World Motor Sport Council

[Sulland]

What will come out of the Council meeting today to help Rally at several levels ?

[Kielder]

Let's see if it doesn't continue to sink rallying like the past Council meetings.

[AndyRAC]

WRC, at the World Council?? Yeah, I can see it now.....

“Does everybody like the WRC calendar......? A show of hands please........ Ratified. Now let’s get onto the real stuff”

[jbmarcus21]

Calendar Wrc 2013 Calendrier Saison Wrc 2013 (http://bit.ly/KsRgxS)

[Barreis]

Promotor?

[rallyfiend]

Promotor?

All reports in the last month or so have only ever said Sportsman Group / Red Bull Media House so I wouldn't expect any surprises there.
The other contenders were knocked out some time ago.

[pettersolberg29]

Confirmation from Ford - Good news from today's FIA World Motor Sport Council: The Sportsman Media Group and Red Bull Media House to promote @OfficialWRC from 2013.

[Miika]

Red Bull Media House confirmed by Becs
https://twitter.com/Becsywecsy

[Sulland]

Eurosport has confirmed that they won the tender to be promotor for ERC in 2013! And that IRC will be changed or killed off.

Statement from Eurosport Events - News - IRC Intercontinental Rally Challenge - Eurosport (http://www.ircseries.com/news/detail/id/963)

[Mirek]

Plenty of good news these days. Hopefully none of them turns to another bad joke. It was enough of them.

[Kielder]

I suppose that the main inconvenience is that the dream of the return of rallyes endurance has ended.
P.S. Also, Monster GOing away FAST :D .

[GigiGalliNo1]

IRC will now be called the ERC. Please don't get it confused. IRC not killed off just change of name and format to suit ERC ;)

[Sulland]

WMSC press release

World Motor Sport Council (http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/wmsc/2012/Pages/wmsc-280912.aspx)

A lot of rally news!
Eurosport will 'own' ERC for 10 years !!

[Mirek]

The move to single pattern less grip asphalt tyres was quite expected after all those tragedies (considering it works in WRC events). Let's see how the change works in reality if it's not just a big business for certain manufacturer...

[stefanvv]

The move to single pattern less grip asphalt tyres was quite expected after all those tragedies (considering it works in WRC events). Let's see how the change works in reality if it's not just a big business for certain manufacturer...

Slicks were forbidden years ago, but that appeared not enough for the safety. Now with less grip tyres cornering speed will be reduced therefore the accidents should be too.

[pantealex]

WRC 2 = S2000, R4, R5

WRC 3 = R3, R2, R1

(so no title for gr.N Mitsu and Subaru anymore)

[Andre Oliveira]

I suppose that the main inconvenience is that the dream of the return of rallyes endurance has ended.
P.S. Also, Monster GOing away FAST :D .

Why? The promoter can't baned the sponsors. I suposed that will claim more energy drinks to WRC.

[skarderud]

i don't think they put that in any contract, redbull will be presented at vw and at every official small and big stuff. if mad croc/monster/go fast etc wanna put money in other teams, thats not at problem.

[Allyc85]

Any news on the tracking and timing deal as Motorsport News said this is still to be sorted out? From what I hear from the teams everyone cant fault the current system and it must be a done deal?!

[Mirek]

WRC 2 = S2000, R4, R5

WRC 3 = R3, R2, R1

(so no title for gr.N Mitsu and Subaru anymore)

Actually not. N4 will be allowed in WRC2 but they will have a special cup inside the WRC2.

[bt52b]

Actually not. N4 will be allowed in WRC2 but they will have a special cup inside the WRC2.

Can't some N4's be upgraded on R4's?

[Mirek]

Can't some N4's be upgraded on R4's?

Sure they can but for example in my country most of the drivers realized that they have no chance against S2000 anyway so they downgraded back to N4 to fight for class 3 victory.

[Kielder]

Why? The promoter can't baned the sponsors. I suposed that will claim more energy drinks to WRC.

I won't spend my money in a competition where my main rival is the promoter. For example, how many minutes do you think other energy drinks will have on TV?

[OldF]

I suppose that the main inconvenience is that the dream of the return of rallyes endurance has ended.
P.S. Also, Monster GOing away FAST :D .

Isn’t in endurance rallies where energy drinks is needed? :beer:

[Mirek]

Ask Aleš Loprais :)

(Loprais who was in fight for truckers victory has his own energy drink brand and it was a micro sleep of his mechanic which caused the huge crash on the road section of last Dakar)

[AndyRAC]

I won't spend my money in a competition where my main rival is the promoter. For example, how many minutes do you think other energy drinks will have on TV?

Why ever not? Haven't you ever seen the RedBull X Fighters? There are Monster, Rockstar, etc riders competing...

RedBull aren't stupid... It won't be a problem.

