M-Sport founder Malcolm Wilson has voiced his annoyance at the UK’s continued absence from the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calendar, saying it is “no secret that it frustrates me”.
The UK – like Australia and New Zealand – is expected to be absent from the 2024 roster when it is officially unveiled next month as the FIA and WRC Promoter put the finishing touches to it.
However, as one of the competition’s original events, its absence is being keenly felt since it last made an appearance in 2019 before the COVID pandemic and then consecutive funding issues.
Top-flight drivers have already backed plans by Bobby Willis to run an all-new UK round under the Rally Northern Ireland banner, with this being based in the country’s capital city of Belfast.
Welshman and Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Elfyn Evans – a winner of his home event back in 2017 – has previously questioned if the desire exists within the walls of Motorsport UK to broker a deal. Wilson has now made his feelings clear on the subject and says the status quo is no longer good enough.
“I make no secret that it really does frustrate me that we don’t have a UK-based WRC event and our fans have had little chance to witness the incredible hybrid Rally1 cars,” said the 67-year-old, who has close ties with the British market as many of his cars ended up there, and Northern Ireland having competed in the region many times.
“The technology these new generation of Rally1 cars possess, and the things they are capable of out on the stages, can only be appreciated by seeing them running in anger, in person,” he added.
A lack of public funding appears to have once again thwarted efforts to host Rally Northern Ireland in 2024 – an idea spearheaded by Bobby Willis with support from MP and motorsport aficionado Ian Paisley and the government’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for Motorsport.
As recently as June of this year, the House of Commons heard that securing the rights would be worth in excess of £100 million ($AUD196 million) to the region for an investment understood to be between £1million and £1.5m ($AUD1.96million and $AUD2.95 million).
It means that the UK’s absence from the sport’s highest echelon is entering a fifth successive year, with there being no shortage of takers to snap up slots on the 2024 calendar, which is to welcome Latvia in place of Estonia whilst Poland is being strongly rumoured to make its comeback.
Monte Carlo, Sweden, Portugal, Greece, Kenya, Sardinia, Chile and Finland, meanwhile, are all contracted for next year.
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