MOTORSPORT: Decision close on Rally Australia

The long-awaited decision on whether Rally Australia remains part of the World Rally Championship (WRC) next year should be known within days – perhaps as soon as this weekend.

The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile’s (FIA) World Motor Sport Council is already overdue to vote on the 2020 calendar, having deferred a decision three weeks ago until “the end of June”.

A report this week by veteran international rallying correspondent David Evans suggested “the vote is likely to come on Friday (European time) but it could be pushed back until early next week”.

“Sources close to the governing body have outlined that the vote will include a proposal to add the expected Rally Japan and Safari Rally events,” Evans reported.

The Safari Rally has not been part of the WRC since 2002 but this weekend’s 67th running of that classic in Kenya (as part of the African Rally Championship) is an audition for a return to the global calendar, with senior FIA officials there closely observing it.

As the world governing body of motorsport, the FIA may opt to wait until the Safari concludes before its WMSC votes.

Australia’s future on the calendar has been clouded by the WRC organisers being concerned that Rally Australia’s home of recent years at Coffs Harbour has been too remote from a major population centre and not drawn their desired crowds.

New Zealand, which has not had a WRC event since 2012, has been keen to capture the antipodean round, if only for a year until another Australian venue that the WRC organisers are happier with is found.

However, speculation about NZ taking Australia’s place in the 2020 calendar has gone quiet in recent weeks after it was revealed the Kiwis were having difficulty raising the required money.

Evans reported this week that “the understanding is that there will be no need for the rotation of events in the manner discussed at last month’s WMSC meeting”.

That was mainly a reference to talk of rallies on the French island Corsica and in Germany rotating, although Rally Australia organisers have been wary of rotating with NZ.

Evans said Australia, Kenya and Japan had all voted against rotation, but he quoted a source saying that “Australia understands the very real potential for rotation with NZ”.

“The immediate future of the antipodean round remains unclear, with NZ understood to be ready to go with an Auckland-based event for one year only,” Evans wrote in an article published by Autosport.com.

And he added: “A new-for-2020 Rally Australia based out of Gold Coast is reportedly still to be finalised by the Australian governing body.”

That suggestion was dismissed by the Rally Australia office as not having “an iota” of truth.

This year’s Rally Oz at Coffs Harbour is on November 14-17. The event was run in Western Australia for 19 years before it moved to NSW’s Northern Rivers region (after talk of an elaborate Gold Coast base), then relocated to Coffs Harbour in 2011 - initially rotating with NZ.

Hyundai NZ will support the top Kiwi rally driver in a one-off return to the WRC next month – driving a Ford.

Hayden Paddon, a former Hyundai works driver dropped at the end of last season (when the Korean manufacturer hired the sport’s greatest name, Sebastien Loeb, for a part-time campaign this year) has struck a deal with M-Sport to drive a third Ford Fiesta for it at Rally Finland on August 1-4.

Already disappointed at being dropped from Hyundai’s WRC squad without any thanks, Paddon was even more annoyed to be overlooked for its third i20 coupe entry at Rally Finland, which has gone to Irish former Citroen driver, Craig Breen.

Paddon then promptly bought a drive with M-Sport (with which he had a previous association), with backing from his NZ sponsors and the full blessing of Hyundai NZ.

“Hayden is a Hyundai NZ driver and ambassador and, most importantly, he is representing NZ, which means more to us than what model of car he is driving,” Hyundai NZ general manager Andy Sinclair said.

“As a 100 per cent Kiwi-owned company, our decision to support a NZ sportsperson of Hayden’s calibre is easy. Hayden is, and will continue to be, a fine ambassador for the Hyundai brand in NZ.”

Paddon admitted he would be “a little bit on the back foot” after eight months out of the WRC, despite finishing second at last November’s Rally Oz, but said he “couldn’t keep sitting at home” and has vowed to “throw everything and the kitchen sink at it”.

Ferrari hasn’t won a constructors’ world championship in the past decade, and its last champion driver was Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, yet the company/team has easily won Formula 1’s sponsorship ‘race’ over the past 10 years.

Research by Christian Sylt’s Formula Money, and published by US wealth magazine Forbes, shows Ferrari’s sponsorship income in the decade from 2009 to 2018 was close to US$2.1 billion – almost A$3 billion!

That was 69.2 per cent more than second-best McLaren at US$1.234 billion, despite that second-most successful team in F1 history not having won a grand prix since 2012.

Red Bull Racing was third at US$972.6 million and the dominant team of the hybrid V6 era (now its sixth season), Mercedes (and its predecessor BrawnGP, the 2009 champion constructor with Mercedes power), fourth at US$944.9 million.

Sylt reported that Ferrari’s peak sponsorship was US$249.5 million in 2010, the year it recruited Fernando Alonso and its budget “was fuelled by a new deal with Spanish bank Santander, worth an estimated US$50 million annually, with a further US$100 million coming from tobacco giant Philip Morris”.

“Although this [Philip Morris sponsorship] has since been reduced to around US$50 million, it is still partnering with the team despite tough restrictions on advertising for tobacco manufacturers”.

Oil giant Shell’s support dates back to the team’s origins.

A report this week suggesting Daniel Ricciardo could be at Ferrari next year sounded far-fetched, but clearly the Scuderia would not have any trouble topping the handsome salary the carsales global ambassador is on at Renault.

Auto Action’s F1 correspondent Dan Knutson wrote that Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas “are at the top of Ferrari’s very short list to replace Sebastien Vettel should he decide to leave F1 at the end of the year”.

“Ricciardo has a two-year contract with Renault, but AA hears that there is a clause that allows him to leave at the end of 2019 if he has an offer to join Mercedes or Ferrari in 2020,” Knutson wrote.

However, Vettel has told The Times in London that “I really want to drive this year and next year”.