The FIA has revised the rules of the World Rally Championship and so from the end of 2009 the modern WRC car has been banned. The S2000 car with a turbo will take its place. The reason for this is to make rallying more affordable for manufacturers and going by the interest shown, this may not be a bad thing with more manufacturers waiting to come on board when the new S2000 rules come into play. But the S2000 has not been welcomed with open arms, the current WRC Champion Sebastian Loeb has openly expressed his dislike to the new car and has gone so far as to look for a drive in F1 after a very good test recently in the Red Bull F1 Car. With experience on track and at LeMans, he has shown that he can cross over to other disciplines, but with the very young average age of modern F1 drivers, his age puts him nearer retirement age in F1 and so a drive was always unlikely.

The Pirelli Control Tyre has also had its share of problems and not it should be said, the fault of the manufacturer. It did, however, fall foul of the rules on which govern the use, compound and thread pattern etc. for each rally. The rules were put in place to give a level playing field for the competitors. But there were no allowances for changes in weather and the varying conditions encountered. These allowances would have included a backup tyre or cuts on the control tyre. Occasionally this made for some not so good rallying with events standing out where the Control Tyre struggled being Sweden where there was a distinct lack of snow, Argentina which had unseasonal rain and so the dry weather control tyre suffered and finally in Wales where the abundance of Ice left the gravel tyres struggling for grip. In Wales more so than any other rally, the drivers expressed dislike for the uncertain and almost dangerous conditions and worse still, the Control Tyre and lack of Gravel Crews being seen as part of the reason for Chris Atkinson having a major accident.

Loeb has spoken out all season against both the control tyre and the rule disallowing gravel crews. The tyre did suffer on a number of rallies where unseasonal weather made conditions difficult like Argentina where the dry tyre made driving in the deep mud impossible in some instances. But it is widely regarded that if gravel crews were still allowed, then Pacenote updates on the icy conditions in Wales would have meant more confidence for the drivers, but also that Atkinson would have been better prepared for the ice patch that gave him his big off. At what point does saving money become more important than safety and with the cost saving of a Gravel Crew, how much did Subaru actually save under the new rules when Atkinson’s WRC car was written off.

So yes, there has been a lot of changes made and more to come, but is change a bad thing? The modern WRC car is now caught between spiralling development costs and shrinking budgets from car manufacturers because of the world economy in a major downturn. Also with technology getting better and better, it is starting to make the cars unspectacular to watch from the ditches. The famous Group B cars were very spectacular to watch but with enormous power and low levels of technology compared to todays modern Rally Cars, Group B was dangerous and ultimately banned because of the untimely deaths of spectators and drivers, the most famous and final accident being that of the sports up and coming driver, Henri Toivenan and his navigator in the S4. After Group B, World Rallying lost the huge crowds lining the ditches around the world. It seemed like rallying was in trouble. It did lose a lot of the drama, especially with the not so spectacular and underpowered, almost road car like Group A's. But during this transition phase Rallying did gave us the sports most successful car, the little Delta Integrale. Following the Group A we then got the very successful era with the modern WRC car. So who knows how the S2000 will perform or what formula will develop from it in the future.

Subaru and Suzuki have pulled out of the 2009 Championship stating spiralling costs and the global downturn being the deciding factor. But Subaru have said they would like to return to the WRC. Hopefully they will as the ‘Blue Car’ will be sadly missed on the stages. That said, how could you expect the two manufacturers (Subaru and Suzuki) to pump huge amounts of money into their new cars and to continue development when it would be for a lost cause as the cars would be banned at the end of this year. With Ford and Citroen being so competitive and at the top of their game at the moment, this year would be a year where Suzuki and Subaru could only hope at best to split the podium places and maybe get the very occasional win. This year would have been a year continuing development and realistically not being championship contenders. Hopefully it will just be a years sabbatical for Subaru where the costs of running a team for the year will instead be diverted to development of a new S2000 car and we will see them back on the stages in the very near future.

So what does the WRC have in store for the future. Apart from the remaining questions to the Control Tyre and Gravel Crews which hopefully will come to some sort of agreeable solution, the S2000 car looks to have very good potential. Loeb, who has been very outspoken about the new car has recently come out and said that the inclusion of the Turbo will make them very much like the current car to drive. The turbo will give torque, it won’t be a screamer of a car like the naturally aspirated Group N version which will have no turbo, but it will make it more driveable and with a more usable power band, the S2000 should make for some spectacular moments in the future.

Before the new rules were announced, there were at least 4 manufacturers on the sidelines confirming that they were waiting to join the WRC. This year (2009) will have just two manufacturers competing in the championship, but with Ford and Citroen running second teams, it should make for a good transition year. Atkinson has been confirmed for the 2nd team with Citroen to compete in Rally Ireland and Citroen are hoping if all goes well that it will not just be the only rally they will have Chris driving for them. Petter Solberg has confirmed an agreement with Subaru which states that he is free to look for a manufacturers drive for 2009. But as they seem to be releasing him for just 2009, hopefully that will mean we will see them back as soon as 2010.

When Suzuki and Subaru pulled the plug on the WRC, I, like a lot of WRC fans felt great disappointment, however, I presume Ford and Citroen already have S2000 Class WRC cars well into development and with more manufacturers already developing cars and are ready to join the championship, 2010 should make for a very good year in rallying. A new car might give a more level playing field and each teams interpretation of the rules could give the advantage to any team and so total dominance by the present two top teams could be nearing an end. Like the new F1 rules, less technology will mean more driver input and hopefully closer rallying. That can’t be bad for competition. Yes it might take a year or so for the manufacturers and drivers to start getting the best from the new class of car, but eventually like other regulation changes in the WRC and other motorsport disciplines in the past, the World Rally Championship will move onto to bigger and better things.

Dermot O’Doherty
RallyPortfolio.com