World Rally Car future will be decided in December’s meeting of the World Motor Sport Council

Autosport magazine published an article last week in which it followed up the recent WMSC decisions regarding the future of the WRCar.

The Autosport article:

THE FUTURE of the World Rally Car will be decided once and for all in December's meeting of the World MotorSport Council, with a switch to Super 2000 still a possibility. World Rally Championship commission president Morrie Chandler raised the question of spiralling costs for the new-for-2010 regulations, prompting the WMSC to seek a review on the current direction of the regulations.

SOLIDARITY SUBSIDES

This latest twist came out of Wednesday's (Nov 5th) WMSC meeting in Paris, in which it had been hoped there might have been a rubber stamp on 2010 regulations. Instead, there will be another review, with the likely outcome that the proposed specification of 2010 World Rally Car will be paired back to feature minimum levels of technology.

Chandler said:

I realise this could cause a backlash from the current manufacturers in the sport, but the point was raised during Japan that we deviated considerably from the original idea of a kit of parts to be bolted on and off from a Super 2000 or Group N car. If I hadn't raised this point in the meeting, I wouldn't have been doing my job."

COUNTING THE COST

Chandler acknowledged that FIA president Max Mosley has made his plans quite clear if there is not universal agreement on the specification in time for December.

Chandler stated:

Super 2000 is being talked about, it's the simple solution for Max. This is something we talked about in Japan and, providing we are able to come up with a logical way of matching the performance of Super 2000 with Group N (which will remain in 2010), then that's fine for me.

The problem is that we started on this path 18 months ago, looking at cars costing up to 300,000 euros. That price has doubled and we're pretty much back to current World Rally Car prices. In the current financial market, that's unacceptable so what I'm trying to do is head-off this economic crisis in the sport."

CONFUSION REIGNS

Predictably, there was considerable consternation about the need for a review on the technical regulations that the manufacturers have been working on the last year.

Subaru's managing director Richard Taylor commented that he is confused by the recent WMSC decision:

I have to say I'm a little confused by this. We have worked closely with the FIA and we thought we had achieved what was required for the new regulations."

A source within Citroen Sport added:

Just when we are close to the target, it's been moved. I don't understand. How can we re-write the regulations we've been working on for so long in just over a month."

Autosport also revealed that the FIA is looking at limiting the top speeds of WRC machinery next season. The precise figure and the way the governing body intends to limit the speed is still under discussion.

Source: Autosport

 

Meanwhile, Motorsport News has had confirmation from Morrie Chandler that a driver rankings system will be introduced in 2010 following a trial run in 2009.

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