[bf1_IRL]

If anything the other energy drinks will have their names put on tv/net etc by their rival :O so as Andy says, it shouldn't be a problem

[Jordib]

Why ever not? Haven't you ever seen the RedBull X Fighters? There are Monster, Rockstar, etc riders competing...

RedBull aren't stupid... It won't be a problem.

I hope you are right, but think that in Redbull X Fighters there is only one rider jumping at a time and live TV can't decide who appears in every moment, in Rallying this is different, as there are so many cars on the stage at the same time and the highlights of rallyes never give the same time appearance to the teams. This can be a problem for the promoter if they don't do it according to real rally interest or balancing the time on screen for all works teams.

[AndyRAC]

I'm not worried at all. RedBull can promote anything; just look on RedBullTV.....which is free. We may be at the start of something good.

[Jordib]

I'm not worried at all. RedBull can promote anything; just look on RedBullTV.....which is free. We may be at the start of something good.

Sure, i have no doubt about that. But we will se if they can bring some new energy drink companies really involved to the series, because for now there is only Redbull, but this is not going to be a big problem for the future of WRC.

[ShiftingGears]

I'm not worried at all. RedBull can promote anything; just look on RedBullTV.....which is free. We may be at the start of something good.

Indeed. I feel like this has been great news for the WRC.

[jiipee64]

Any ideas why the Germany date isn't confirmed?

I have sort of plans for that one.

[rallye-vid]

It should be end of august

[Plan9]

Indeed. I feel like this has been great news for the WRC.

I agree. It will take WRC to a new demographic to say the least. What I am interested to know is if Red Bull will give up its space on the liveries of the Citroen and VW teams and Sordo's helmet in favour of more roadside branding? There is some debate in other parts of this forum about Abu Dhabi replacing Red Bull on the Citroen for example.

[GigiGalliNo1]

Regardless if Redbull will be seen during the shows. Other brands and Redbull's competitors can advertise on the networks the WRC coverage will be on, during the ad breaks, the program is brought to you by... And then don't forget Monster have its babes and promo people at rally stages... Well at least at Rally Australia and NZ. So if Redbull is seen during the rally, other brands are seen too. It's where the tv networks make their money. It is how advertising works!

[Hazza555)]

To my understanding the Red Bull that sponsor's Citroen and the Red Bull that will part of the promoter are essentially separate entities. Red Bull Media House, although part of the Red Bull brand, it is not the same people making the energy drink - who sponsor Citroen.

I am also a Mountain Bike enthusiast, a sport where Red Bull has a very high profile. For 2012, Red Bull Media House picked up the production rights to the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup. There are many mountain bikers sponsored by Red Bull, their sponsorships did not change because RBMH coming in. There are also many other athlete's supported by rival energy drinks, all unaffected.

Now RBMH isn't the promoter for the series, it just does the production. The promoter is the Rocky Roads Network.

I believe this will be similar with the WRC as RBMH is the promoter in conjunction with the Sportsman Media Group. So we won't see the "Red Bull World Rally Championship", and Red Bull logo's lining every stage because RBMH is basically like a TV company, we never say North One banners everywhere. This is a promotion deal, not a sponsorship one. If Red Bull wanted to get more people seeing their name everywhere, they would be better of sponsoring the series like Nokia so miserably did.

[Rally-eMag]

Any ideas why the Germany date isn't confirmed?

I have sort of plans for that one.

It's not confirmed because the planned date clashes with the planned date for F1 in Spa-Francorchamps (which is just around the corner from Trier). The FIA wants the WRC and F1 to run in separate weekends as much as possible and when the events are so close together geographically, they really don't want it in the same weekend.

[rallyfiend]

It's not confirmed because the planned date clashes with the planned date for F1 in Spa-Francorchamps (which is just around the corner from Trier). The FIA wants the WRC and F1 to run in separate weekends as much as possible and when the events are so close together geographically, they really don't want it in the same weekend.

And as always, Bernie yells 'jump' and the FIA has to shout back 'how high?'.

[Rally-eMag]

And as always, Bernie yells 'jump' and the FIA has to shout back 'how high?'.
I'm afraid you might be right on that one...

[jiipee64]

>> It's not confirmed because the planned date clashes with the planned date for F1 in Spa-Francorchamps (which is just around the corner from Trier).

I have a plan of getting two flies with one hit...

[Rally-eMag]

>> It's not confirmed because the planned date clashes with the planned date for F1 in Spa-Francorchamps (which is just around the corner from Trier).

I have a plan of getting two flies with one hit...

Sounds like an excellent idea, if they are held in following weekends, that would be 2 pretty cool weeks :)

[Sulland]

What is the council trying to say with this sentence:
"To help attract more manufacturers into the sport, from 1 January 2014 the series engine of a Group R1, R2 or R3 car may be replaced with another series engine."

This is good, but who will play?
The WMSC has mandated relevant FIA commissions for concrete proposals to empower the presence of GT cars in rallies as soon as possible.