New 2017 WRC Cars Are Too Quick, According To The FIA
Itâs fair to say the new 2017 World Rally Championship cars look epic, sound downright insane and are much quicker than last yearâs 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, weâre not joking. The first run through the Kron stage saw Ott Tanak set an average speed of 85.62mph, but the FIA doesnât want that figure to go over 80mph.
So, according to the FIAâs rally director Jarmo Mahonen, itâs considering rule changes to bring down the average speeds of rally stages.
Hereâs what he told Autosport:
âThese cars are quicker than the old cars - but in this stage even last yearâs [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.
âIf we see a stage time of more than 130km/h then itâs 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.â
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:
âWe 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 didnât 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.â
Letâs hope that, if something is brought in, it doesnât impact the incredible spectacle of the new WRC cars.
Comments
Go FIAgure these WRCowards are holding back drivers as always.
And this is why WRC will never be at the level of Group B
Donât tell me that the people of the FIA are replaced by âSucessorsâ
Health and safety always ruins things for the world of MotorsportâŠ
Really FIA ? Too fast ? You are the one who make the rules
Canât you see it was all planned? FIA could not complain cars were too fast, so they made cars faster (warning: this contains high doses of irony)
A lot of butthurt over this, and hereâs why the FIA is right to do this:
Remember how Group B eventually got closed down? Spectators died because the cars were getting too fast. And it brought down the whole of Group B and the cars because of it. And if you remember, the drivers where very close to their limits because of the speed too, so it was easier to make mistakes.
I understand that safety in cars has come a long way and that crowds arenât as loose as they used to be, but at the same time we live in very different times. It wouldnât take much to bring down a sport that would be deemed dangerous in this age of political correctness. And I think itâs the right thing to do, no matter how much we love a sport it should never ever put the life of anyone in danger. So the FIA arenât doing this to be buzzkills, theyâre doing this to make sure it doesnât get too fast to be safe, theyâre doing this to protect the sport. And I donât think we should be bashing them because of it.
itâs not that cars are fast, but the Estonian driver is too good 😁
If they can keep average speeds down by designing intense, tight routes, fine, but please FIA donât stuff this up. Rally is finally worth watching again, especially now that its free to follow on Red Bull TV. Oh and while we are at it, F1, that other sport you ruined, lets go ahead at lower that minimum weight to something below the 700 kg. And stay away from drifting and rally cross.
Iâm glad to say Iâm estonian like Ott TĂ€nak