The World Rally Championship is notoriously in a gloomy state. In comparison, Formula One is thriving and the WEC circuit racing series has also raised its profile tremendously – meanwhile, rallying continues with just two fully fledged factory teams.
According to Neuville, the rally world has, for too long, followed the same pattern seen in many other organisations: appointing friends to leadership roles and giving former stars positions they may not be truly suited for. The Belgian star emphasises that now is the time for major changes.
Rally romantics and so-called hard-core fans are unlikely to welcome further changes to the format, but if the aim is to attract a new audience, something may need to be done. These days, not many people have the patience to follow rally cars through the forests for several days on end.
“Honestly, if I need to pick somebody (to run the sport) I will take somebody who has not been too much involved in WRC, (to help) to bring new ideas,” Neuville told to Dirtfish.
“I think we need to stop taking only people from the past of WRC, because the old days are over. The young people, the ones we want to invest in the sport, they don’t care about what has been popular in the past. We need to bring new ideas, something fresh, something out of the box, which maybe would, in our mind, not fit with the WRC, but which will bring a change.”
Behind the scenes in the WRC, discussions are currently underway regarding the technical regulations for 2027. These are due to be finalised by August, but according to many parties, that will already be far too late. Developing a new rally car in just one year is an absurdly massive undertaking.
Neuville, on the other hand, stresses that when it comes to the vitality of the sport, the regulations may ultimately be just a side issue.
“We have spoken many times on this subject. If we change the promotion, we start working on a little bit of the sporting side as well. Change a bit the concept and the format – the technical (regulation) is only a side issue.”
