Reigning World Rally champion Thierry Neuville has urged series organizers to think outside of the box when it comes to the future of the sport at its highest level.
The Hyundai driver has been at the forefront of the drive to improve the sport’s visibility and promotion, while also pushing for wider discussions on technical regulations governing what shape the WRC’s metal will take in the medium and longer-term.
The Belgian is now advocating for somebody with experience outside of rallying to help in the effort to elevate it to its previous levels of popularity.
Neuville told DirtFish: “Honestly, if I need to pick somebody [to run the sport] I will take somebody who has not been too much involved in WRC, [to help] to bring new ideas.
“I think we need to stop taking only people from the past of WRC, because the old days are over.
The young people, the ones we want to invest in for the sport, they don't care about what has been popular in the pastThierry Neuville
“The young people, the ones we want to invest in the sport, they don’t care about what has been popular in the past. We need to bring new ideas, something fresh, something out of the box, which maybe would, in our mind, not fit with the WRC, but which will bring a change.”
Asked how radical he would go, Neuville tweaked his metaphor and went back inside the box.
“Go as deep as you can into the box,” he said, “and then pull something out. I mean, there are many great ideas.
“But again, we have spoken many times on this subject. If we change the promotion, we start working on a little bit of the sporting side as well. Change a bit the concept and the format – the technical [regulation] is only a side issue.”
In terms of the more recent clash between the World Rally Drivers’ Alliance and the FIA, Neuville only had good words for the progress made between FIA road sport director Emilia Abel and WoRDA.
“I’m very happy,” he said, referencing the agreement and clarification on Appendix B and the use of offensive language.
“We all agree that we feel comfortable with what has been put together in an open and constructive dialogue. And once again, I think the dialogue we can have with Emilia and Marina [Duñach, FIA rally category manager] and some other people now is exactly what it needs.
“They are open-minded, they are listening. And that’s how you’re going to bring WRC to a whole other level. I just hope that they will get the power they deserve to make the WRC great again.”
