WRC '16 - A warm welcome in Sweden

Unseasonal temperatures in Sweden have raised the prospect of this, the only "real" winter round of the WRC, becoming a shadow of its former self. Rallye Sweden's claim to fame has always been its white landscapes, iconic snowbanks and sub-zero temperatures. To say it's both a drivers' and fans' favourite is somewhat of an understatement. But the paucity of snow as the event begins, and perhaps even more importantly, lack of an icy base, has caused deep concern among organisers and teams.

And resulted in the cancellation of some special stages.

At the end of reconnaissance, a shy, retiring type of driver made a couple of off the cuff remarks which have been repeated a few times since, causing much twittering. His name is Sébastian Ogier. You may have heard of him?

This is reportedly what he said...

"I don't know what we're doing here. There's no point in being here. I don't know who took this decision. It's absurd."

Reading carefully between the lines, I think we can safely assume that he isn't really happy with driving on gravel, equipped with nothing but studded snow tyres. Oh, I know what you're thinking, "Here he goes again, Ogier whingeing as usual".  Well, to an extent that's true. The point being though, is he justified?

I can tell you that the internet is fair thrumming with opinions being offered and debated over that very salient point. And some relevant opinions have triggered quite a lot of interesting back and forth, stuff that I'd like to share with you.

Whose fault is it?

This is a natural starting point for an analysis because we humans have an inbuilt need to blame someone or something whenever things happen that we don't like. I know this, because I indulge in that exact behaviour fairly regularly myself. And the fault lies squarely with... politicians really.

How come? Because we are experiencing human-influenced changes to the Earth's climate that were apparent over the last five decades at least while our politicians played the "Where's the scientific proof?" card until the evidence was so strong that they were forced to pay lip service to what was obvious to everybody but politicians and those in the fossil fuel industries.

Well, actually it was obvious to everybody, including those I excepted above, but self-interest takes precedence over the greater good every time and we still haven't done anything meaningful to mitigate our influence on the warming of our planet. Some day...

But back to the point. Rallye Sweden was planned with an expectation that the climate would play ball and we'd be looking at three days of whiteness with rally crews performing heroic acts on slippy snow and ice at impossibly fast speeds. It worked in previous years, right? So why would 2016 be any different? (If the blatant pollie blaming of the previous couple of paragraphs hasn't convinced you, then it was probably goblins or trolls getting their revenge for some imagined slight or other.)

But why couldn't the organisers and the FIA come up with a contingency to allow normal gravel tyres for those stages that might be devoid of the snow and ice expected. You know, a Plan B, if you like. Radical? Not so much. Most of the enterprises on this planet, including governments, have in place some alternative or other should the manure hit the fan.

So it's possible that here we're looking at the results of a failure to plan properly, and while many people, including the shy Sébastian Ogier discussed previously, have expressed their sorrow toward the organisers of the event, a case can be made that Rallye Sweden and the FIA could have prevented this situation. No, we can't magic snow and sub-zero temperatures whenever we feel inclined, but we sure as hell can truck in some gravel tyres.

M. Ogier has felt the need to respond to the battering he's been taking on social media over his viewpoint on the state of the Swedish stages. He posted this on Twitter...

"Like often, so much bullshit on the net... I love [Rallye Sweden] and never called for cancellation of the full rally! Just 100% gravel stages...".

You may well be cleverer than me, and understand Sébastian's response totally. But I haven't read your interpretation, so I'm going to offer up some posibilities.

Obviously the relevant bit is "never called for cancellation of the full rally! Just 100% gravel stages". Assuming he's not perfect as an English-speaker, the problem with his comment lies in the phrase "Just 100% gravel stages".

What this seems to mean is that only the stages that are 100% gravel (no snow, no ice at all) should be cancelled. Or... this might mean only the stages that are suitable for studded tyres (all snow, all ice) should be run. As you can see, those two interpretations are very, very different.

Either way, there's no earthly possibility the rally can run like that, because the conditions on the stages can and will change with the weather and with the effects of the passing field of cars. No organiser could possibly guarantee to run Ogier-approved stages under the conditions that prevail in Sweden right now. Ogier demands more than is reasonable.

