DAVID EVANS

“WRC needs Sanremo return and WRC 2 rethink”

Milan’s Piazza del Duomo’s a fairly special place at the best of times. I first visited it a good few years ago, when I met Pirelli’s then head of motorsport Paul Hembery for some supper not far from Milan’s epic-looking cathedral (Duomo).

Hembers was on fine form, wasting no time in telling me what the WRC needed to do to get itself back on its feet. Citroen and Ford were our only two works teams and world rallying was looking very sorry for itself. I can’t remember exactly what time of year we were there, but I do remember the Piazza being absolutely packed with people.

“Imagine what used to happen when you brought an Alitalia [Lancia] Stratos or a Martini 037 through here,” he said. “The place would go mental. And it would again…” How right he was. And is. It’s an astonishing 15 years since the WRC departed the beautiful town of Sanremo for the last time and I genuinely feel for the good folk of northern Italy who have been denied what was the motorsport lifeblood of their region for the previous three decades. Now, I’m determined not to let this column degenerate into another Italian Federationbashing; I’ve grown to really like the Sardinia-based Rally Italy, but it’s still not northern Italy. It’s still not Sanremo and Toscana; asphalt and gravel; Bolognese and Brunello.

And last week, Hembery’s prediction came true. Milan’s square was graced by all four factory World Rally Cars from this year’s series and, predictably, they stopped traffic in a very, very good way.

Surely the time has come for a rethink regarding Italy’s WRC counter. Surely it has to take the sport back to these people who have waited far too long.

And if you ever doubted the enthusiasm retained for the sport in this part of the world, just have a look at the numbers rocking up at Monza for the circuit’s annual rally. They come in their droves, but a few laps of the Autodromo Nazionale is no substitute for a run through Monte Bignone.

And while I’ve got the FIA’S attention, am I missing something with this WRC 2 Pro business. Correct me if I’m wrong but when R5 was introduced five years ago, it was aimed squarely at privateers. It was the new feeder formula into the main World Rally Championship. With prices capped by the FIA, there was an insistence from the governing body that this formula wouldn’t be taken over by the manufacturers – they would simply make the cars then sell them to you and I. But probably more you than I…and now, having been unable to deliver on that original plan, the manufacturers now have their own title in a formula where they weren’t supposed to be competing in the first place!

The inclusion of WRC 2 Pro, for teams with two drivers (who also get their own championship) serves, in my eyes, to make a complicated and convoluted support series even more complicated.

Now we’ll have two WRC 2 champion drivers, both of whom can still dodge their main competition for much of the season. The FIA’S fiddled with something that needs a root and branch rethink.