Teams Raise Concerns About Potential 16-Round World Rally Championship Season

Efforts to raise the number of rounds on the World Rally Championship calendar "look to have run aground after the teams raised cost concerns" about a potential 16-round season, according to David Evans of MOTORSPORT. WRC Promoter Managing Dir Oliver Ciesla "laid out his company’s vision and offset the extra costs involved against the hike in value gained from the extra rallies." However, for the teams, 14 is "as high as they appear prepared to go -- with some speculation that Toyota wants the number to drop to 10." Hyundai Team Manager Alain Penasse was not impressed with the potential increase." Penasse: "We tried running 16 rallies before. It worked, it’s possible. But that was 10 years ago, when the teams had a lot more money than we have now" (MOTORSPORT, 5/18).