Alain Ambrosino is the President of the Ivorian Motor Sport Federation and the Vice-President of the African Confederation. He is fighting for the Rallye Côte d'Ivoire Bandama 2021 to take place ...

Alain Ambrosino: "The Bandama rally is part of the heritage of Côte d'Ivoire"

During the Bandama 2019 © Courtesy of FIA

Text by: David Kalfa Follow

6 min

Alain Ambrosino is the President of the Ivorian Motor Sport Federation and the Vice-President of the African Confederation.

He is fighting for the Rallye Côte d'Ivoire Bandama 2021 to take place in March, despite the Covid crisis.

He is also worried about the holding of the African Championship this year.

Interview.

Publicity

RFI: Alain Ambrosino, will the Côte d'Ivoire Bandama Rally take place in 2021?

Alain Ambrosino

: Yes, it will be an international event which will take place in principle from March 12th to 14th.

I say "in principle" because with the problems of Covid, we do not know what tomorrow will bring.

The Bandama will still take place in the Yamoussoukro region.

Unfortunately, I don't think we'll have a lot of foreign pilots, if not at all.

Because the pilots who are used to coming to our Rally Côte d'Ivoire Bandama are mostly pilots who come from Europe.

However, with the problems of closed borders, it is very complex.

Have you considered canceling the Bandama 2021, given the current health and economic conditions?

Yes and it is even still relevant today.

There are despite everything a few cases of Covid in Côte d'Ivoire, certainly less than in Europe.

If the situation were to degenerate even a little, we would have to follow the government's directions.

Namely, meetings with about fifty people, at most.

This would make us totally unable to organize the event.

The Rwanda rally, which was supposed to be the second round of the African Rally Championship (ARC), has just been postponed.

Are you worried about the fate of ARC 2021?

Yes… Rwanda was forced, for Covid problems, to postpone its ordeal until after July.

It's actually very scary because we have already

missed an African Championship in 2020

If it were to be canceled again, I think it would get dramatic.

Sponsors are already very difficult to find.

And the fact that the 2020 edition has been canceled has further cooled the sponsors.

And it becomes very complex to find the money.

[…]

I dare to hope that certain tests will take place.

Fingers crossed for this African Championship to take place this year.

What is the attitude of the Ivorian authorities vis-à-vis the holding of Bandama 2021?

For now, it is well seen.

We must not forget that the Côte d'Ivoire Bandama Rally is part of the country's heritage.

The government is therefore very keen to ensure that this ordeal does not disappear and therefore takes place.

But of course in good conditions, especially good sanitary conditions.

To come back to Ivory Coast, in recent years, your ambition was for Bandama to once again be a World Championship (WRC) event, as was the case between 1978 and 1992. It seems to you. still playable in the short or medium term?

To be honest, I no longer believe it too much… The International Automobile Federation (FIA), notably with

its president Jean Todt

and Michel Mouton, came to our event.

Michèle Mouton was in charge at the time of the WRC.

She strongly advised us to come forward to be one of the World Championship events.

Unfortunately, organizing such an event is extremely expensive.

Without government assistance, it is inaccessible.

We presented a great and big file to the government.

But, alas for us, it was not followed.

And, the following year, Kenya jumped at the chance and

their Safari rally was approved

to enter the WRC calendar.

Do you look with a little envy at the very strong and decisive support that the Kenyan government has given to the Safari rally's return to the World Championship?

(He laughs)

Frankly, it's not just a little bit but rather with a lot of envy!

I was present at the Safari rally as an FIA observer two years ago.

I saw the enthusiasm of the government, with the presence of the President of the Republic to start the event.

He did a helicopter flight over part of some stages.

What a dream !

It also proves that we are not missing the point.

Especially since the media and other fallout are extremely important for a country, from a World Championship event.

In East Africa, in countries like Kenya or Uganda, rallying seems to be a national sport.

In West Africa, is this discipline above all a matter of enthusiasts?

When the Bandama counted for the World Championship, there was total enthusiasm.

Because the rally crossed 5,000 kilometers, so almost all of Côte d'Ivoire.

We covered a lot of villages and that had an extremely important impact.

Now, with the new regulations, we have to do a maximum of 250 to 300 kilometers of specials.

We are obliged to stay around Yamoussoukro.

Suddenly, there is much less enthusiasm, even if it is wonderful to do the super special inside Yamoussoukro and when there are more than 60,000 people.

It is still extraordinary.

[…] But the event therefore has less visibility and we are very, very far from football at present.

Alain Ambrosino: "The Bandama rally is part of the heritage of Côte d'Ivoire"

Alain Ambrosino: "The Bandama rally is part of the heritage of Côte d'Ivoire"

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest