Rally – FiA Stalls WRC Calendar

The FiA World Motor Sport Council met today with a number of issues on the agenda. One such item, was the 2011 WRC calendar that has been put forth by North One Sport. The calendar that was purposed has been under wraps and had a large amount of buzz surrounding it as we reported about a month ago. The FiA however has stalled the calendar in a very typical FiA fashion.

The motorsport governing body asked North One Sport to further consider the calendar. One point that was debated revolves around Abu Dhabi’s potential event. According to an article posted on Autosport regarding the issue, some involved in the situation are upset that Abu Dhabi can just jump into the championship with such few spots available for rounds. Events like Rally Ireland are already considered to be cut from the WRC which has prompted a number of complaints as well. The Abu Dhabi round would be based around the Yas Marina area. It is unlikely that the replacement to Rally Jordan will be removed due to heavy influence from UAE’s vice-president of the FIA Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

North One Sport is also hopeful that negotiations to regain the Monte Carlo Rally are successful. Rally Poland is on standby to open the season if negotiations fail, however the talks have been closed off and people are really unsure as to where it stands to this point. Monte Carlo wants the WRC back, but the rotating schedule that is currently being employed must go if Monte is to comeback as the annual WRC season opener. That is one of the items the new schedule will take care of.

A decision is to be made before 16 April of this year on what the final schedule should be so venues have time to prepare for the events.

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