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FIA's Todt: More two-country rallies could ease WRC calendar issues

FIA president Jean Todt has proposed more cross-border rallies as a way of easing the World Rally Championship's calendar congestion.

Established rounds are coming under threat from events like the Safari and Rally Japan, both of which are expected to join the WRC next year at the expense of European events.

The first two rounds of the season are currently shared, between Monte Carlo and France on round one and Sweden and Norway on round two.

"I want a global championship so I want rallies in Europe where the history of rallying started - but I want to go to every part of the world: Latin America, Asia," said Todt.

"I feel bad we don't have a rally in China - we had some attempt, but it did not work - India, Indonesia or Thailand.

"I want to go back to Africa and we're working on that and the Middle East.

"That's what we want to achieve but we cannot host 20 rallies, we need to find criteria.

"I wanted to have multi-country rallies: I thought one rally could use two countries.

"What I wish does not always happen, but I feel we should have some sort of creativity with rallies covering more than one country - this could help settle this question of European calendar."

Kenya and Japan will both run candidate rallies this season and are expected to be included if those run successfully.

Corsica, Germany and Sardinia are understood to be the events under pressure, with two likely to be dropped to make room for the Safari and Japan.

Despite WRC Promoter's appetite for more events, the calendar is unlikely to expand beyond 14 rallies at the behest of the manufacturers.

"The championship, in its entirety, has had 32 countries," said WRC Promoter managing director Oliver Ciesla.

"I don't think we need to hype so much which one is going. If it will be France, Italy or Germany going then in that very moment, of course it will be bad news.

"[But] if we do not go to the biggest markets in the future, which is also China and the United States, then this is not interesting for sponsors and car [manufacturers] to make their business in the future.

"And if you do not run a product that they sell this is also a threat. It makes little difference what European country we're in or not in if they want to go to China, India or the US.

"Long-term, losing one European round is not a threat to the championship."

Ciesla admitted he could see value in Todt's idea of two-country events, adding: "I am not against this, but the technical implementation needed to have two countries working together is complicated.

"It is ideal from a political point of view, because it helps us to touch many more markets, but the truth is to combine two organisers is very complex; it means combining different governing bodies, different police forces.

"Very few countries work so close together."

Zdroj: wrc.com