To know all discussions behind FIA’s decision is almost impossible for anyone not being right in the center of them. But first, let’s think about what global promotion and broadcasting means for the championship. We probably all know that rallying is an expensive sport. To be a runner, skier or swimmer on world level you need good shoes, clothes, some staff around you and a lot of travelling. I’m not an expert but you all get the point that in rallying you need to bring a car worth at least €500.000 with you, a whole school-class of mechanics, coordinators etc. with you and just the entry fee for a rally may cost you more than the swimmer needs to spend on gear in a year.

So, I spent a few years working with Daniel Carlsson’s bid in the WRC  and another year working with promotion at Rally Sweden, and I can tell you that in both organisations we hadn’t been worth many pennies in our discussions with sponsors without the global coverage. With Carlsson, we used statistics from a global market research company that provided various measures as well as an exact value in euros of the TV exposure from Rally Sweden 2006, where Daniel ended up on the podium. And at Rally Sweden, we could point at exactly how popular the sport were in Sweden (which is far more popular than most Swedes would guess!), the hundreds of millions of people the WRC reaches worldwide during a year, etc. And I can tell you, despite having very strong figures on our side, we still had a hell selling our stuff because the sport is just extremely expensive. To sell exposure (that’s exactly what we do when talking to sponsors), a thing you can never taste or even feel in your hand, with bids that must start at over €10.000 to even be interesting, is extremely difficult. At least in Sweden, but I have a strong feeling the situation is very much the same in most countries and for most drivers, rallies, etc.

That was how the situation was. Now, we don’t have the global promotion or broadcasting. I can’t say FIA screwed it up because I don’t know what happened. But in my opinion, FIA has two major responsibilities above all others regarding the World Rally Championship. Those are: 1) To keep sporting on a good level with regulations, etc. 2) To make sure there is a connection and co-branding between the organisers in the championship, mostly by arranging global promotion and broadcasting. So, now I can say it: FIA screwed it up.

No matter whose fault it was this means that the strong arguments, that was all our strong selling points, are gone. Of course organisers and drivers can refer to TV-coverage arranged by the local organiser. But if I’m a driver and want to do Rally Finland. What shall I tell my sponsors? “Uhm, I hope the event will be covered world-wide”? Or “Uhm, I hope the event will be covered in [put your home country here]“? Or “Uhm, I hope the event will be covered in Finland”? Or the truth: “Uhm, I have no clue if the event will be covered at all”?

That’s the team/drivers perspective. And what about the organisers. They need to start looking for production partners. That’s probably not a big deal, there are plenty of them. But what quality can they deliver? And are they all capable of handling the enormous logistical problem covering a WRC event is? And still the real problem for the organisers are another one. That they need to find buyers of the production, to distribute it to the world and cover the expenses. I’m no expert in this, but I guess that wont be one buyer. They need to call all possible TV networks and channels and negotiate with them. Oh my, I’m so happy I’m not reponsible for that.

Now, let’s assume the organisers are those superheros they probably are, and able to solve all this. Then we still have the problem of problems left. The problem that FIA created yesterday, when doing their announcement. It’s the fact that they show everyone that they are willing to really do the thing that most people probably feared but thought were totally impossible. To let all the championship sponsors, manufacturers, team sponsors, drivers’ sponsors and everyone else that are spending their money on the World Rally Championship down. The one single value that makes the WRC exist is the promotional value, where speed meets skills that meets rough circumstances and mixes up into action and adrenaline enough to glue people in front of their TVs, computers, magazines and phones just to follow it. No investor cares about speed, skills, circumstances, action or adrenaline after all. They care about the money. And no exposure, no money. At least not any money in, just a hell lot of money out.

All other problems can be solved. By organisers arranging their own stuff. Maybe by FIA making a last minute deal. Etc. But the big problem is a mistake that can’t be undone. Who wants (or dares?) to invest in a championship where the main organiser has proved to be ready to devaluate all value in the product for a year or so? I wouldn’t be.

No, in my opinion the announcement is a total mental breakdown by the FIA indicating that they are totally unable to handle the World Rally Championship.

Background information:

Pressrelease by the FIA, 3rd of February 2012

Autosport: WRC event organisers told to finalise their own TV deals after Eurosport talks break down

FIA says no promoter deal in place for WRC

Pressrelease by the FIA, 8th of January 2012

Now, even Rally NZ seems to have understood the truth. Chris Carr, chairman of the rally, says that “it’s always fire behind the smoke you see”. Interesting enough, Neil Allport, former NZ Rally Champion, says that lack of money is behind the decision and that the government should put the adequate money in. Strange, since NZ from what I know always have been backed by nothing else than a loooot of government money… However, I can understand they’re disappointed – and I am too. NZ is a traditional rally with wonderful views and an exotic kind of environment… The thing is probably that their market is too small.

