Mosley defends rule changes
FIA president Max Mosley has given his explanation of the sweeping rule changes for next year's World Rally Championship. The changes have, in general, been unpopular with teams for their immediate future planning, but Mosley suggests that they are in the long-term interests of the sport.
Speaking to WRC Radio, Moseley explained the general philosophy behind the new regulations: "The main reason is cost reduction. We are trying very hard to get the costs down in some sensible region because if we don't we are going to lose a lot of the manufacturers and other teams from the rally championship.
Hyundai have recently withdrawn from world rallying, whilst Ford remain uncertain that their budget will be able to cope with the new regulations.
"Probably next year we will only have four manufacturers, whereas we had six this year," continued Mosley. "It is quite clear that unless we do something to eliminate a lot of the costs we will lose even more.
"Also, we need to bring new manufacturers in and they are not going to come in while the costs are at the sort of level as they were in 2003."
The decision to add two far-flung rallies to the crowded schedule has not been welcomed by the majority of teams, but Mosley says the move was properly thought through.
"It was certainly necessary to bring in Mexico and Japan. The actual increase in costs from going from 14 to 16 rounds is far smaller than the reduction in costs that comes from the elimination of gravel cars, the reduction in length of each event, the elimination of the necessity of a serious manufacturer to run three cars and so on."
"What we must do it try to keep things sensible and stable and not change things unnecessarily," Mosley continued. "It is one of the problems in complex sports like motor sport. There is this tendency to change constantly. One mustn't do that because it destabilises, it costs money
"Our ambition is to get up to be as big and as important as Formula One. The World Rally Championship could be the equivalent to the Formula One World Championship."
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