2005 WRC changes

[Bogan]

I know they're about as relevant to us as changes in the ANDRA Top Fuel regs, but this is from wrc.com:

Following a highly productive meeting of the World Rally Championship Commission in London recently, the FIA – motorsport's governing body – has hinted that fundamental and sweeping changes could be made to the 2005 World Rally Championship. Any changes introduced would be designed entirely to reduce the cost of competing and improve the 'show' for spectators and television viewers.

Some of the changes said to be under consideration are the introduction of the 'Superally' system used in the Asia-Pacific and Australian Rally Championships, which awards world championship points after each day. Cars that have retired on a given day will be permitted to rejoin for the following day's stages.

Restrictions on the number of tyres used by crews have also been proposed. Factory teams may be forced to use a control tyre from 2005. Other technical restrictions are on the table in a bid to make the current generation of World Rally Cars cheaper to design, build and maintain.

The Mille Pistes system of practising for an event, which has come under scrutiny in the run-up to its introduction for 2004, is thought to now be out of favour with the FIA. Event organisers may be allowed a waiver for their 2004 events before a full-scale return in 2005 to the more conventional format of practising the day before an event begins.

Finally, the world rally championship calendar may be finalised up to three years in advance to avoid any clashes with Formula 1 grands prix, something that is guaranteed for 2004 thanks to date re-jigging before Christmas.

The World Council's next meeting is on March 24th, when further plans will be discussed and possibly rubber-stamped.

Any comments? Good, bad, indifferent? It's interesting that they're thinking of adopting something which we use here. Recognition of something, even if it's not something good, is still recognition.

T.

[Bogan]

Do you think the Super Series format places less importance on reliability? Cars won't have to be built to survive back to service because they know they can go and tow them out of the bush and still score points the next day?

T.

[rowdytoot]

I think it's yet another instance of the FIA having no clue about rallying.

1st they introduce the driver rule and kill off Golin needlessly. bad move, at least he was always exciting... weeeee... crrrraaasshh..

2nd they introduce the pistes idiots system.. guaranteed less action for fans,more logistical hassles for organisers etc. At least they appear to realise it was a dumb thing.. They could have asked anyone on this forum and been told that before they even bothered approving it.

and finally after this brain fart, they may as well rename it the World Rallysprint Championship, and be done with it as they should really do with the ARC. It's boring....it doesn't hold my interest.

WRC is meant to the pinnacle of the sport. So down with control tyres, down with the common components. Whats next?? everone rallies a reshelled 307 chassis Aussie Legends style??

You won't see F1 moving to 3x 100 km races in a weekend, with a reverse grid race in the middle, and points per race or some wacky thing. so why they are intent on screwing with something that is an open and pretty damn sucessful format I'm not sure.

Rowds

[beanpole]

No, F1 will just have no testing and an engine that has to last half a season.........



Kev

[rowdytoot]

Kev, I don't care enough about F1 these days to bother with the rules... IMHO the top levels of motorsport are being reduced to shadows of their former selves. Bring back the 1985/86 F1 seasons.. now that was worth watching..

Rowds
29 but already wanting my my good old days back!

[Paul]

There seems to be a bit of misconception Bogs. If you re rejoining in a super series the following day than you do not gain points towards the overall score.

Take for instance Simon in last years ROC. He didn't restart on Saturday because he would not gain points, amoung other things.

[Spac]

I was reading an old event report from a WRC round the other day. Was interesting - they were talking about how one driver had lost something like three minutes in a ditch (and lost his third place), and yet still had enough distance left in the rally that he managed to not only regain third place, but finish second in the event...

Ah ha, you're thinking, musta been one of those 1970s epics or the Safari for that to be possible!

Nope, it was NZ 1994 or 1995. We've moved a long way in less than ten years, and I'm less than convinced that its for the best...

Funny also that they're concerned about the bigger and bigger accidents that are happening, and yet trying to make the events more and more sprint oriented. Can they not see the connection?

[Bede]

If the FIA want more exciting racing/rallying why not change the point score system (for drivers and manufacturers) and give a much bigger reward for winning.

A few years ago the FIA changed the system for WRC and F1 from 10,6,4,3,2,1 to 10,8,6,5,4,3,2,1.

By rewarding first place more, surely teams and drivers will risk more to win. Instead of having drivers and teams saying ‘we are just going to try and get points’, they would actually need to win to get some reasonable points for the championship. What if the point score system was 10,3,1, wouldn’t that change their attitude towards racing to win. Okay so maybe not so extreme but most spectators/viewers/etc want to see drivers/teams racing to win, not finish fourth because that is all they need to still be in the lead of the championship (having not won a single race all year). Isn’t the essence of racing and competition to be first?

Disclaimer – This is just my opinion and there may actually be no merit in this theory at all. For example a superior car will result in someone being untouchable in the championship.

[Bogan]

Originally posted by Bede
Isn’t the essence of racing and competition to be first?

At that level, yes it should be. At our level it is completely different.

T.

[rowdytoot]

Too true Bog. at our level the essence is to finish with as little delay as possible so as not to cut into drinking time.



Rowds

that was what you were thinking wasn't it??

[Spac]

You're right Rowdy, you want to maximise the drinking time, by minimising the time spent out in the forest.

Some people just take it a bit more seriously than others:

http://www.bmsc.com.au/gallery/showp...cat=500&page=1

http://www.bmsc.com.au/gallery/showp...cat=500&page=6

and yes, I did get it all arts about...

http://www.bmsc.com.au/gallery/showp...cat=500&page=1

[rowdytoot]

I got it arts about at tranbell too.. stuffed it off too late in the day... cost me lots of drinking time in the end..

At least now I can just go straight to the pub when it opens

Rowds

[Bogan]

Originally posted by Spac
You're right Rowdy, you want to maximise the drinking time, by minimising the time spent out in the forest.

Some people just take it a bit more seriously than others:

Stupid Batemans Bay

T.

[beanpole]

Don't things come back to bite. I love the comments about panel beating then the Starmart........



Kev