The big fail in this discussion may be Rally Norway. They’ve made two good rallies – but they’ve also done mistakes. They have overestimated themselves big time (and that’s their biggest mistake if you ask me). I remember their plans for 2007 that I once got presented – and it was utopia. They had got quite a lot of government money, but they also calculated huge incomes from spectators, sponsoring, etc.The figures was almost 10 times the corresponding numbers of Rally Sweden. Norway did all kinds of extravagancies that year, and of course they blew it totally from a financial point of view – no matter any government money. From what I know, they lowered their calculations drastically for their next event, but obviously not enough. There was less delight of the news from the public in Norway in 2009, and the reports I got from competitors in the rally was that there was really few spectators.

No matter the economics, you can’t take from the Norweigans that they have arranged two really good events – with the media coverage in the 2007 event being my favourite point. Their problem now is unstable economy, the fact that they’re not a traditional event and the fact that they’re running on snow. But maybe even management!? They have always been so overconfident. Now it seems like their managers expected Norway to be first reserve for 2011 – but according to the latest news Poland (that has been completely silent so far!) is the first reserve. Erik Veiby, chairman of the Rally Norway board, says this is just speculations and of course it is, but honestly… I agree that nothing is decided and that things can for sure change – but it’s obvious to everyone that Rally Norway is now in deep shit. I bet that (no matter what Erik Veiby says!) they are now working hard with lobbying on all kind of levels and trying to get to know why they’re out of the calendar and how they can change it.

The approach from organisers struggling to find the grip needed to stay in the calendar is starting to look like an interesting game. The silly thing is that all this started a few years ago with the FIA letting people “buy” candidate events to the left and right by just paying a big fee to them (read more in my post on the rotation system from last year). After the organisers have paid those fees, they of course expected to get an event for it! So, FIA made this stupid rotating calendar and everyone got their events. Now, they have realized the obvious – that it doesn’t work. And many of the payers (and some others) stand there without their events again like they never had one… It’s stupid multiplied by a thousand.

No matter what, I’m looking forward to see how this game continues – and I hope (but doubt – Abu Dhabi on special built roads, come on!?!) it ends up with the best events!

I’m not sure if a long stage like Baumholder is stunning news, but there’s an interesting principle in it because it’s fun, and most important; it’s allowed. In the last years we’ve seen some comebacks of stuff associated with ralling in the past, that brings diversity to the WRC. Previously, the FIA and rights holders have seemed to pack everything together to one streamlined package by stipulating some stupid rules, making each and every rally as similar to the other ones as possible. Now they’re slowly switching to another way, that organisers should be free to bring more personality to events. One thing is the possibility to run night stages, one thing is the new thing that an event can be run over 2,3 or 4 days and another one is that the total distance of special stages now can be between 300 and 500 km’s with no upper limit on a special stage’s length – more than that it can’t be more than 80 km’s of competitive stages between services.

All those things opens up for a better WRC, where Monte Carlo for example can run their classic night stages, where Germany can have the Baumholder stage and where organisers can profile themselves with a short, intensive 2 day rally – or a marathon rally with 4 days. To bring back old stuff doesn’t at all mean you take a step back, I think this is a perfect step forward where modern stuff like super special stages, stages run twice and other things can be combined with the old classic’s thats deeply rooted in the minds of many fans. Thumbs up to FIA for finally taking some actions to improve the championship!

You can reach the calendar in the following formats:

World Rally 2010 – XML format

World Rally 2010 – iCal format

World Rally 2010 – HTML format

If you don’t know how to use the formats listed above, don’t worry. Your calendar software help can probably help you, or if you use Google Calendar, try this link: Subscribe to public calendars – Google Calendar Help.

2,2 million pounds are really a big amount of money, so now it seems like the organisers are in a real hurry. The event is planned to run in October – and to be presented to the press and public already at the end of April. According to BBC, organisers plan to take legal action against the government, but that can of course be quite time consuming and the question is now wether the Wales Rally GB can be run this year?

