Electric key for rallycross future
World Rallycross Championship promoter Paul Bellamy believes that the series will move back into the forefront of manufacturer involvement when it adopts electric rules in 2022.
Speaking to Autosport in the latest of our series of #thinkingforward podcasts, where motorsport industry leaders discuss the future, Bellamy said that while the flagship WRX contest will go electric in 2022, there will always be a place for the internal combustion engine in the sport.
“It’s no secret that they [the manufacturers] walked away from the world championship over 12 months ago,” said Bellamy. “And that was fine because their whole marketing strategy was to get behind new technologies, whether that be hybrid or electric, and we weren’t ready to turn electric at that time.
“As we go forward, the way I see it, I think internal combustion engine racing still has a place in motorsports, but probably for privateers and the romantics amongst us and the fans out there. The future for manufacturer involvement will be the new technology, and from a rallycross perspective we believe that’s going to be electric. And the plan with the FIA is for the world championship to be electric in 2022. That’s when I think we’ll start seeing manufacturing involvement come back.”
Bellamy added that he is confident that diehard rallycross fans will accept the new technology once they see it in action.
“We’re very fortunate,” he said.
“Across a rallycross weekend we have 80 races because we’ve got a number of support categories. The vision will be that the world championship does go electric in 2022. But the support categories, whether it’s Euro, Supercar, Super 1600s, will stay internal combustion engine because there are privateers out there, there are cars out there that still need to go racing somewhere.
“I’m certain that the traditional rallycross fans, unless there’s a noise to it or a roar, they’re not going to want to know. Human nature is, ‘I don’t like it, but I’m going to tune in, just to prove I don’t like it’. And then I think when they understand or when they see the technology behind it, and the fact that these cars with just the pure torque are going to be faster and there will still be contact, then they’ll start watching it, and then cross over.”