WRC principals not giving up on radical plans

The World Rally Championship will forge ahead with radical format changes for next season, despite the current proposal being rejected by last week's World Motor Sport Council.

WRC Promoter's Oliver Ciesla and Volkswagen Motorsport director Jost Capito – the two main players in the new plans – both say they still believe the revisions to the Powerstage will be introduced for next season. The main change will be to run the events with a co-efficient on the timing that effectively means each second on the main part of the rally is divided by 10 and is worth a tenth of a second on the final shootout stage.

"I believe this is the right step for the WRC to move forward and achieve the objective of reaching more people," said Ciesla. "I have no indication that we should not be optimistic."

Despite a unanimous vote against the new format from the drivers and co-drivers involved in the WRC, Capito remained convinced this was the correct way forward.

"You should not listen to what the drivers want," said Capito. "They are not the ones who invest in the sport, they are the ones who take the money out of the sport. They are important for rallying, but they should not be involved in the regulations.

"They should be involved in the safety, there is no doubt about this and they should be involved in how the rally is organized – they are the experts there, but the final say should on the other things should come down to the people who invest in the sport.

"The drivers are aware something has to happen – at least our drivers are aware of this. And they are aware that nobody came up with something better.

"Don't forget drivers are always against change. They said the Powerstage would kill WRC when it was introduced. It did not. The drivers want mostly the pure sport, but they are a bit short-sighted; if the value's not there then the manufacturers don't come and they don't have a job."

SLAP IN THE FACE

Capito (pictured with Andreas Mikkelsen) insisted he was not surprised by the WMSC decision.

"I always had an idea this might not be accepted because Jean Todt does not like the idea," he said. "I find it amazing that a unanimous decision of the WRC Commission, who are the guys in charge of the WRC business, gets unanimously rejected by the people who are not involved.

"For me, that is a slap in the face for the people of the Commission. It's a vote of no confidence in the WRC Commission and the promoter – more so the promoter than anybody else.

"Everybody fully supported this proposal, every stakeholder in WRC – and then for this to be rejected, I don't know if something like this has ever happened in the past."