Wilson: Rotation only fair way to go.

by Rob Wilkins

BP Ford Abu Dhabi team director Malcolm Wilson has defended FIA plans for the World Rally Championship to adopt a rotation system from 2009.

The schedules for 2009 and 2010 were confirmed last month following a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council. As previously announced back in the summer, the calendar will be slashed to just twelve events per season from '09 - four less than has become the norm in recent years. In a bid to include new countries though the WRC will also adopt a rotation system, with 24 different events taking place over the space of two years.

As part of this plan, it means the 'classics' such as the Rallye Monte Carlo will not get an annual slot and in '09 the event at the Principality will be 'rested', before returning in 2010.

Some believe certain events should have been fixed in the schedule, with just 7 or 8 rotating, Wilson though, reckons the plans are the only fair way to do it.

"The FIA was in a very difficult situation," he told Crash.net Radio at the Autosport International Show. "Obviously the teams, the ISC, we have all been working with the FIA to try and come up with a solution.

"There is a lot of very, very exciting and emerging countries that are of great interest to manufacturers' and who are looking to hold a world championship round. Places like Russia, China and India - huge growth and obviously places of great interest to the teams.

"So really as much as we would like to see the old established rallies on an annual basis to be fair to everybody what the FIA has done is probably the only way it could have been achieved.

"OK we will miss kicking off the season in Monte Carlo [in 2009] but if you look at what happened last year on Rally Ireland - the new rallies did an absolutely brilliant job. They set the standard for a lot of the other events.

"If you look at what Ireland did and the fact it is going to be the first event in 2009, then I am absolutely sure they will not let us down. They will put on a fantastic show for us and if it is anything like it was last year it will be a great place to kick off the [2009] championship," he summed-up.

TO HEAR THE INTERVIEW IN FULL WITH MALCOLM WILSON: CLICK HERE