For sure, time will show what happens, but until then it’s interesting to note the big difference in economy between different events. If the Swedish Rally had 2,2M pounds from the goverment each year – the budget of the event would be doubled according to the figures I’ve got. That would probably be quite a boost to quality, pricings and experience – so think of that difference next time you visit a WRC rally…

Read the BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8000216.stm

A FIA representative in Algarve that I’ve been in contact with have confirmed the rumours that has circulated down in Portugal during the day: the WRC season 2009 will end already in May after the Ralli d’Italia-Sardegna – and then leave room for a new winter-based season starting in September this year. The main class during that new season will be the Super2000 class, with the same technical specifications as the Super2000 class used in the IRC.

The decision was made this morning at a meeting in Algarve with the most important FIA delegates, mobilised by Max Mosley – president of the organisation. The formal decision is scheduled to be taken this evening during a meeting starting at 7PM Portugese time, allowing for the FIA to inform media, team, organisers and fans already tomorrow – before the Rally of Portugal get’s started.

Swedish rally driver Daniel Carlsson is chocked but happy about the decision:

- I had no clue this was coming, but we saw already in the last World Council meeting that Max [Mosley] wanted to speed up the conversion to Super2000. Now, he has certainly done that and it will of course cause some problems to those drivers and teams that have commited to the full season – but at the same time I don’t see why we should wait for a change that we know are to come. Super2000 is the best class to attract manufacturers, so I think it makes sense to do it immediately. To me it feels like FIA has finally got their pieces together and made a good decision for the development of WRC.

I’ll get back with more information on this subject as soon as possible.

With that said, the question is… Have Skoda despite that started to test the Fabia Super2000 with turbo? I have no clue, but listening to the sound and the “bangs” of this Skoda test video very much suggests to my brain that there is a turbo involved. If anyone have some good info on this, please inform me by mail (rasmus@maxattack.net) or in the comments.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pros:

• Car manufacturers get more time to develop their Super2000-cars – and also test them in the championship for real before the competition gets sharp. I know that Citroen, among others, appreciate that.
• WRC cars open for a larger start field, where privateers with WRC cars as well as current WRC teams can enter their current cars. If not, very short entrylists in the beginning could be a possibility – which would have been boring to fans and expensive for organisers.
• The two car classes can be compared to each other side by side, and put some extra edge to both competition and development.

Cons:

• 2010 can become yet another transitional season, where Super2000-teams don’t register because they’ve got no real chances of winning – and where WRC teams start to fall off as their car wont be allowed in the coming years.
• Understanding of the sport for newcomers can become harder, where two types of cars with very different specifications compete side by side.
• The two car classes can be compared to each other side by side, and put some extra edge to development – in other words; the same point as in pro’s above. So, why would this also be negative? Because the escalation of development could be speeded up by the teams wanting their Super2000 to get closer to WRCs, which would mean also an escalation of costs.

No matter if good or bad wins above, I think the decision is mainly good to the sport in longer terms. Let’s hope that manufacturers and teams take the chance to use 2010 for testing, so we can have really sharp competition starting immediately in 2011. Super2000 – here we come!

What more became clear on the meeting is the likeliness of a new winter-based calendar starting in August, making the season break appear on the summer months. I don’t know if it’s good – but for sure rallying competes with a lot of different things, including a lot of other motorsports, in the summer – so why not try? I mean… We wont lose the summer-like conditions, they can be found on many places even in a calendar spanning from August to April or May!?!

All this things will probably be finally decided on the next World Council meeting on the 19th of March.

Now, it has taken some time since the decision in December, and I know that FIA have recieved critism – which makes sense – for taking too much time before a final decision is made. Manufacturers have to decide regarding their involvement in the WRC and then develop the car and package needed to compete. You can’t expect it to take just a few monts – since we of course want highly dedicated manufacturers that all keep a high level close to each other.

So now, it seems like FIA may change their previous decision – and there are a few possible ways to go. One is to allow for the old-fashioned WRC cars in the championship even in 2010. But then, they wouldn’t back on Super2000+ – instead they seem to want to make it a combo. This was also indicated when WRC.com made their roundup of rule changes going into the 2009 season, as they wrote the following:

“The World Rally Car era is coming to an end. This season will be the last that this type of vehicle will compete alone at the top level of the sport. 2010 will be a transitional season when a new specification of World Rally Car, based on a Super 2000 vehicle, will compete alongside the existing machinery. From 2011, however, the Super 2000 based model will take over completely.”

Another option is to go for the common Super2000 from next year, without the additional expenses of the Super2000+ package. In a recent interview in Autosport Max Mosley admits that the Subaru and Suzuki redrawals from the WRC may have caused people to change their opinions on wether the plus package should be introduced or not – despite the fact that the WMSC explicitly decided not to go on with the plain Super2000 spec in December. He opens for the possibility to go for a pure Super2000 specification without an additional package.

