As demonstrated in Rally Jordan 2011, the job of getting there was hampered by political unrest in the Middle East. Only after a strenuous journey - as told by Ford's John Milllington in the YouTube clip below - the 37-strong convoy, which then among other things had been delayed at the port of Haifa in Israel because of paperwork issues, arrived at the Dead Sea service park location after midnight on Wednesday. Not much time since the rally starts on Thursday. Normally, the teams arrive on Saturday and begin their build up of the team area immediately. Now they had less than 24 hours.
Citroen Racing team manager Sven Smeets explained the situation to WRC.com: “The initial plan was to go through the Suez Canal and land in Aqaba in the south of Jordan. But the situation in Egypt made the trip through the canal difficult, so we decided to land in Tartous in Syria. Given the recent events there this solution was no longer possible. Together with Ford, North One Sport, Michelin and a few private teams we chartered a boat for Haifa, in Israel [from Trieste in Italy].” And if that was not enough: Some teams brought their rally cars back to their bases before freighting them by air to Jordan with the factory Ford Fiesta RS WRCs being flown from Luxembourg to Amman. But the trucks are too big to be freighted by air, so they had to be moved by sea. The new boat was hired at a collective cost of almost $825,000.
This situation, and last year’s Icelandic ash cloud that made the journey home from Rally Turkey an adventure, shows that even in the age of globalization, distance still matters (opposite to what Francis Cairncross, the author of the 1997 book The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives, claimed). Despite all economic and sociological talk of a borderless world, ports and borders are perhaps more heavily guarded than ever before in the name of preventing crime. It also affects the general public. Just think about how it was to travel with an airplane ten years ago compared with today.
Those in charge of logistical setups, which is a big yet sometimes poorly communicated achievement of the WRC teams, could be faced with new challenges in this regard. According to WRC commercial boss Simon Long the number of European events in the WRC could be reduced in 2012 in favour of ‘flyaway’ rallies being added to the calendar: “I don't think we're going to see a revolution, but there is a desire to evolve the calendar to a more global one, as we are pretty Eurocentric as a championship right now. Long-term we need to look at the big emerging economies like Russia, China, India and Brazil.” Now, the 2012 calendar was not all that surprising, but for the future Long may have a point. Scouting new locations is however not as easy as it might seem, not least if we take into account those who advocate a return to the classic WRC rallies such as Monte Carlo and the Safari and making them the backbone of WRC once and for all.
Any expansion of WRC must also be rooted in an existing spectator base. Especially on this point Citroen has complained about the need for having a WRC round in the Middle East. Team principal Olivier Quesnel said that “the FIA wants to have a round in the Middle East, so we have to go, but it's not important for us. There’s not really enough people. I have to say, I wouldn’t be sad not to come back to Jordan. The stages are OK, but it’s not enough. In Abu Dhabi, sure there is more money, I'm pretty sure we won't have too many people there, either.” On the other side, perhaps more WRC rounds in Asia could bring back some Asian manufacturers that ruled the WRC in the 1990s?
I imagine the 2013-2014 seasons will be exiting on this matter...
