Rally boss says new cars key

A new grid of "sexier" World Rally Championship (WRC) cars will help bring younger fans back to rallying. That's the opinion of Ford WRC squad and M-Sport team boss, Malcolm Wilson.

Speaking at last weekend's Bathurst 12 Hour, where his organisation fielded the factory Bentley Continental GT3s (one of which claimed third), Wilson says he believes the new crop of more aggressively-styled cars made possible by new regulations is a step in the right direction.

"The cars will definitely look a lot more aggressive. They will look a lot sexier [and] they will appeal to a younger audience," Wilson told motoring.com.au.

"With [current] road cars you follow one and say 'Is it a Hyundai or a BMW?' That has rubbed off [on WRC cars] because we have been restricted in the bodywork.

"I really believe that with what we are doing and what the other teams are doing [with the new cars], they [the next-gen WRC cars] will have more appeal," Wilson said

New cars aside, Wilson says the WRC still faces an uphill battle to capture a wider audience.

"There's a positive trend… [But] I have to admit there's something that just is not quite right with WRC at the minute," he admitted.

"I have been looking at trying to pinpoint what it is. I've been trying to digest all the comments. [But] I think we have to accept that rallying is never going to get back to where we all thought it was," he said.

In part, Wilson blames the dominance of multi-times world champion Sebastien Loeb, and more recently his namesake Sebastien Ogier, as well as the reliability of modern WRC machinery.

But Wilson also admits manufacturers have more choice than ever where to spend their marketing dollars – ergo their commitment to rallying is less complete.

"If you do go back a little bit further in that era when rally was really strong, manufacturers didn't invest in other disciplines of sport. Ford wasn't in football; Volvo probably wasn't in ocean racing – all these sorts of things. [Even] Nissan is now involved in the Champions League.

"If you look back, when rally was strong was when manufacturers weren't sponsoring anything else outside the motor industry," he opined.

"The other thing that hasn't helped to be honest is the total dominance of Sebastien Loeb and now Sebastien Ogier. Because unless something happens, he [Ogier] is going to win this year's championship," Wilson said.

"He is 1/10th second a kilometre quicker than anyone else. And Loeb was the same.

"When you think back – Tommi Makinen, Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz, Juha Kankkunen – they were all fighting. You genuinely never knew who was going to win.

"Of course now the cars are [also] so much more reliable. [And] the drivers have realised the quickest way is to drive neat and tidy. Things have changed," he lamented.