Yet, the Frenchman's heart is surely in the right place. Studded tyres on gravel is a recipe for accidents and endangerment to crews and spectators alike, and I wonder if Rallye Sweden were not feeling the pressure to keep alive their event in the WRC, would they have decided to push ahead and run a rally that will clearly be inferior to their previous rounds, something that loses so much of the magic that has always been in it's Scandanavian winter mantle.

And with global warming's inexorable effects over the next half century, Rallye Sweden will have to move its dates forward a month in order to recapture the white winterland magic that contributes so much to the character of the event. But then there's also the Monte to consider - the iconic round would likely become the last round of the season in early December if Rally Sweden were to move forward a month. What's the likelihood that either happen? Low, I'd have to say. More likely would be Sweden being dropped from the championship.

And that would be a real shame.

WRC '15 - The end of the sport as we know it?

The comments coming from those "in the know" around the World Rally Championship are suggestive of an FIA in deep crisis. It's impossible to imagine why else such bizarre proposals as have emerged over the last few weeks would be given even scant consideration by the sport's governing body.

Without a massive underwriting from the WRC sponsors, such a huge, prestigious series would not be possible but sponsorship of the scale required is not an altruistic undertaking - the sponsor wants and needs a commercial payback, not just a feel-good from the sport's fans - it must make sense at a marketing level.

And that's the trigger for the headless chicken reaction we're seeing from the backers of the current shootout and pitstop proposals. Following the working formulas of other large motorsport events, the powers who run the organisation and teams have fixated upon some contrived bolt-on approach to try to emulate the perceived audience draw such events routinely deliver.

The apparent urgency, or more accurately, panic, that currently infuses the WRC suggests strongly that the major sponsors are not seeing the expected return on their investments and are questioning the commercial viability of the championship. And without sponsors, the WRC will die.

But are things really that dire?

The undertone of all this navel-gazing and hand-wringing is that there needs to be a one hour telly-friendly package that can be sold to broadcasters around the globe to reach not just the current rally afficiandos, but to tempt a whole new audience. Makes sense, right? Well, no. Rallying doesn't really lend itself to any such re-packaging and still retain the very character that makes it appealing to so many.

For those who feel a reminder is necessary, a rally is a time trial, run on closed public and private roads with less than perfect surfaces, whose winner is the crew who complete the multi-day event in the shortest recorded time.

Anything else is not rallying.

The World Rally Championship then is that same formula, contested by the world's best drivers in the world's best cars in a number of different countries across the globe. A WRC that doesn't deliver that at the very least, will not be a true WRC.

Contriving pitstops and shootouts to shoehorn the marathon nature of rallying into a live TV hour will alienate its current fanbase and provide something far less than the spectacle required to entice new fans.

So what's the answer?

On every WRC event, professional camera crews capture the action from various points around each stage, footage that's used to compile the 30 minute highlights packages that find their way to broadcasters around the planet at the conclusion of each day, and the one hour summary of the event on its conclusion. There's no technical reason why that footage cannot be broadcast live and streamed on the net. The Power stage is broadcast live now.

What's even more exciting is that there are invariably amateur videographers scattered around the stages who capture incidents and accidents and whose video could be intercut into the live feed. All it takes is a dedicated upload portal for the footage, and temporary Wi-Fi points erected around the stages for the fans to connect through.

So, live streaming of the event as it happens, with freelance video and stills to complement it, would make for a three day spectacle a fan could become immersed in, or just tune in and out when able. And I can think of four knowledgeable presenters who would be brilliant at covering everything from narration, interviews and results updates, to analysis and overviews.

How the sponsors would monetize the webstream would of course be up to them, but clearly there can be sponsored results updates, reviews of recent action, 30" ad spots and so on, as happens with Indy, Nascar, Bathurst and other events. Given the amount of on-screen time devoted to the cars. that would surely please the manufacturers and team sponsors, especially given the massive number of rally fans there are already.

Then there would be no need to mess about with what is the very soul of the sport, the against-the-odds marathon stuff that makes rallying so special. So there you go, FIA. A starter for 10 that makes sense and gets more of the sport in front of more of the fans, wherever they are.

No, no need to thank me. Just seriously look into it and save our sport at the same time.