WRC's visibility crisis

Here's one for you... have you heard about the Rally of Spain driver who got fined for trying to promote the event on the internet?

No joke.

No. It's really no joke.

Italian driver Gianluca Cali fitted an onboard camera in his Citroen C2 and attempted to stream the footage live to the internet. Unfortunately for Cali, he was rumbled when the interference from the internet link knocked out the tracking device fitted to his car, alerting the rally organisers.

He was called before the stewards, hauled over the coals and given a €200 fine.

Now, I fully understand the dangers of buggering about with the safety tracking system: that's an unequivocal no-no.

But, stewards' decision number five pointed out that he was trying to do this without permission from the WRC promoter.

Now, again, I fully understand that the WRC promoter is keen to protect the media and commercial rights it has within the World Rally Championship. But, this fella was running at car 137 - shouldn't we have applauded his initiative and thanked him for trying to do what the WRC promoter should be doing itself from every single round of the series?

Yes, yes, I know, there's a line to be drawn and if we say yes to somebody then what about the next average Joe who comes along wanting to do the same thing and then the next 10?

Gianluca Cali used a crude system to live-stream his onboard footage © XPB

Fair enough. Maybe a point had to be made. But I'd also like to make a point. I don't know Mr Cali, but I went and had a poke around his section of the service park. Please, Gianluca, don't take this the wrong way, but it wasn't about to rival NASA in terms of technological and scientific potential. From what I could see, he was a bloke with a mobile phone and a GoPro. I've possibly over-simplified his operation, but not by much.

And he was doing this without millions of pounds of backing; he'd just invested in some PDQ mobile internet.

So, if he can do it - and I know it can be done because I've seen the results from such a budget operation being tested in Britain - then why aren't we watching live coverage galore from every WRC round?

For that, I have no answer.

But, I do have some news on live coverage.

Next year, and following the thick end of a year of research, the WRC promoter aims to offer us an hour of live television coverage from 10 rounds of the championship.

That's an hour for every round, so 10 hours. Not just one hour across the whole season. That wouldn't be very good, would it?

And there are those in the service park who don't think 10 hours is very good either.

I talked to Citroen team principal Yves Matton about this and he immediately pointed to Rally of France, which brilliantly showed every stage live on local telly.

And I'll point you to Eurosport on the Monte two years ago. Ten hours? Pah, try double that on one rally. That was 12 out of 13 stages beamed live to your living room and watched by 14 million.

Is the 2014 plan for 10 hours of live footage enough? © XPB

I realise there are those who don't see the value of live coverage and don't understand the clamour for wall-to-wall coverage.

They question the investment required (although I think the above points out that the multi-gazillions we've been quoted in the past might be wide of the mark) and wonder if that money could be spent elsewhere.

I take that point. I, too, no longer see the real value in the telly. We have Apple TV and I watch the WRC via the internet now.

But WRC promoter Oliver Ciesla was the one who was at Sportel in Monaco earlier this month, flogging the WRC - and he said the market's back for a live offering. We have to put our faith in him and go with it.

This week, Ciesla will stand up in Geneva and lay out his plans for the future of the sport. If the feeling in the service park is anything to go by, he'd better have some aces up his sleeve, because he could be in for a pretty rough ride at that Geneva meeting.

The feeling is the same, from the FIA down through the events and the teams; the talking is done, the listening is done.

The time has come for action. And plenty of it.

And, quite frankly, I'm not interested in boasting about a million likes on Facebook. As my colleague Jerry Williams points out in another insightful Motorsport News column, come back to us when you're ready to stand toe-to-toe with SpongeBob Squarepants - he's up to 45m.

And, once again, the thing that frustrates me to the point of despair is the way our sport still manages to hide itself away.

We have the best sport in the world. Bar none.

The fans were out in force in Spain, even at 6am © XPB

Final service in Spain on Sunday morning was horribly early. Even with the extra hour in bed, getting up and into service for 0545 was harsh. But, as I drove from the hotel to PortAventura, I couldn't believe my eyes. The streets of Salou were alive with camera flashes. And this wasn't even for the cars - this was for the team buses carting the bleary-eyed crews into work.

Incredible.

Rally of Spain - from its brilliant Friday night stages onward - once again delivered a truly world-class event in terms of organisation, competition and action.

After the opening lap of last week's Indian Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel had, what, a two-second lead after three miles.

In Spain, across stages where the nature of the surface was changing with every car that passed through, Jari-Matti Latvala and Dani Sordo were dead level after six stages and 85 miles. Not a tenth of a second between them.

Want close motorsport? Come to the World Rally Championship; it doesn't get any closer.

I realise this column has been a bit of a nag, but I've listened to the combined frustrations of the service park for too long not to comment on them. And the above, while it won't make pleasant reading for Ciesla and his colleagues, is a very fair reflection.

And, once we do see some movement in the championship and we do see some action from the WRC promoter, then I'll be the first to bang the sport's - and Ciesla's - drum.

But for now, what we need is very definitely a case of facta, non verba.

Come Thursday, let's have actions. Not words.

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