The WRC working group, which examined the state of the World Rally Championship, demonstrated its relevance right at the beginning of this year.
The working group considered the state of the WRC and came forward with a massive package of reforms. These changes encompass both sporting and technical modifications, including the abandonment of the current hybrid units and the shortening of liaisons.
One major reform is the elimination of teams’ massive service structures. Going forward, WRC teams will use locally sourced facilities for their workspace. This move aims to save on teams’ costs. Additionally, remote services are making a comeback.
In the future, cars can be serviced “on the road” at remote services, so teams don’t always have to drive back to the main service area between loops.
The reform package also includes a limit on the number of personnel teams can bring to rallies.
“It comes into effect as soon as possible, next year,” said the boss of WRC working group David Richards to Motorsport.com.
“The personnel (cap) side of it we haven’t looked at the enforcement of that, but I hope we can bring that in for next year. It is common in other categories in motorsport, so I don’t see it as a big problem to enforce and it will help,” continued Richards.
Regarding service area reforms, the aim is to be swift.
“As far as the service parks are concerned, straight away we can bring that in for next year. It is about freeing up the organisers in order for them to manage events without the controls that have been put on them in recent years,” explained Richards.
Centralized service areas have become a relic of the past and are no longer necessary.
“It is probably worth going back 20 years to explain why we put centralised service in. In those days we had poor communication and not what we have today,” Richards stated.
Fixed service areas were previously a safety issue. However, modern technology has eliminated these concerns.
“We had safety issues on a lot of events where we needed to put more people into the stages, more marshals and more security. That was the priority on those days and why centralised service was established so you, the journalists, could have access to the drivers regularly during the day and so we can control safety and get better communication.”
“All those issues to a great extent are resolved now, so we can free up the events to have more freedom in their organisation and the layout of their events, and give us more variety.”
Remote services also enable different event formats. With teams able to service cars on the road, the length of stages can be increased. This could allow, for instance, the Safari Rally to be run as an endurance event, with longer stages.
“I think we are open-minded. We are trying to give organisers more scope and freedom to develop the rally that works for them,” Richards stated.
“With the meeting in Kenya, they wanted to go outside Nairobi and have a second base in Mombasa, for instance, and do something of that nature. Let’s look at what they are proposing and see if it fits in. We’re not saying yes, we’re not saying no, but we are certainly saying let’s look at these ideas and see if it works for the World Rally Championship,” Richards disclosed.
Richards straightforwardly stated that the WRC was heading in the wrong direction, and a change was necessary.
“At the moment I think we have been too prescriptive. We’ve created a formula which everyone’s had to work hard towards and I think it is not necessarily in the best interest of the championship going forward.”
