World Rally Championship manufacturers have slammed the Tour of Corsica after its weather-hit return to the calendar last weekend.

The event returned from the European Rally Championship to the WRC after a seven-year absence following the collapse of the previous French round in Alsace.

Volkswagen team principal Jost Capito said the Corsica facilities were sub-standard and the logistics too costly.

“The service park is nowhere close to what a WRC service park should be,” he said.

“I don’t think we really need to be driving around the island – we have four or five different hotels and all of the time we’ve had to pay for a room for the guys in Corte [at service] just in case they need it as well.

“Parts of this event have been ridiculous.”

Capito’s M-Sport counterpart Malcolm Wilson echoed his comments, and expressed disappointment at the response to his driver Elfyn Evans leading after day one.

“There was nobody at the press conference, and then no team principals’ press conference,” he said.

“There’s been no spectators here, no visibility at all.

“In 12 months, we’ve gone from France having – without a doubt – the best service park in the championship to a quagmire.

“There’s no question, I would rather go back to Alsace than stay here.

“Having said that, I was sad for the organisers with the weather and they reacted well to that, but you can’t compare this event to Alsace.”

But home manufacturer Citroen’s team boss Yves Matton urged not to condemn the event too quickly.

“It’s too soon to make a proper conclusion,” he said.

“Yes, we saw a lot of people in Alsace last year, but it’s better to make a comparison with the first year in Alsace [when crowds were smaller].”

MIXED REVIEWS FROM DRIVERS

Drivers’ opinions were divided. Hayden Paddon criticised the itinerary, which featured just nine long stages across the three days.

“I’m not so keen on this. There’s been too much waiting around and too much driving around the island without stages,” he said.

“Why couldn’t we have done an extra stage on the way to and from the parc ferme?

“Instead, we’ve been getting to the start of stages and sitting there with our finger up our bum for ages.”

World champion Sebastien Ogier relished the stages themselves and felt only itinerary tweaks were needed.

“It’s a very challenging rally for the drivers, but it’s big fun to drive those stages,” he told AUTOSPORT.

“Maybe the negative is the island location. We do have spectators coming here, but not so many as we had in Alsace.

“The weather was really terrible, we were very unlucky with that.

“We can keep the long stages, but we missed a little bit of action in the weekend.

“Maybe they should reconsider the itinerary a little bit – maybe we keep just one day with long stages.”