WRC - Is the brains trust out to lunch?

The WMSC has met again and they've announced their decisions for the WRC in 2015. Chief among them is championship order for the first two days, followed on the third day by reverse order for p1 and P2 drivers. Needless to say, VW's leading WRC driver is not amused by that announcement, suffering as he does from road-sweeping duty on gravel events in his status as Numero Uno. And there are ten gravel events for him to contend with. So M. Ogier is much displeased and the WRC chat is mostly about that.

But there was another decision that agruably is more important than start order, especially to the WRC Commission who have been vocal in their claims that unless the championship is made more exciting to TV broadcasters, in particular the power stage, then the return on the investment of the teams is insufficient to warrant the expense of taking part.

Imagine my surprise then, to find out that the WRC will follow the Ceremonial Start/Two Full Days/Half Day format even though that shortened last day makes it almost impossible for competitors to seriously challenge for a better position. So what you see on Saturday night is most likely what the overall places will show at rally's end. Sunday is pretty much redundant under that format.

There are clearly some within the field whose position is merely a few seconds or even tenths behind an immediate competitor, but when a situation exists where, as in Spain, there is a 27 second gap between the leader and second place going into the final day, the only way that will change is if the leader strikes trouble. And that's not really what fans want to see, or presumably, how WRC drivers prefer to win.

So, the curtailed final day continues with nary a murmer of protest from those who regularly remind us that they have a vested interest in actually having an exciting final day. Where were they when the decision was made or even when it was announced? Why has there been no outpouring of disappointment from the Commission members? After all, they weren't shy about expressing their annoyance that their much touted "shootout" proposal bit the dust.

There's absolutely no doubt that the half day on the Sunday is restricting competitive potential and diminishing competitor and spectator enthusiasm. Am I the only one who gives a rat's arse?