2012 World Rally Championship

[chunder]

This is true cg.

You would think that the Mini campaign would sell itself though? I know it obviously costs milllions to develop a car, but either thsi was not sold to BMW very well from the start, or BMW have realised after agreeing a deal that they dont want to be in WRC>

Eitehr way it's a very poor show. As Prodrive have a reputation for doing a good job in WRC, most cars they have built ahve been quick and also oftetimes cars you would not immediately think suit rallying, BMW M3, POrsche 911, Legacy etc etc. They are probably the most proven WRC team.

Be fascinating to find out who has done a runner, I wonder if BMW getting into DTM has anything to do with it, that their marketing and motorsport budget cant extend as far as WRC.

I do thin if they farm the team out elsewhere, that maybe Prodrive have missold the costs, as if they stay with another team that would mean Prodrive are too expensive!

Either way, damn weird

[AndyS]

Originally Posted by FIRE

The former Ralliart Italia? IIRC they run already some Mini's.

That would be the obvious choice. I do hope they continue with somebody else and don't just shelve it. Prodrive have done a decent job getting the car up and running and pretty close to the pace and possible on quite a tight budget. With a seasons development it looks a potential winner.

Who knows what has gone wrong, but I'm guessing finances are the issue. Cost gone up, not enough take up on customer cars, BMW feeling the affect of the Euro zone crises and heavily committed to DTM, lack of any one willing to committ sponsorship compounded by the promotor issues.

Having said all this, nothing has actually been confirmed yet. Hopefully Autosport have jumped the gun and got it wrong. If BMW do pull the plug then anyone else considering a WRC entry would be sure to beat a path to Prodrives door. Nissan Juke anybody!

[bella]

history boffins, when was the last time bmw got involved in a factory wrc effort?

i heard once that bmw sell every single car they build, so they don't need to advertise to sell more cars. they only need to get involved in sports to enhance their reputation and ones that are important to their customer demographics. i wonder how much that applies to mini?

[FIRE]

Like Robby Gordon said "It's a girls car"

[chunder]

BMW were invovled int he early M3 effort I think with Prodrive

Which makes all this so laughable!!

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by FIRE

And the TV deal with Eurosport seems also far away. WRC goes from bad to worse...

Yeah you could say that:

Talks between the FIA and Eurosport for the promotion of the World Rally Championship break down
Link: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97313

[skells22]

so who is fave now for the rights. so it is 3rd time lucky for FIA to find someone and got to do so fast!

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by skells22

so who is fave now for the rights. so it is 3rd time lucky for FIA to find someone and got to do so fast!

The news are coming in a hurry now:

WRC event organisers told to finalise their own TV deals after Eurosport talks break down
Link - http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97314

Not exactly an ideal solution.

[Silk Cut Jaguar]

So the only rally events left with decent TV coverage are potentially Eurosports own IRC rallies?

/cynic

[AndyS]

Originally Posted by bella

history boffins, when was the last time bmw got involved in a factory wrc effort?

Twice I think. M3 with Prodrive in the late 80's and I seem to think that there might have been an M1 rally car back in the Group B days. Don't know whether it actually did any events though.

[chunder]

I dont think Prodrive were involved with the M1, but BMW might have been. Was a very weird deal, Begiun was quick on occasion but the car was far too big and unwieldy. dont even think it had a handbrake!

BMW were a factory team with the 2002 in the 70's they ran a few guys back then, Ove Andersson perhaps? I cant remember, but the car was quick and that engine is still the basis for most 4 pot Audis now!

[FIRE]

Mini has confirmed that Prodrive's involvement with the Mini World Rally programme has been reduced to the status of a works-supported private team.

The firm has agreed that the Motorsport Italia-run WRC Team Mini Portugal will contest the remaining 12 rounds, scoring points in the manufacturers' championship with Armindo Araujo and Paulo Nobre driving.
...

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97361

So for some reason unknown to the public Mini [BMW] punishes Prodrive by taking away the factory status?

[GOLDFINGER]

Strange situation ?

[tbtstt]

Very odd situation, I assume there is more to this than meets the eye.

