World Rally Championship manager Michele Mouton gave her opinion about the serie in an interview in French daily newspaper Le Monde .
World Rally championship runner-up in 1982, the French driver is now in charge of the WRC for the FIA since the beginning of this season. "This year, the rally was broadcast on the web, and that’s something we want to improve," she said. "With this system, anyone can watch live the world championship."
However, Mouton regrets the current format of the rally, which is too standardized from her point of view. “The rally is a popular sport, it must meet the people, she continued. But it is no longer present in big cities. (…) The rally is too formatted, too elitist also. At the time, when we participated in a rally, it crossed the whole country ! Today the rallies are drawn around a center point and the itinerary turns around. My wish is to give a more adventurous and more popular side. The return of the Monte Carlo contributes to this, it will not be a classic route loop… We try to restore a bit of charm !”
Finally, one of Michèle Mouton’s major projects for the WRC is a globalization of the discipline. “Today we have a world championship," she concludes. "But nine out of sixteen races are presented in Europe and some continents, Africa for example, are a bit forgotten. This is part of the project to make the FIA WRC more global”.
World Rally championship runner-up in 1982, the French driver is now in charge of the WRC for the FIA since the beginning of this season. "This year, the rally was broadcast on the web, and that’s something we want to improve," she said. "With this system, anyone can watch live the world championship."
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| Michele Mouton. (Photo: WRi2) |
However, Mouton regrets the current format of the rally, which is too standardized from her point of view. “The rally is a popular sport, it must meet the people, she continued. But it is no longer present in big cities. (…) The rally is too formatted, too elitist also. At the time, when we participated in a rally, it crossed the whole country ! Today the rallies are drawn around a center point and the itinerary turns around. My wish is to give a more adventurous and more popular side. The return of the Monte Carlo contributes to this, it will not be a classic route loop… We try to restore a bit of charm !”
Finally, one of Michèle Mouton’s major projects for the WRC is a globalization of the discipline. “Today we have a world championship," she concludes. "But nine out of sixteen races are presented in Europe and some continents, Africa for example, are a bit forgotten. This is part of the project to make the FIA WRC more global”.