Ford leaving WRC

Anybody else bummed Ford is ending manufacturer support for WRC?

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/with-exits-by-ford-and-mini-world-rally-championship-struggles/

Geeeez...............who's left? Getting pretty thin out there. Yes I am bummed.

I hate to hear that, but that's what 'rule creep' will do. WRC became a big $/euro/whatever contest, the budgets were HUGE when times were good and nobody really cared. But once things got tight the budget got axed.

Of course, had the money not been spent to make the cars as fast and showy as possible, then WRC would not have enjoyed the popularity boom it did, so it's a double edged sword.

Yes and no.

Yes because Ford has been in WRC for so long.

No because this will possibly push teams to move to other brands, mixing up the field a little more. I know it's just stopping factory support, but I think a few teams can't thrive without factory support.

I still can't figure where racing is going anymore. How many of you know that one of the European touring car series is actually a spec engine/trans series?

And that the WRC cars have been scaled heavily back in recent years? The Fiestas were supposed to be the new vehicle spec- no turbos, etc.

For the most part, the top end fields are very, very thin- makes recent Indycar races look hugely popular. But they have a lot of the support cars, all the way down to some basic cars to make it appear that there are a lot.

So where is this all going? eh, no idea.

I'm not a big fan of spec engines, but do understand that they are, generally, the most expensive component of racing. Seems as if they went via a fuel control system that limits fuel flow, you could "limit" the engines enough so that the manufacturer could get some real benefit of the development. that way you can get a better focus one the B and C class cars you want to be competing, maybe.

In other team news, did everyone else miss the news that Mini pulled their program just a little while ago?

i dunno....

alfadriver wrote: In other team news, did everyone else miss the news that Mini pulled their program just a little while ago?

I did hear that, maybe even here (not sure). what was that, only 1 year in?

Im guessing Ford's exit made a bigger splash than Mini due to their involvement with Msport

Fiesta's used to be the super 2000 car and now they have moved them to the new platform of 1.6L turbo.

Factory mini pulled out but it looks like M-sport will still support.

No more Ford is sad, they have been in rally for ages!

No more Seb will be interesting, next seasons could be anyones really.

Latvala just got signed with VW so there will be Ogier and Latvala which will be a powerful team, VW has been doing so well they got tons of money to support the team (hopefully)

Spending limites with open techincal rules.

Wow, no one left in WRC. Ford, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Skoda, Peogeot (sp), all the big boys are out.

Too bad, it was much more entertaining to watch when there were more manufacturers involved.

Spec rules = death to the series. Seen it a hundred times before...

alfadriver wrote: I still can't figure where racing is going anymore. How many of you know that one of the European touring car series is actually a spec engine/trans series?

Isn't BTCC not just spec engine/trans, but in the process of transitioning to spec subframes?

At some point, the most interesting racing won't be what's packaged up as the "XYZ Championship" with coverage on Speed and plenty of advertising. But it'll thus be harder to find coverage...

Mini was never really in - they contested a year's (or two?) worth of rallies, but not terribly effectively and with some real stops and starts. Heck, that team was always just Prodrive anyhow. The fact that they'll be racing as Prodrive instead of MINI isn't going to make a significant difference.

Ford's going, but VW's coming in. So there's no real loss of the number of manufacturers. It is a shame to see Ford go after all these decades, especially now that they actually have a chance to win now that Loeb is leaving.

This announcement does make more sense of Latvala's announcement that he was driving for VW. I think the title will go to Hirvonnen, but the two quick drivers at VW are going to shake things up. Latvala might benefit from a different coach and start turning some of his speed into results.

I love WRC, its sad to see it going down the toilet. WRC has by far the best driving I've ever seen. I suspected WRC was heading for trouble when they became spec parts series.

Sebastian Loeb opting out of running the whole series doesn't bode well for the state if the WRC either.

Keith Tanner wrote: Ford's going, but VW's coming in. So there's no real loss of the number of manufacturers. It is a shame to see Ford go after all these decades, especially now that they actually have a chance to win now that Loeb is leaving.

Loeb is contesting a partial series of the WRC next year, IMO, just to screw with everyone and take points away. It's hilarious.

Ford left because there is no way they could win in 2013. VW's budget is about double what the other manufacturers are spending and Ford lost Jari. With that in mind, plus Loeb competing at select events, there was basically no way for Ford to win.

Plus, the european economy is still in the toilet. M-Sport will still be there with Petter leading the charge, so they may be alright.

So, one manufacturer exits (but the privateer team, the real meat behind it, M-Sport stays) and we get two new manufacturers (Hyundai and VW). Not a bad tradeoff. Mini was dead before it arrived, a shame, but that is BMW's fault.

