Simon Larkin: “We did everything we had to”

While it seemed clear that the 2023 calendar would be approved and unveiled at the end of the World Council, the announcement of next year's program was postponed until later. On the promoter side, Simon Larkin (Even Director WRC Promoter) does not understand this postponement.

Published on 21/10/2022 à 09:05

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Simon Larkin: “We did everything we had to”

Were you surprised to learn that the World Council did not validate the calendar you proposed?

Yes. We believed we had done everything we needed to do on our end to make it work for the schedule. It appears that unfortunately there are administrative procedures that have not been carried out. It's really unfortunate, but we believe the process will be very quick now.

Is this mainly an administrative problem? This delay is not due to one or two problematic tests?

Absolutely not. This has nothing to do with the cut or the sleeves appearing in the program we proposed. There is a procedure to follow. ASNs must apply online on the FIA international calendar. Some of them have not yet done so. The FIA has decided to apply a strict administrative line. For the FIA the calendar was not in the right format...which had never happened before. It is therefore up to the FIA to come back with an alternative solution.

What will happen next?

As we speak, we are not aware of an additional process that the promoter of the WRC should do whether for the WRC or theERC. We believe that the FIA will in the coming days let us know when an e-vote will be planned. If I understood correctly, it may take 3 working days to get the response. Hopefully we will have schedule approval next week.