WRC has lost its momentum, says Neuville

Hyundai Motorsport’s Thierry Neuville has said that the Championship has lost its momentum and that “no one cares” about the World Rally Championship anymore.

The comments came as the FIA has called for views of drivers from the WRC’s three manufacturer teams to be taken on board to help shape how the WRC should evolve over the next few years, according to one senior FIA figure.

A series of one-on-one chats have recently taken place involving top names and representatives from the competition, and separately with drivers and officials from the sport’s governing body.

Neuville has called for greater collaboration between the sport’s main stakeholders in an attempt to come up with a framework they can all agree on, especially around the use of hybridisation in the current Rally1 cars.

The Belgian also pointed to the fact that prior to the COVID-19 health pandemic, the competition had been thriving, yet this momentum has been lost, even suggesting “no one cares” about it anymore.

One of the longest serving and best-known drivers in the dual-surface series, he believes nothing should be left off the table, with increased manufacturer involvement and media exposure two of the areas he has singled out.

Andrew Wheatley – the FIA’s Road Sport Director – is one of the people in the service park who trying to get buy-in from Neuville and his counterparts by giving them more of a say.

“There have been several constructive discussions in recent weeks,” Wheatley is quoted as saying in the FIA’s Rally Newsletter.

“I had a one-on-one with Thierry Neuville immediately after Rally of Portugal. The Vice-President of the Drivers’ Commission Petter Solberg hosted a consultation with World Rally Championship drivers at the start of Rally Italia Sardegna to gather their views.

“FIA Deputy President for Sport Robert Reid and myself had a high-level meeting with World Rally Championship Promoter in Munich last month to discuss a number of issues related to the World Rally Championship, including the future of the sport, and the Promoter has followed up with an online session involving drivers and representatives of key teams in the top categories,” he added.

Wheatley says once drivers’ ideas for the future, and suggestions about what immediate changes can be applied, have been collated, the real work begins. “These will be collated together with the aim to provide a blueprint, or roadmap, of how the sport will evolve in the next few years,” he said.

“Those discussions are feeding an ongoing decision-making process that involves the World Rally Championship Commission in regard to the development of the championship.

“The Commission consists of representatives of event organisers, manufacturers, WRC Promoter and Pirelli – the World Rally Championship’s official tyre supplier – and meets four times a year to discuss key issues and define proposals for regulations before they are submitted to the World Motor Sport Council,” he added.