That's crappy. I was looking forward to having at least 5 factory efforts in the future (Cirtoen, Ford, BMW, VW, and entries from Hyundai). Was really hoping we were starting to get back to the good old days, now it looks like we're back to just two main manufacturers. Am disappoint.

Hyundai is coming back. http://www.wrc.com/news/hyundai-wrc-return-delights-fia/?fid=17528

I'm looking forward to see Latvala the rest of this season, with no ford return and him moving to another team, and leob already sealing the championship he is gonna get silly on the gas, and thay will be great for viewing.

Yes, Loeb is coming back for 5 rallies or so. It is going to screw with people for sure - just to remind them that he's still the boss. But he has to be on maximum attack to perform at his best, will he have trouble with that when there's nothing really on the line?

M-Sport does have the only ex-world champion that's still racing for the title. He's not had good luck for some time, but he'll win at least one rally next year. Ogier will will some, Latvala will win some, Hirvonen will be on the podium every single time.

I've always followed the drivers more than the manufacturers, so I still find it as interesting as ever.

If I were Malcolm Wilson, I'd tell Latvala that any car damage between now and the end of the season is coming out of his paycheck

Keith Tanner wrote: If I were Malcolm Wilson, I'd tell Latvala that any car damage between now and the end of the season is coming out of his paycheck

Oh man that would be painful, he would be 40 minutes off the pace lol

HiTempguy wrote: Mini was dead before it arrived, a shame, but that is BMW's fault.

Suzuki pulled the same stunt with the SX4 WRC car.

Keith Tanner wrote: Mini was never really in - they contested a year's (or two?) worth of rallies, but not terribly effectively and with some real stops and starts. Heck, that team was always just Prodrive anyhow. The fact that they'll be racing as Prodrive instead of MINI isn't going to make a significant difference. Ford's going, but VW's coming in. So there's no real loss of the number of manufacturers. It is a shame to see Ford go after all these decades, especially now that they actually have a chance to win now that Loeb is leaving. This announcement does make more sense of Latvala's announcement that he was driving for VW. I think the title will go to Hirvonnen, but the two quick drivers at VW are going to shake things up. Latvala might benefit from a different coach and start turning some of his speed into results.

Technically, VW isn't coming in, they are just increasing their investmet. They have been there for some time- just calling in Skoda.

A good question- why does Ford see WRC as a bad investment, whereas VW sees it as a good investment? Outside of here, there isn't much to VW rallying, and here's it's because Golfs/Rabbits are good old, cheap cars that rally well.

And it's not as if Ford has been all that great in the face of Citroen, so winning hasn't been all that regular. The Jr series has been all Fiestas for some time- so there's money in making cars for sale (theoretically).

The way racing is going, it's just confusing.

Moving_Target wrote:

HiTempguy wrote: Mini was dead before it arrived, a shame, but that is BMW's fault.

Suzuki pulled the same stunt with the SX4 WRC car.

No, Suzuki got screwed out of, oh, I don't know, $50 million odd dollars of investing in a team that the FIA berkeleyed them so hard on they'll probably never be seen in the WRC again.

They developed a car for the old WRC rules (2.0L turbo active diffs) and then the FIA changed the rules to completely different cars/specs. It was beyond insane.

VW is coming in as VW, not Skoda. So from a marketing standpoint, it's a new manufacturer. And they're aiming for the top of the podium, whereas Skoda was always a backmarker. So it's different setup. It's possible that Skoda's experience will be useful to them.

As for why Ford is pulling out, that's a tough one. Perhaps the current beancounters don't see it as relevant for sales (being a constant runner-up is tough) or useful from an engineering background. Ford does understand that putting a car under Ken Block's butt is a huge marketing advantage, one that probably offers a bang-for-the-buck benefit that's an order or two of magnitude larger than running a top-flight WRC team. It'll be interesting to see how well M-Sport can keep the cars competitive in the race series.

WRC will survive. It'll change. It'll never be as good as the good old days, but even they weren't as good as the gooder older days I suspect we'll see Ford back in it, possibly to coincide with a new car that needs some attention.

Did you know that Dodge is dropping out of NASCAR? Now that's big...

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Money is money when it's coming from one source.

Marketing wise- I really don't see what VW gets out of it, considering what Citroen, Mini, Ford, Mitsu and Subaru have gotten in the last few years.

last time anyone got anything signficant- WRX, Evo 11 or 12, and the not recent Focus RS. Since then- nothing has really developed out of Rallying. I really dont' see the current RS or ST as being WRC related.

Certainly, it will survive. What will it become?

Sucks, but we'll still see Fords at non-WRC rally events.

I know when the St Luis truck plant shut down, Bigfoot lost their Ford sponsorship. Thats money for ya. Good thing they were able to keep kicking without it.