There's been talk for a while of how to reduce costs. It isn't quite as bad as in F1, because costs aren't as high. But there is a problem of costs, and there is a potential very big problem with sponsorship, because the profile of the sport isn't high enough.
WRC cars (Group A) are very expensive. The FIA have wanted to change the homologation so that the cars would actually be based on either the current group N spec or the current S2000 spec, and be able to be converted to whatever the "new" WRC spec is by adding a bolt on kit (turbo, better air intake, better exhaust, faster shifting gearbox with paddle shift, aero package) which would have to cost less than a certain amount of money which I can't remember off hand.
The FIA world motorsport council have just decided on S2000 as the basis for the WRC cars for 2010 onwards. This puts a big spanner in the works of Subaru, because they would have been basing their car on the Group N Impreza and now they will pretty much have to invent a new car...
Suzuki probably won't be competing next year for financial reasons. Which is a shame because this year was their first season as a manufacturer.
There were going to be more M2 teams (manufacturer second string teams, like the current Stobart VK Ford team) in 2009, but it looks like quite a lot of that won't happen. More and more it will be the case that drivers have to sort out their own funding and sponsorship for a season (like Henning Solberg does with his Expert.no sponsorship) or be from a rich family (like Conrad Rautenbach, or Chris Atkinson, I think he pays his seat).
Some of the cost cutting measures we've had have been silly. No gravel crews on loose surface rallies? That's dangerous when there's mud and ice (and next year they intend to not have gravel crews on tarmac rallies either, which is just bloody ridiculous: loose gravel on tarmac = ball bearings). Not having the option of a winter tyre on winter gravel rallies like last weeks rally GB (which I haven't written up, although I tweeted a lot about it) also caused safety problems. And as Seb pointed out with reference to Chris Atkinson's awful crash, it is counterproductive. Not having a safety crew to tell him where the mud was on the stage, and not having the option to make more cuts in the tyre, meant that Atko aquaplaned on the mud in the dark, rolled it 6 times and totally and completely wrecked the car. A wrecked WRC car against the cost of employing a gravel crew is false economy.
The FIA tends to neglect rallying and touring car championships and then, especially in the case of rallying, enact rule changes that don't actually help.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 05:02 pm (UTC)WRC cars (Group A) are very expensive. The FIA have wanted to change the homologation so that the cars would actually be based on either the current group N spec or the current S2000 spec, and be able to be converted to whatever the "new" WRC spec is by adding a bolt on kit (turbo, better air intake, better exhaust, faster shifting gearbox with paddle shift, aero package) which would have to cost less than a certain amount of money which I can't remember off hand.
The FIA world motorsport council have just decided on S2000 as the basis for the WRC cars for 2010 onwards. This puts a big spanner in the works of Subaru, because they would have been basing their car on the Group N Impreza and now they will pretty much have to invent a new car...
Suzuki probably won't be competing next year for financial reasons. Which is a shame because this year was their first season as a manufacturer.
There were going to be more M2 teams (manufacturer second string teams, like the current Stobart VK Ford team) in 2009, but it looks like quite a lot of that won't happen. More and more it will be the case that drivers have to sort out their own funding and sponsorship for a season (like Henning Solberg does with his Expert.no sponsorship) or be from a rich family (like Conrad Rautenbach, or Chris Atkinson, I think he pays his seat).
Some of the cost cutting measures we've had have been silly. No gravel crews on loose surface rallies? That's dangerous when there's mud and ice (and next year they intend to not have gravel crews on tarmac rallies either, which is just bloody ridiculous: loose gravel on tarmac = ball bearings). Not having the option of a winter tyre on winter gravel rallies like last weeks rally GB (which I haven't written up, although I tweeted a lot about it) also caused safety problems. And as Seb pointed out with reference to Chris Atkinson's awful crash, it is counterproductive. Not having a safety crew to tell him where the mud was on the stage, and not having the option to make more cuts in the tyre, meant that Atko aquaplaned on the mud in the dark, rolled it 6 times and totally and completely wrecked the car. A wrecked WRC car against the cost of employing a gravel crew is false economy.
The FIA tends to neglect rallying and touring car championships and then, especially in the case of rallying, enact rule changes that don't actually help.