Teams bemoan lack of interest
Unlike scorching ambient temperatures on the Mediterranean coast, the World Rally Championship teams’ reception for Rally Turkey was a little more lukewarm last week.
For the second year in a row, the rocky roads around Marmaris turned the title race upside down, but the manufacturers were more frustrated at the absence of fans to witness a thrilling Sebastien Ogier victory and Citroen one-two.
Hyundai Motorsport director Andrea Adamo said: “There’s nobody here. On Friday we went to the Meet the Crews [end of day press conference] in the service park and it was the worst I’ve seen so far. There were some [promotional] ladies who had been put there and us team people and we were standing by the podium in the dark. It’s not so good.”
FIA rally director Yves Matton called on the manufacturers to give Turkey time.
“Remember when we first went to Mexico,” said Matton, “there was also not a lot of people and it’s improved. We may hope it will improve in Turkey also. If it doesn’t improve then we have to take this into account in the reflection on the championship [calendar].”
Matton added that the rough roads gave Turkey its own distinctive flavour.
“These roads are interesting because in rallying you need to have different kinds of roads for each rally,” said Matton. “Each rally needs its DNA and this rally has that.”
MN has been assured the question mark over Turkey’s future funding has been answered and Marmaris is expected to return for the third year of its three-year agreement in 2020.