Pirelli calls for GP2 equivalent in WRC

Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery, who signed off the Italian firm's £9million investment in the WRC, is happy with what he's seen from the sport since Pirelli undertook the contract to supply control tyres at the start of this season, but feels there should be more cars on the stages.

"Next season, the Pirelli Star Driver scheme is going to provide five drivers with equal cars for six rounds of the WRC," he said. "Why should we stop at this? If there were 20 of these equal cars, then we could have something similar to GP2 at F1 races.

"Rallying suffers because there is no single-car formula, so talent spotting is incredibly difficult for teams. And drivers with a budget struggle to know where to spend it to showcase their talents and put themselves in the shop window. This would solve all of those problems."

Hembrey believes the ideal approach would be to run the feeder category at a limited number of WRC events - as GP2 does with F1 - and that it would help to keep budgets at a manageable level.

"Running more of these cars would bring the costs down for the individual competitors and let more of the youngsters in. That's what we need. We could call it WRC2, run them on five or six rounds - some asphalt, some gravel and maybe one snow rally - and we would create that stepping stone into WRC.

"At the moment, Pirelli is making a big investment to find young drivers, which is fantastic, and it's going to help a great deal, but there's more that could be done from the sport itself."

There remains no decision on the car which will be used by the five Pirelli Star Drivers next season, although a Group N Subaru Impreza appears to be the favoured option.

Hembery confirmed that M-Sport had tendered for the deal to run the five cars, but the Cumbrian firm had budgeted to use Group N Fiesta STs on all 12 rounds of the WRC, instead of a four-wheel-drive car on six rallies. Hembery said: "We liked that idea very much, but we need a four-wheel-drive car."