My opinion is that keeping the WRC cars in 2010 would be tough. They have a better performance than Super2000+ cars – and who would like to run a car doomed to lose? Also, it could cause even the Super2000+ cars to be overdeveloped and expensive, in the crazy chase for milliseconds that costs so much money in today’s WRC. I don’t know how it could be done smoothly – but I’ve also heard indications that Citroen, one of the championship’s most loyal manufacturers – expect to run the 2010 WRC with their C4WRC, so FIA may be in a difficult situation.

To me it makes most sense to skip the plus package on the Super2000 cars and make it a pure and really cheap formula that would probably attract quite a few manufacturers already from the beginning. Citroen would hopefully accept that – even since they don’t expect to take their Super2000(+) car into competition until 2011. Regarding the fans, I’m convinced that people’s interest and heart in the sport doesn’t come from – or depend on – a few horsepowers or km’s more or less – or the turbo. It depends on sideways action, nice sound and the fights between the best drivers on demanding surfaces – and that’s not a problem with Super2000. What we really need that we will also get (at least closer to) with Super2000 is a lot of manufacturers all on a good level that keeps the competition on top – and the end of the era where Citroen and Loeb can win everything almost without resistance.

Note: The next World Motorsport Council meeting, deciding about the 2010 technical regulations, will be held in March.

Uddeholm Swedish Rally reduces their permanent organization from four people to one. Just two years ago the organization on a full-year basis consisted of at least nine people. I know because I was one of them. Why does this happen and what will it mean?

First, why does this happen?

From the start of 2008, the WRC calendar was divided by FIA and the events now appear every 2nd year in the calendar. This may be good to bring new events into the championship – but for old events it’s a hard time of adaptation. Sponsor agreements are based on an annual event, employees are hired, investments are made – and all economic calculations are based on the (shaky) fact that you need to get a huge amount of money in based on four intensive days of rallying. Events hugely sponsored by the governments may survive quite easily by just saying, “this is the best we can get”, but for the Swedish Rally it’s harder. From what I know they get around 10 percent of the turnover from local authorities/municipalities/etc, and the rest of the incomes need to be paid by sponsors, teams and spectators. FIA is controlling entry fees etc, so not much can be done there. Sponsors and spectators are left to pay – and here starts the problems.

Sponsors pay for marketing, and with no marketing – no money. For short this means “half the events – half the money” (unless your selling talent or market value increase badly). Spectators on the other side are much the same; they pay for tickets, drinks, merchandise, etc during the event – not just to be kind. It’s not very realistic to think that you can just double all the prizes or attract a lot more spectators easily. To adapt and optimize the organization to this kind of settings take a long, long time.

The Swedish Rally tried to be offensive; they created a new rally village with a service area more concentrated around the super special stage and brought their event into the Swedish Championship calendar. But they were unlucky. The weather was bad in 2008, a lot of spectators stayed at home and the Swedish Championship event needed to be cancelled because of the road conditions. Ticket incomes wasn’t good enough, they had to pay back 1M of Swedish Championship entry fees and they still had the two year old (and very important) agreement to sell the billboards for TV coverage of the WRC in Swedish Television. For short: a hard 2008 for the Swedish Rally.

With a new event in 2009, maybe they could challenge for better luck (and weather) and try to get going again by still being offensive (just a little less), limiting costs and hopefully getting back on feet. During this weekend Rally Norway is running over the border with perfect conditions. If Sweden had their event this year everything would be fine – because even Karlstad have a few decimeters of snow currently and the conditions on the stages are even better. But they have no event, so that doesn’t help and the economy wont get better this year.

Instead, I’ll try to answer the second question; what does this mean?

To run a World Championship event is a huge piece of work. The only man left now is Bertil Klarin, “Mr Swedish Rally”. He’s been in the game for a long, long time and I must admit (even though I’ve often been very critical to his decisions) that he is probably better fitted to do the work than anyone else. Why? Because he knows everything about the WRC, he has the contacts – and most of all; now it’s all about surviving! Bertil, along with the board members of the Swedish Rally, will have to do everything they can to get funds to hire people. If they can’t do that, the Swedish Rally story will end. But it’s hard. The current employees will of course disappear to other jobs, and to organize a WRC event isn’t a piece of cake – even though chairman Sven-Åke Enochsson says that “the rally interest is big – there are many people with expertise”. I’ve been working with Sven-Åke and I really respect him, but that sounds like bullshit. A big interest doesn’t at all mean you’re an expert, and arranging a WRC round requires professional competence in many areas; sporting, marketing, logistics, etc. And that doesn’t come by interest. That comes by long experience and education. Sven-Åke -if anyone – should know that.

