While the World Rally Championship is talking itself in circles on the subject of technical regulations, Sébastien Ogier has offered a slightly different view.
The eight-time champion shared his forthright view on the points structure with DirtFish last week and in the follow-up to those thoughts, we sought his consideration on the whole Rally1-minus versus Rally2-plus debate. Ogier smiled thinly at the invitation to delve into regulatory minutiae. But then he humored us and came up with typically fascinating insight.
“Eight cars in the main category is too few,” he told DirtFish. “[A decision] has to happen as soon as possible – but maybe not in a hurry with the wrong decision.
“Maybe there is some rethinking or there will be more discussion about it, because I felt that what came out recently was slightly wrong. It doesn’t make so much sense to ask a current team to downgrade the car [to] the level of some other competitor which has invested so much less money to do that.
Understandably, Ogier would like to celebrate his wins with a few more people
“I think it cannot realistically happen, in my point of view. At the same time, I believe the sport needs to find a way to have more cars fighting for the top spots.”
But what of those downgraded cars? Would the Gap superstar drive a Rally2 car? Don’t forget, he did it before: when he jumped ship from Citroën for Volkswagen in 2012. The German manufacturer entered its first full season in the WRC running Škoda Fabia S2000s as it prepared its Polo R WRC for a 2013 debut.
“The more spectacular the car, the better it is, for us and for the fans,” said this month’s Croatia Rally winner. “But if it downgrades a little bit, it will not be the end of the world. I’m quite sure it will be spectacular to watch still and we could accept a little bit of downgrade if it’s needed to reduce the cost and to have more entries in the top category. That’s not the biggest issue for me.”
Ogier left us in no doubt what is the biggest issue for him last week – but he’s also concerned at the need for more promotion in the WRC and with the direction the calendar is taking. His thoughts on Croatia’s future in the world championship – the Zagreb event’s deal is up for renewal now – were considered and thought through.
“There are some positives, honestly,” he said. “There is a lot of people, a very massive crowd in most of the stages. And the itinerary improved this year: we didn’t spend as much time on the road section as the years before, so there was more rhythm – especially into the Friday. I think that’s very positive.
“There are still some areas to be better: we do a podium where you have no idea why we are there. There is nobody. It’s a shame because there were so many areas, especially like the end of the rally, at the powerstage, where it was super-crowded. That’s the footage you need to show to the world and to the people, because there are so many people loving this sport.
“Sometimes it feels that we need some adjustments, to say the least.”
