As a kid, I was told countless times: “If you’re going to do something, then do it properly.” Which makes it all the more remarkable that I never learned.
Quite rightly, the organisers of Rallye Monte-Carlo were praised for doing an excellent job under Covid-19 restrictions, having received dispensation from the French government to run the event only days before the start.
It needed a substantial rework of the route to fit in with local curfew laws (which require people to be at home by 6pm each night), making this the shortest Monte ever, at just over 257 kilometres (160 miles).
Yes, there was certainly all sorts of weather and close competition, but was it a proper Monte? No. The entire route consisted of just 15 stages (Saturday featured only three), and on most days, the competitive action was over by lunchtime.
Anyone caught spectating on the stages was fined and there were more gendarmes and blue lights than you would find on Bastille Day. All the restaurants and bars were closed, access to everywhere was restricted, masks were de rigueur and the atmosphere was about as welcoming as a slammed door.
This isn’t what rallying is about. It’s the most convivial form of motorsport that exists, where people get so close to the cars that they help to push them out when they slide off. Monte just isn’t Monte without the packed bars at the top of the Col de Turini and fans jostling for autographs at the service park.
The drivers might disagree, but this year’s rally was a sad shadow of its former self. And if you’re not going to do it properly, don’t do it at all.
A better solution, in my view: how about running it at the end of the year as a spectacular season-closer in December? Or even just waiting until next year, when we can have a Monte as it should be?
Anthony Peacock
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World rallying has already been massively watered down since its heyday.
Perhaps it is just not a sustainable sport in this pandemic ridden, eco-conscious world.
I agree with the sentiment; WRC events are more like races than rallies nowadays. Unfortunately, it's all about the manufacturers and the danger is that, if they cancelled all the shortened rallies through Covid, the last remaining professional teams would forget the sport and take up circuit racing. Anything is better than nothing at all.
I'm inclined to agree - rallying has already been watered down with ever shorter events. And now during the Covid crisis, every event has been shorter than it's supposed to be by the regs/rules. I think they ran approx 160 stage miles - which really is short for a WRC event.
They were going to run whatever (unless there was a definite NO! from above); I imagine if they needed to, they'd have run a 1 day event with 70miles of stages and thought that okay.
I saw suggestions about running at the end of the year as the final round; when they can run the full event. If Le Mans can move their event from June to September so they can run the full event, why can't the Monte do the same?
However, good to see a contrary view expressed; too much WRC journalism is about how great everything is, and organisers always get things right.