A few days ago was to be held the 4th round of the calendar, at Lydden Hill in England. Unfortunately, the two Lancia Delta Evos of Special ONE were destroyed in a fire caused by the electric batteries. We learn that the Belgian round, in Mettet, would also be canceled, leaving only the RX2e. The battery supplier struggled to supply and especially to find the cause of the fire. On the videos, the FIA explains that we see that the fire starts from the battery, while it was charging.
The WRX has made the decision to go electric, at the request of manufacturers. But, this transition did not happen in due time, nor as the manufacturers wanted, including Peugeot, who therefore deserted the championship. It’s part of the gearing that seems to be driving the WRX to its doom.
Another piece of the cog is the change of promoter. Before, the WRX communicated a lot, was broadcast, and at worst, there were a lot of official videos on Youtube. From now on, the communication is poor, and the races not diffused or almost. In addition, there are only 10 entries in the championship, when the WRX in its heyday had 20 to 25 entrants at each event. With the fire of the SP1 Lancias, this list increases to 8 participants for the RX of Germany on August 19th and 20th!
There remain the irreducible Hansens, Kristoffersson, Grönholm, Scheider and a few others. Starving board, no broadcast, cancellation of events… don’t throw away any more, the cup is full!
Was the WRX right to go electric?
Good question here. On paper, rallycross lends itself quite well to electrification. The races are short (5 to 6 laps of a small circuit) the time between each round is quite long, and you need a lot of torque to squirt corners. It is much better suited than the WRC rally with its “long” specials for example.
In practice, it seems that the supplier of the electrical base has poorly designed its battery, or clashes with physical reality…to deliver a lot of power and collect a lot of charging power, the battery heats up and suffers. The other reality is that a destroyed thermal car can be replaced “quickly”…the engines used were “classic” racing versions, the chassis relatively classic too. Above all, from memory, there has never been such a devastating fire that destroyed the two cars and the carriers with the thermal WRXs.
the FIA is probably too “proud” to offer a rear return to the 650 hp thermal WRX. So which way out? Change promoter? Without a doubt. But, you have to attract people to the track, which makes them come around the track. With the cancellation of the RX1e at Lydden Hill, the WRX especially drew even more criticism. Indeed, they maintained the small categories (also electric but without the worries of overheating and power NDLA) and therefore did not a priori reimburse part of the tickets. Paying for WRX and seeing RX2e… Oops!
Change promoter?
Instead of going straight to electric, the WRX could have gone through a hybrid transition, for example. A smaller thermal part and an electric boost. Or stay in thermal mode by imposing, for example, e-fuel (synthetic fuel) and communicating on carbon compensation, or other. The entry prices would then probably not have skyrocketed (no pun intended) the field would probably still be filled with about fifteen participants, and the circuits would not have deserted this championship. It’s no mystery that some WRX names fall back on the Euro RX1 (Marklund, Baumanis, Bakkerud, Larsson, Münnich, etc.).
To fill its calendar, and have 10 races, the WRX is obliged to do a “double header” (two races in the weekend) in South Africa and China. In 2015, the calendar had 13 dates and 15 permanent participants. The electric is not the only issue, the communication around the championship has never been up to par since the transition from IMG (with Monster Energy) to WRC Promoter (Red Bull). Before, we found the sleeves in detail, now they are very short “highlights”.
Other things have changed between the old and the new promoter like the music and the atmosphere between each round. From 2014 to 2019, the WRX paddocks were accessible, you could rub shoulders with motorsport stars who were rather accessible for photos, signatures, etc. With WRC Promoter, we move the fans more than 10 m away and therefore the atmosphere subsides. For broadcasting, WRC Promoter GMBh applies the same recipe as for the WRC, namely an “RX+” subscription at 99.99 euros per year. The only interest? We have the WRC and the ERC included.
Otherwise, for RX fans, there is fortunately the French championship. More than 20 participants, “only” 8 events but with a good “old-fashioned” atmosphere and accessible pilots. The next round is in rallycross time, at Lohéac (35) from September 1 to 3, 2023. Davy Jeannet, winner at Kerlabo, will try to increase his lead in the championship.