I don’t say the 12 rounds calendar is bad – but for sure it’s tough to the organizers. Norway has been close to ruin after their event in 2007 which was a huge economic failure (and having no event in 2008), and I wouldn’t at all be surprised if more events went into trouble. I hope the effects of the new calendar will be better events and maybe events that are economically more solid.  However, I wouldn’t be surprised if it instead makes organizers leave the championship. It’s hard to build a competent organization without the possibility to hire them permanently, and to hire them permanently cost’s money. Big money.

So, I guess no one knows where it will end. I just keep hoping that Bertil can make it and get at least his three colleagues back into the office making the 2010 Swedish Rally a good one. Otherwise, the Swedish Rally will be a piece of rally history.

The system will remain in beta phase during 2009 and get public in 2010 – but only for regional series etc, not the WRC. Based on the problems that seems to be good. We all know how much the starting order can mean in rallies with fresh snow, a lot of loose gravel etc. – and it wouldn’t be fair to decide rallies on a crazy ranking system. Despite that – I think the idea is good. The starting order today is in many parts decided by the organiser, and even in the WRC organisers have different quality and most important – they love their local drivers.

However, all this is based on a good system – which will not be easy to create. Championships are different around the world, and everyone knows that winning one regional championship doesn’t mean you even have a chance in one other. The system must of course take that into account, and it must also not over-credit drivers just because they are driving in the WRC. For example Khalid Al-Quassimi, that hasn’t made any real results, must of course be quite low in the list – lower than some drivers running on local basis.

So basically I like this. But question remains… How the h-ck can you make the system work?

- The main difference is very important: the IRC is definitely something that is more easy to manage than a WRC event. We have all the other stages, which can be completely different. We can manage more easily the last ones together. You can see the last night of Turini, which could not be in the WRC… 

Dotta get’s straight onto the problem – that the FIA has made the WRC an expensive championship covered by strange rules for both manufacturers and organizers. Instead they should focus on making the championship cheaper, easier to understand and more consistent regarding regulations and costs.

I promise to get back to this subject soon with more opinions…

Rally Monte Carlo has for years been the season opener of the World Rally Championship, but with the WRC stepping down to 12 events per year Monte is now in the IRC calendar for 2009 – and it will for sure be great. In 2009, IRC will have seven manufacturers commited to go for the championship – compared to WRC’s two. Abarth is the old guys in the game running their Punto Super 2000, while Skoda is the latest addition running two Fabia Super 2000 with Juho Hänninen and Jan Kopecky at the wheels. Besides them, also Honda, Citroen, Mitsubishi, Peugeot and Volkswagen are going for the IRC title.

With a number of new drivers, the 77th Monte Carlo Rally should be an open affair. Reigning IRC champion Nicolas Vouilloz is of course one of the favourites – but he will for sure be challenged by Abarth’s Basso, Skoda’s Kopecky, Peugeot’s Freddy Loix, Didier Auriol and Stephane Sarrazin as well as Kris Meeke in the brand new Kronos/Peugeot UK-run Peugeot 207. But maybe the biggest danger to Vouilloz in Monte is his own countryman, upcoming youngster Sebastien Ogier. Ogier has been awarded the Monte Carlo start in a Peugeot 207 Super 2000 in the BFGoodrich Drivers Team but is set to compete in the Citroen Junior Team in the WRC the rest of the season.

No matter what happens, the event will be a huge show to the public. It’s run in three legs during Wednesday to Friday and four stages will also be run in night conditions – like in the good, old times. Everyone having access to Eurosport should be happy, since the event is covered probably better than any previous rally, counting both the WRC, IRC and others. Rally Monte Carlo will get no less than 6h 15min of live television and added to that 2×15 minutes of short highlights from day one and two. More about that (including TV times) in my post regarding Eurosport TV coverage.

More info about the 77th Rally of Monte Carlo (external links)

Entry list
Itinerary
Stage maps
IRC Official website

However, the semi-works teams add a few surprises. First off, I didn’t expect both Henning Solberg and Urmo Aava to be nominated for Stobart, as I expected (well, not hoped) Matthew Wilson to be nominated. But this is not the only surprise. Also the Citroen Junior Team surprises by chosing Conrad Rautenbach instead of Sebastien Ogier as their points scorer alongside Chris Atkinson.

Read the list here: 
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/wrc/2009/Pages/wrc_entry_09.aspx