Championship structure 2012

[Sulland]

How will the structure look like for WRC in 2012 ?

Will we see a privateer cup in addition to the Manufacturer and driver championships for instance. As it is now it makes no sense for privateers to spend millions and fight for nothing. How can that be improved ?

[N.O.T]

A privateers cup would not make much sense....there was an attempt around 2000-2001 but it failed miserably.

[Motorsportfun]

Well, maybe a "WRC Independent trophy" (similar to WTCC) would make sense... there's enough privateers in the WRC (Kuipers, Al Qassimi, Al-Attiyah, Prokop, Araujo, Oliveira, van Merksteijn, H.Solberg, Ostberg, Wilson, etc.).

Why not?!

[Josti]

A seperate championship for privateers makes much more sense. They play no role in the actual manufacturers championship, and to think that Monster WRT or Brazil WRT (and others) are actually categorized along Citroën or Ford is a bit of a joke. A manu championship should be for constructors only imo. Stobart Ford is an exception, because it's a bigger operation with at least 3 drivers.

The FIA Teams Cup from 2000-01 wasn't so much a failure I think. It garnered some good private entries. Not sure why they stopped it though.

[N.O.T]

The problem with privateers is that they want a specific level of freedom...by creating a cup you force them into championship rules and they do not like that.

And also i do not think it will add any motive for new entries....rich tourist/gentlemen do not care about titles they want to have fun.

[Gregor-y]

I don't like the idea of creating a second tier within the same car class and essentially formalizing the mess we have now. Why not allow those teams to score points for the manufacturer? As it stands Ford has no incentive to build competitive Fiestas other than the ones driven by Hirvonen and Latvala. Or let the top finishing three or four cars from a maker score manufacturer points.

[Griff]

As it stands Ford has no incentive to build competitive Fiestas other than the ones driven by Hirvonen and Latvala.

Or Citroen to build top notch DS3s for anyone else other that the 2 Sebs, judging by the Petter Solberg lost form debate.

[bluuford]

I heard that they planned to remove the rule for Manufacturer Teams that asks them to compete at leats in one rally outside Europe and a penalties for missing championship rally (Raikkönen was Disqualified for not appearing in Australia). So, a bit more freedom and flexibility is planned for privateer teams.

[tfp]

How will the structure look like for WRC in 2012 ?

Will we see a privateer cup in addition to the Manufacturer and driver championships for instance. As it is now it makes no sense for privateers to spend millions and fight for nothing. How can that be improved ?

Sounds good, almost like a step between s2000 and wrc cars?