Rally Mexico 2018

[OHL]

Like I said earlier; if the chicanes had had sand or water or something in them to make them sturdy but not dangerous this wouldn't have been so big of an issue. Maybe even concrete blocks or tyre walls could have been better.

Chicanes are always a tricky thing to manage. If you fill them with sand or water in order to try and keep them in place, and then a competitor hits them knocking them out of place, it is impossible to quickly get them back in place. Normally there should be clear penalties listed for hitting chicane elements. Finland did this last year and all of the competitors knew what the penalty was for ignoring an element of the chicane. Ogier asked before stage start what the penalty was for hitting it and it is normal for a driver/team to try and find every advantage and then take it if they think the reward is greater than the penalty. It's also why stewards are present on every event. It's impossible to write a set of rules that covers every possible scenario so when things happen that fall outside a defined area in the rules, then a person must step in and make a ruling on the legality and or punishment for the incident. Every single infraction is different with different outcomes, context, etc. and it requires experienced, knowledgeable people to interpret the situation and make a ruling. Sometimes they get it wrong and there is an appeals process. This is how it should be IMO. I think the organizers could have potentially avoided this situation if they made it more clear by listing penalties for displacing a chicane element but that is water under the bridge now and hindsight is always 20/20.