Such a shame for the WRC as well, this year started with such promise, but seems to be lurching from one disaster to the next now.

[broadrun96]

Except the article reads more like Prodrive will be building the cars and helping Mini support their customer teams, ie Motorsport Italia. And Prodrive tweeted, Graham Goodwin retweeted, 'Mini confirmed commitment to WRC and Prodrive for long term.' No correction was posted as of tonite, so the full truth is?? And I'm sure Prodrive will know how to spin it through their PR, but building without racing them could be a good thing if Motorsport Italia has better sponsors already.

[leonidas]

Very strange - its not like Prodrive have done a bad job on the stages!

I wonder if the parent company has backed off because of the problems of WRC promotion? BMW are a serious operation and its difficult to believe they would allow a motorsport strategy to go this far to the point of success and then get cold feet. But then no-one is going to throw money at a championship that has no media profile.

Or maybe there is more to it...

[chunder]

Good point actually, but surely BMW have no need to reply on WRC PR, they will just do their own,

The Mini team is very promotable, with merchandise. Maybe BMW have just found out how much it really costs to compete with Citroen and Ford, and dont like it.

But it does come across like BMW have just fallen out with Prodrive and want to get out of a contract for some reason.

And you could really understand it if the car was like thge Suzuki or the Hyundai Accent, and didnt perform at all, bu it has been very quick despite limted rallies, and even more weird, they have sold shedloads of the damn things!

Youw atch youtube from different places in Europs and the things are fgetting as popular as Peugeot 207 S2000's, that must number the 2 or 300 hundred!!

[tbtstt]

Good article (I thought ) on the Prodrive/BMW situation here:

http://www.maxrally.com/features/ent...medium=twitter

[G.Walker]

Thanks for the article, what a mess WRC is in. Looking forward to Sweden, getting good odds on a Sordo win

[Richie_TeamBreed]

What's the deal with MINI scoring points? I just read on WRC.com that MINI Portugal will be allowed to score team points this season but no mention of Prodrive being allowed to score points. Surely even if Prodrive has had it's works status stripped they should still get to score points as a semi-works team? Or maybe I have read this wrong. I bet Dani Sordo is none too pleased.
Also, am I right in thinking the Team Portugal MINI's are prepped by Motorsport Italia and not Prodrive?

[leonidas]

The points situation is odd as its a teams championship not a manufacturer championship. Sordo's points are therefore surely Prodrives...? Even if Prodrive has had is works status stripped it will still be registered for the championship - unless the 'official entrant' is not actually Prodrive but MINI/BMW? Does anyone know?

Seems like the BMW/Prodrive relationship broke down and then BMW realised they needed Prodrive due to property rights issues! So a deal was cut...

What I don't get is how you can register a team for the championship after the closing date and the first event?? I suspect there are a few arguments behind the scenes as the FIA makes it up as it goes along...

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by leonidas

The points situation is odd as its a teams championship not a manufacturer championship. Sordo's points are therefore surely Prodrives...? Even if Prodrive has had is works status stripped it will still be registered for the championship - unless the 'official entrant' is not actually Prodrive but MINI/BMW? Does anyone know?

Seems like the BMW/Prodrive relationship broke down and then BMW realised they needed Prodrive due to property rights issues! So a deal was cut...

What I don't get is how you can register a team for the championship after the closing date and the first event?? I suspect there are a few arguments behind the scenes as the FIA makes it up as it goes along...

What a mess. I think they need to get it figured out and now they are in, they need to go all in. I think Mini/BMW showing some factory stability will also help with finding sponsorship. Who wants to do a multi million dollar deal for such a mess of a team?

[cg7aa]

Surprised to see so little comment about the actual rally, I thought it was rather good. Some of the footage took me back to the old days when external and helicopters shots provided some very cool scenes. Great pictures all round, well done to the Swedish company who provided the pictures.

[NaBUru38]

The 60-min highlights was shown on Fox on Monday at 1 am, more or less the same as in previous years. No gain, no loss this time.

[BertMk2]

Have to admit I didn't see any of this one (and Sweden is probably my favourite event of the year). I might have a rummage about on the web this evening to see what I can find.