[Bart]

New rules may be introduced in the World Rally Championship, adding even more complexity to the existing system. These rules should not please Carlos Sainz, winner of the Rally of Turkey or Harri Rovanperä, the first leader of the Turkish event.

The FIA Commission would require all the teams who have three drivers to hire a third driver that has never won a World Rally event. If this rule becomes effective, it will certainly not make the French teams Peugeot and Citroën too happy. With Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz and Sébastien Loeb at Citroën and Marcus Gronhölm, Richard Burns, Harri Rovanperä and Gilles Panizzi at Peugeot, all of these drivers have already won a World Rally event.

The objective of this new rule is to prevent the teams with the biggest budgets to hire the best drivers. If this rule is approved by the Commission, it should help reduce costs. It would mean that a team like Peugeot may have to pay a driver like Jusso Pykalisto or Cédric Robert to take place as a third driver.

( Bron: rally-live.com )

met andere woorden... 6 fabrieksteams (eventueel 7 met Mitsu)

Auriol, Bugalski, Burns, Delecour, Erikson, Gronholm, Kankkunen, Loeb, Makinen, C. Mcrae, Panizzi, Puraz, Rovanperra, Sainz, Solberg

met enkel Peugeot, Ford, Subaru en Citroën als échte WK kanshebber...

Zo'n regeling sluit definitief de deuren voor Delecour en Puraz bij een topteam. En het winnen van een WK rally voor een subtopper kan op die manier als het ware de doodsteek voor zijn carrière zijn.