“The future of motor sport, with the need of being electric [or hybrid], is not as big as we thought. An F1-style budget cap would also be good.”

However, the move is supported by Toyota team boss Jari-Matti Latvala when he spoke to this magazine earlier in the year an event to promote the new WRC-derived Yaris GR road car.

“One thing for sure is that costs are too expensive,” he said. “We have lost privateer teams in the top class [after the introduction of Rally1].

“I think they [should] get the hybrid out and focus on e-fuels or hydrogen – that would be the way to go to reduce the costs.

“From the fans’ perspective, they want to have a car that is like F1 for rally.

“Rally1 is so quick, it doesn’t matter if we make it a little bit slower, [while] bringing it closer to [second-tier class] Rally2 would also help with the money – that would be the way to go.”

Make the WRC points system simpler

The championship managed to shoot itself in the foot further this year by introducing a convoluted points system, with the rally ‘winner’ being crowned on Saturday (two thirds of the way through the three-day event) but with more points available on Sunday.

Though this was introduced to induce excitement right up to the finish, it meant the ‘winner’ could end with less points than the second-place driver, confusing fans and again prompting them to disengage.

“The fact that victory isn’t necessarily well-rewarded, it shouldn’t be like this that’s for sure,” commented Neuville.

Now points will be awarded for the overall classification (on a similar scale to F1) of 25-17-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 for the top 10, and an extra 5-4-3-2-1 for the top five fastest cars on Sunday.

Give seats to young star rally drivers

If costs came down and entries increased, so the WRC would have newer, younger star drivers to focus on – it certainly needs fresh engaging personalities to bring in fans.

One of the reasons the death of driver Craig Breen in testing last year hit the championship so hard is that it was felt he had real cross-over potential.

“We keep saying the WRC needs more characters, and now we’ve lost one of the best ones we had,” highlighted his former team boss Richard Millener.

“There will be others, but when you lose someone who had so much more to go and potentially could have really helped build the sport, it’s hard to comprehend him not being around.”

Oliver Solberg, son of champ Petter, a regular winner in WRC2, is one such talent that the series would benefit from being promoted more – his recent link-up with Lando Norris’s Quadrant YouTube channel showed others recognise his appeal.

However, another driver that illustrates the WRC’s lack of berths for new talent is Martins Sesks.

The Latvian driver arrived with a bang this summer due to a pair of cameo entries mid-season, making an instant mark not dissimilar in fashion to Colin McRae and Sébastien Loeb.

Using an M-Sport Puma without the hybrid (but still running at the same weight) Sesks finished fifth on his debut in Poland.

Then, armed with the hybrid in Latvia, he challenged for the podium before dropping out with a mechanical issue.

“Martins has already shown remarkable speed and determination in Poland and Latvia, and we believe his future in the WRC is exceptionally bright,” said Peter Thul, the WRC promoter’s senior director of sport.

“Supporting the next generation is crucial for the continued growth and excitement of the WRC, and our commitment to nurturing young talent remains stronger than ever.”

Change WRC event formats

And yet… Sesks is not one of the full-time drivers announced for 2025. Neuville thinks a serious issue lies with the promoter not getting the message out there about the sport, thus limiting the chances for growth and more seats. The Belgian feels this can be done by taking a leaf out of the recent F1 and NASCAR books and re-appraising its classic event formats.

“For sure the promoter is not at the level it should be,” he says.

“That’s causing some certain problems, and the FIA wants to react with a massive amount of changes which actually are not needed, and it’s more promotional which needs to be changed.

“Generally, the promotional side is still running the same format [of event] as it did [a long time ago] in the past.

“We can use formats. We can also have different formats, such as a Monte Carlo, Kenya – these could be long events. Three, four days – could even be seven days, make history [of classic endurance rallies] come alive again.

“Then you could have other rallies, split Saturday, Sunday [into self-contained events]. Different kinds of formats create different stories. A Netflix-style show would also be good.”

Here’s hoping the WRC can turn the ship around and start telling a different story sooner rather than later.