The wrong product was chosen as the flagship of marketing, writes Iltalehten’s Juuso Taipale.
A new generation of cars was introduced in the World Rally Championship this season. Toyota Gazoo Racing
Kalle Rovanperä is undoubtedly the best driver of the rally season. You can really only say one negative word about the world championship.
The Finn hardly had any opponents.
Of course, this is not Rovanperä’s fault at all. The reason is the World Rally Championship itself. The wrong choice in marketing is now paying off. This crop will be reaped for years to come.
A new era started in the WRC this year, when the main class introduced the new generation of Rally1 cars.
The WRC cannons that were in use from 2017 to 2021 will go down in the history books as monsters like the rally monsters of Group B, which will be fondly remembered for years to come.
Since car racing is first and foremost a marketing platform for car manufacturers, it was decided to focus on the needs of road games familiar from civilian roads in the current cars.
Ecological values are also popular in the automotive world. This season, two significant technologies serving the future of motoring were presented in the World Championship.
The reform, which turned out to be more insignificant, got more attention.
The World Series brought out the hybrid unit in a big way, a gimmick box that gives an additional electric boost to the special test at the push of a button.
Sebastian Loeb drove for Ford’s first win of the Rally1 era in Monte Carlo. EPA / AOP
Hybrid technology hasn’t really received much praise from rally fans. The hybrid unit is heavy and impractical, and also dangerous if it breaks. The risk of electric shock is a headache for rally fans.
“To the backroad!” you can still shout, but before the heroic deeds of the cloth man, you should make sure that it is safe to touch the car.
The hybrid’s tricks had a big meaning in this season’s World Cup battle. The rules forced Ott Tänak to stop the Swedish rally when a warning light came on in his car to indicate a failure of the hybrid power source. In reality, there was nothing wrong with the Estonian’s car.
It speaks volumes that the rally crowd wants to get rid of hybrids at this stage. However, we are stuck with them at least until 2024, maybe even longer.
The second major reform of the World Series was left with criminally little attention.
This year, Ott Tänak got his share of trickery with the hybrid unit. Vesa Pöppönen / AOP
The fuel is still used by the 1.6-liter engines. Now it’s just 100% renewable.
That is, one hundred percent fossil-free. Isn’t this exactly what the entire motoring world is thirsting for? The real Holy Grail.
Even electric cars have their own big problems. Mining the raw materials needed for battery technology is far from ecological. Replacing gasoline engines with electric ones is just moving from one problem to another.
Electric cars are hardly a sustainable solution for civil transport needs. Even less does it serve the rally world.
Jari-Matti Latvala has said his opinion out loud several times. Electric cars are not part of the rally.
Of course, Toyota’s Finnish boss has his own cow in a deep ditch.
Toyota is strongly developing hydrogen technology. Toyota Gazoo Racing
The Japanese brand stands for hydrogen technology. If you ask Toyota, the cars of the future will move with the force of one of the element’s ordinal number.
Toyota is developing hydrogen technology at a fast pace, but it will hardly be seen properly in civilian traffic for years, if ever. It is likely that freight and public transport will benefit from hydrogen, not the usual people standing in traffic jams at eight in the morning.
Synthetic, 100% fossil-free fuel is a big opportunity. The World Rally Championship has a huge PR gimmick in its possession, but it has used it abhorrently.
It is underlining that instead of the World Series, Finland Rally has marketed it much more prominently. Points for domestic rally expertise on this issue as well.
The Rally World Series needs all the positive coverage it can get.
WRC doesn’t exactly market its fuel with Kalle Rovanperä and Ott Tänak. Toyota Gazoo Racing
It doesn’t look good that two and a half car brands drive in a series operating with World Championship status. It says a lot about the appeal of the rally that Ford, one of the world’s largest car manufacturers, is not planning to return as an official factory team.
Hyundai was already close to leaving the series because it was not enthusiastic about the expensive and useless hybrid technology.
We just have to hope that the loss to Toyota in this year’s World Series doesn’t make the Korean team make too dark conclusions before 2024.
Perhaps Hyundai would be more actively involved if the market machinery was harnessed to drum up what seems to be the best method of generating car kinetic energy at the moment?