• Welcome to Motorsport Forums, the ultimate hub for motorsport fans since 2000! Click here to register. It is completely free, takes just a few seconds, and you can sign in instantly with your Google account.

WRC mainclass from 2027

If, if... The EU won't require all new cars to be EVs. It's quite clear that it's not happening and sustainable fuel or ICE hydrogen will be option too.
 
AndyRAC said:
Exactly! And there is the issue; it's just not road relevant, and hasn't been for 40 odd years. Other series are/ have been........
Click to expand...

In fact WRC / rallying in general have been runn ing BEHIND the latest tech for years. Hybrid is a perfect example... Toyota had this 25 years ago !!

Clutchless / equential gear changing is about the last thing I can think of that was rally-pioneered before appearing on road cars.

And the other issue is people mainly prefer tech for inside the car like infotainment, not for driving pleasure.
 
Yes since 2000 rally has always been behind the "trend".

First it was running 2L turbo when no mainstream petrol cars had turbo.
Then it added 2L atmo (S2000) just as downsizing trend with 1.6l turbos started.

When WRC catched up to downsizing mainstream started turning to hybrids. (see VW and Citroen comments in 2018-2020)

Now that hybrids came the trend was to EVs already.

Hard to say if there is a new "trend" yet, but if there is rallying will be late again.

Imo the main reason is that the manus that are already in the championship are always favored over potential new entries. The existing teams always want to keep as much as possible from before to keep their advantage over new arrivals.
 
AndyRAC said:
Exactly! And there is the issue; it's just not road relevant, and hasn't been for 40 odd years. Other series are/ have been........
Click to expand...

Which such series?

Motorsport has moved on from being consumer production tech relevant, just so long as the branding is right.
 
Technologically, the WRC has a really big problem. The obsessive focus on reducing costs has hit a dead end; there's nothing left to trim. At the same time, just because Rally1 are quick, we're meant to believe that these 5-speed, hybrid converted aero cars with barely any testing and development time during the year are the pinnacle of rallying.

The jump to 2017 regulations was a big success in the short term because suddenly the tech opened up again, the cars became more sophisticated and that created value. Promoter should focus on that: creating value for the series, not bring costs down to a level matching the series' current status.
 
Cars are 3x more expensive than the WRC 2.0L and probably 6x or 7x more than the Group A era. What part of that is "reducing costs"?
 
So, the F1 car costs 15mio, the Hypercar 2mio, and the MotoGP bike the same, and the whole world is bothered that those WRC cars are too expensive (1mio) while they're practically the cheapest on the world level. And still getting the most beating out of all.
 
deephouse said:
So, the F1 car costs 15mio, the Hypercar 2mio, and the MotoGP bike the same, and the whole world is bothered that those WRC cars are too expensive (1mio) while they're practically the cheapest on the world level. And still getting the most beating out of all.
Click to expand...

But WRC has the fewest entries and only 2.5 Manufacturer Teams.

If costs were allowed to go even higher new Manufacturers would be put off and M-Sport would be out and the Series would be further diminished.
 
F1 and WEC were much more than that beforehand. Audi and Porsche had budgets of $150mil and in F1 Ferrari was about $300 mil in the mid 00s. Massive cost cuts since.
 
Fast Eddie WRC said:
But WRC has the fewest entries and only 2.5 Manufacturer Teams.

If costs were allowed to go even higher new Manufacturers would be put off and M-Sport would be out and the Series would be further diminished.
Click to expand...

This.

Franky said:
If there's no value in the championship, even 1 Euro is too much in business sense.
Click to expand...

Eddie, you don't get new customers by offering them a discount on an old product. Business with rich customers doesn't work that way and the manufacturers are super rich ones.


Anyway when Václav Pech bought a Focus WRC 01 its cost was about 700 thousand GBP if I remember right. The total inflation of GBP between 2001 and 2024 is 82%. That means that the sum equals to todays 1,274 million GBP or 1,49 million Euro. Moreover for him as Czech at that time the GBP was equal to 58,9 Czech crowns while today it is 29,4, i.e. exactly half!

More recent example. The R5/Rally2 prices were frozen in 2015. The Euro inflation between 2015 and today is 28%. That means that the Rally2 cars today are actually 22% cheaper than they were in 2015.


No, the cars are not multiple times more expensive than they were in the past.
 
Buying the car isn't the only cost. Running costs count also. You could literally swap a gearbox, an engine from a wrecked or road car into a Group A. Body parts were dirt cheap and very easy to find. Nowadays, body is all carbon and costs a fortune to repair. And better not go into engines or gearboxes.
 
macebig said:
Buying the car isn't the only cost. Running costs count also. You could literally swap a gearbox, an engine from a wrecked or road car into a Group A. Body parts were dirt cheap and very easy to find. Nowadays, body is all carbon and costs a fortune to repair. And better not go into engines or gearboxes.
Click to expand...

The claim was that today's cars are 3x more expensive than older WRC and 6x more than Gr.A which is simply nonsense.

Anyway Gr.A is nothing but a history. It's simply impossible today because the world and the car industry has changed. There is no point bringing it over and over again into the discussion about the future of our sport.
 
hydrogen electric from hyundai, ice hydrogen from toyota. its interesting if you think about tech development! really cool.

tho wrc needs to solve one thing:
if they choose these expensive solutions, (hybrids, evs, hydrogen) they need at least 5 manufaturers involved, because we know smaller teams and privateers will never have that kind of money. so they need more factory teams... OR we are going to have just 6 full time cars for years and years (IF none of the current treams quit) :/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top