New 2017 WRC Cars Are Too Quick, According To The FIA

The World Rally Championship entered a new era last month with the start of the 2017 season, but the FIA thinks the cars are now almost too fast..
New 2017 WRC Cars Are Too Quick, According To The FIA

It’s fair to say the new 2017 World Rally Championship cars look epic, sound downright insane and are much quicker than last year’s machinery.

But, according to the FIA, the cars are now too fast. This comes after stage 12 of Rally Sweden was called off due to safety recommendations over the speeds of the cars.

No, we’re not joking. The first run through the Kron stage saw Ott Tanak set an average speed of 85.62mph, but the FIA doesn’t want that figure to go over 80mph.

New 2017 WRC Cars Are Too Quick, According To The FIA

So, according to the FIA’s rally director Jarmo Mahonen, it’s considering rule changes to bring down the average speeds of rally stages.

Here’s what he told Autosport:

“These cars are quicker than the old cars - but in this stage even last year’s [cars] were going more than 130km/h [80mph]. These kind of stages teach us one thing: we need to take a more firm grip when organisers want to introduce new stages, we have to be present to check them.
“If we see a stage time of more than 130km/h then it’s an indicator that we need to be looking at this. From our point of view this was too fast. What we want to do is look at a guideline on this, but maybe we need to think to the regulations.”

New 2017 WRC Cars Are Too Quick, According To The FIA

But, of course, no one wants to see the average speeds decreasing through artificial means or the cars being pegged back.

Thankfully, Mahonen seems to understand this:

“We want the cancellation of this stage to send a message to the other organisers to think carefully about their route. We want speeds lower than 130km/h, but I remember when I was an organiser and I didn’t want to use straw bales to make chicanes. I understand that, and the answer is simple: use smaller roads that will be slower. This is what we have to do.”

Let’s hope that, if something is brought in, it doesn’t impact the incredible spectacle of the new WRC cars.

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Comments

Freddie Skeates

Classic FIA. In fact, not even classic FIA, this is vintage FIA at this point

02/17/2017 - 11:08 |
233 | 0

Sits back in Chesterfield chair, lights up pipe

Ahhh, well done lads. Delightfully traditional. Proper job.

02/17/2017 - 12:21 |
83 | 1

Comment of the week

02/17/2017 - 16:34 |
1 | 1
Anonymous

A certain racing series is gaining alot of attention and now all of the sudden they’re “too fast” so FIA wants to change things up…Ecclestone? Is that you?

02/17/2017 - 11:11 |
57 | 1
Jackson 1

with the increase of speed they added thicker doors to improve safety but the come out and say theyre “to fast” what a bunch of twaats imo. killing all motorsport.

02/17/2017 - 11:14 |
68 | 1
Mason Smith 🇺🇸(Mustang Life)(Crowd Killer)

In reply to by Jackson 1

He said the cars speed is good, the stage they chose was just not safe at that speed, so instead of slowing down the cars and ruining WRC, they simply removed the stage

02/17/2017 - 14:14 |
11 | 1
Anonymous

Group B intensifies???

02/17/2017 - 11:18 |
41 | 0
Gabriele Gugliuzza

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

^THIS
I knew it would have been down here, i looked for it and BAM got it.
btw fia give us Group B back…

02/17/2017 - 18:18 |
2 | 0
Noah Thorley Images

FIA = Foolishness In Action

02/17/2017 - 11:48 |
47 | 0
RueNitta

‘Nothing should be faster than F1’ rule…
I am getting tired of it

02/17/2017 - 11:51 |
27 | 0
The_Import_Kid

When in doubt, balls out.

02/17/2017 - 11:54 |
7 | 0
DL🏁

Well, 85mph isn’t crazily fast, is it?

02/17/2017 - 12:08 |
5 | 1

Down roads only inches wider than the cars themselves, on snow and ice, with 100 foot drops right next to you with only a 50 year old brick wall to stop you from falling. Yes, that is crazy fast

02/17/2017 - 12:21 |
17 | 2

130 KPH is the average speed over the stages, not the top speed, on this stage they had a 138 KPH average over a 33 kilometer stage. The new cars are insane😀😀

02/17/2017 - 13:30 |
6 | 0

That’s avrage speed

02/17/2017 - 18:13 |
0 | 0

3mph faster and they’d be going back in time.

02/17/2017 - 22:16 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

The FIA is really ramping up their cancellation speeds as well…
Their knee-jerk reactions are too fast. Someone needs to look into this. FIA-meddling after just two rallies is simply unacceptable.

02/17/2017 - 12:11 |
10 | 0
iCypher(Joel Chan)

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Absolutely. And they think it’s already too fast….When the few of us know what was Definitely too fast….

02/17/2017 - 13:09 |
3 | 1
Anonymous

How could a MOTORSPORT be too fast? It makes no sense, and goes against the principles of motorsport

02/17/2017 - 12:11 |
1 | 0
Mason Smith 🇺🇸(Mustang Life)(Crowd Killer)

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

It’s not that the cars are “too fast”, it’s that the cars are to fast for that particular stage to be even slightly safe, so instead of taking speed away from the cars they just removed the stage, which is a pretty good call, the Le Mans disaster is a good example of cars being to fast for the area they are driving in. (and we all know how that ended)

02/17/2017 - 14:19 |
0 | 0