FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem made time for an exclusive interview with DirtFish’s Colin Clark at the Monte Carlo event at the start of the year.
A former rally driver himself, the 14-time Middle East Rally Champion pulled no punches in his views on the current state of the World Rally Championship and promised the series would sit front and centre in his inbox from now on.
I think the most critical but also the hardest aspect to revitalise this sport is marketing and attracting more constructors.
The Glory Days
During the 90’s early 2000’s, they were multiple manufactures participating in the WRC. Seat, Volkswagen, Subaru, Mitsubishi and I could go on and on and name more but the fact is, the competition has been growing stale.
The last team to pull out of the WRC Programme was Citroen in 2019. They remain part of the WRC2 group mainly due to costs being more friendly to the teams. Skoda is another example of that.
In comparison to other racing disciplines, I’d say hybridisation has been a better affair compared to F1. The cars are still fast, they sound great with loud 4 bangers and not the anemic V6 vacuum cleaners we are so used to and the cars look great.
Don’t get me wrong the racing is still great. That thrill, the “edge of the seat” moment is still there whatever you are watching it live or on TV but there needs to be a better way to advertise it to consumer.
Teething Issues
WRC+ mow Rally.TV is that prime example of that. Launched 2014 in the WRC+ subscription OTT service was providing a couple of live stages per event, including the Power Stage at the end of each rally.
With the introduction of WRC+ ALL Live in 2018, for the first time in the championship’s history, every special stage from each round was shown as it happens, allowing the fans to follow the FIA World Rally Championship.
On paper it sounds great for that WRC fan. All the stages live and uninterrupted for £10.99 per month and £99.99 for the whole year it sounds pretty reasonable. If the streaming platform was reliable and would not constantly freeze or crash all the time!
In fairness it has gotten better but more work is needed to make it a competitive service in comparison to MotoGP VideoPass which might be a bit more expensive but is a lot more reliable to view.
Money seems to be the big issue for the WRC at this present time. Sulayem has said that he would like to see more teams in the WRC but so far, we have not received any concrete plans/goals in how he can revie the WRC back to its glory days especially when I first watched it when I was just a kid.
Nevertheless, I am prepared to have patience and see how the FIA President is going to revolutionise the sport but he can’t kick the can down the road. Action is needed soon.
