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2012 WRC Calendar Brings Budget Concerns for Ford

With the International Automobile Federation (FIA) only weeks away from figuring out the calendar for the 2012 World Rally Championship, Ford has expressed worries over the short period of time it will have to prepare the 13-event running next year.

According to Ford of Europe motorsport chief Gerard Quinn, the FIA should have a more lengthy vision of the series, as traveling from one continent to another and tackling new challenges like the planned endurance-style round from Argentina to Uruguay has a great impact on the team's budget.

The thing I find difficult is this planning issue. If we were going to do this event in Uruguay and Argentina, we should have been booking the logistics for that at the end of last year,” said Quinn, according to Autosport.

I've always asked for something more strategic and with a longer-term vision in terms of what we're doing [with the calendar]. If you tell me we're going to Uruguay and Argentina next season, I'd say that's a huge step to take and how do we plan our budget around that?

While insisting that Ford doesn't oppose the WRC traveling to new locations and markets, the official forwarded some solutions for the future. First off, doing an endurance event clearly requires a more extensive budget for the team, which means that it should “have the compensation of taking a different event off the calendar when we're running [an endurance event].”

Recently, a number of nations have expressed their interest in joining the series in the near future – such as China, India, Russia and Brazil – while others, like Australia, are seeking a permanent WRC date on a year-on-year basis.
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