back; but we surely can have a happy medium on some events? It appears not.

I still don't think there's a better sight in Motorsport than a Rallycar full chat in the gloom, brakes still glowing, spotlights lighting up the sky/ forest.....

But the WRC is slowly losing its attraction for me, sadly.

[PLuto]

I agree with AndyRAC. Most of decisions during last year are not helping the rallysport, they are killing it. They want to bring new spectators to this sport, but they are doing it bad way, which is not interesting for them. And what is worse, they are loosing the old spectators...

[makinen_fan]

First of all they have to change the promoter all together, the guys have no clue how to produce a nice and interesting show.
If I was a viewer unfamiliar with WRC and browsing the TV channels and bump onto a WRC shows, there was no way I was going to like what I see. Their program is totally boring and lacks any true excitement (plenty of fake excitement by commentators...) to attract new spectators. Even I find it hard to watch the sport I love...
I cant see how all these changes will make something magically click together and attract new spectators.