[WRC] Rally Sweden 2025

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Originally Posted by focus206

Evans and the others were raised speaking English, they know that saying f@ck is a no no for your culture, and can express things in other ways. When you ask Fourmaux or any other driver that doesn't speak English as 1st language, you should consider that:
they are not as fluent in English and might struggle to express things + in English there's this small f word that you can insert at basically any point of a sentence to express big frustration or anger (not all languages work like that, in some languages you'd need to go out of your way to insert swear words in certain sentences) + some cultures just don't care as much about swear words as English speaking people.
It's the duality of having rap songs or rappers that swear twice every second, but then any swear word in more professional settings are taboos, which is not something that happens in every country.

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Fourmaux signed a form to acknowledge he understood the requirements.... there's no excuse for him not knowing the strongest, most prolific word.

I remember a user called NOT from this forum who was voted off for being strong worded and abusive in tone, so there is a line of standards here on average which many adhere to. They had the same lack of class that affects one user active now on this subject in this thread, who commented that throwing in the odd 'n word' is acceptable. I usually ignore if I disagree with somebody where there is no discussion to be had, but that is truly despicable. I don't know if they are a native English speaker or not; I can pass it if not using the explanation you gave; but if so, I can only assume they are still a young boy with no life experience or adult development. That is not how I would like anybody of any age or culture to behave, it's certainly not a way to develop characters in WRC.

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Originally Posted by BlueStrike

create an account here after years of lurking

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Welcome to the forum. :)

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Originally Posted by Mary Mary

Fourmaux signed a form to acknowledge he understood the requirements.... there's no excuse for him not knowing the strongest, most prolific word.

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I think you're asking too much to Fourmaux or any other driver that knows English as a secondary language, to answer questions in English, right after driving a stage (ok, not this case, but it's when the majority of this accidents happen), to express problems and frustration while also adapting to the culture tied to the language, that treats swear words as filler words or as crimes against humanity, depending on the occasion - at least that's my perception of English language, using a hyperbole.
Ok, if he said "I f@kin hate this f@kin stage because my f@kin car is sh!t" then well... I'm sure most would say "What's wrong with this guy" and it becomes just too much.

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Originally Posted by Oliverk

You cant fix a head gasket leak in rally.

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You can if the only problem is the gasket & you can do it within the service time (and any road penalty you're prepared to take). If the cyliner head or block is distorted then you just have to live with the problem or retire the car.

Been a long time lurker of the forums, never really been knowledgeable enough to comment on the intricacies of WRC/Rally but today is the day I made an account, primarily to comment on the swearing issue in WRC w/ FIA.

[QUOTE=Mary Mary;1359990]For €30,000 fine and in professional circumstances, yes, I would be clean spoken in the language I am fluent enough to understand. How many of you swear in professional circumstances? None, else tell me what happened. I know my company has codes of conduct including this topic.

Light swearing is tolerated at most workplaces. If you ever attend a job site you know every second word is F this, F that.
As some other commenters mentioned, you are shoving a microphone in their face after driving a million dollar car at excess of 120kmph around tight bends on unforgiving roads/tracks. I don't think its reasonable to expect these drivers to be formal in any real capacity, they are in an extremely high stress environment and a microphone in your face 30 seconds after a stage would be frustrating, especially if you preformed bad.

The thing that separates entertaining players/drivers/competitors in sports is the story-lines and character. We want the raw emotions to come out, the frustration, the happiness, the stress. That all adds immense value to the sport in my opinion.

I think comparing Rally Drivers to office workplace jobs is ludicrous and undermines the effort, dedication and realness of the sport.

There is so much red tape around the post-stage interviews, the drivers can't now swear, the drivers can't really talk about the issues/problems with their cars, they can only really same the same old meaningless lines at the end of every stage. It's boring. The only way you are going to get good post race interviews is if you let them be a little more free flowing (and ask better questions).

I completely agree rules need to exist, but its not like Fourmaux was raging and swearing his face off. He didn't say anything negative about anyone or anything. He was just frustrated and said a single swearword. The use in moderation is key here. F&ck is

A single swear word over the course of a 15+ hour production is a pretty low swear count. We don't need to conform to the lowest common denominator, there aren't many (if any) five year olds watching this and I'm sure they learn these words and see worse things everyday, be it at school or by the iPad their parent shoves in front of them. I just think we're all adults at the end of the day and making everything so child-friendly harms motorsport.

I think a lot of people frustration comes from the fact that WRC feels so mismanaged at times and the sport is dying, primarily at the dumb rulings implemented by the FIA and the "influence" aka control by the hands of Saudi oil money and swearing penalties should be at the very bottom of the list of things needed to fix before this sport recovers. I find it ironic we are arguing about a single F word in 2025 when we should be focusing on the Saudi influcnce and human rights violations the Saudi government does on the daily and sport washes it under the rug!

If we really really need to police swearing, delay the post interviews by 10 seconds and have a beeper. Not that bloody hard. I honestly think if you are losing your mind over a single F word, then you need to grow up imo.

People, lets discuss rally. Using swearing words in public is low culture, do not defend it. Best athletes in the world has social responsibility. That is it; FiA is correct to govern it. Fine is too harsh. That is it. Can you anything about it? No.

About rally:
-Evans - this is his year; i assume he had smth personal with those HYs. I am rooting for Evans to become WDC this year.

Katsuta - no surprise, he loves snow (strange, right?); expect good result even in Kenya.

Kalle - well, it was expected, will take some time to get it straight.

Hyundai: consider these flops as farewell tour. I said before Rally that history shows H are never successful with new/upgraded car at once. Obviously, flows in organization how the things are managed. But do not write them off - they will pull it together, about the Portugal, then stage a big come back, but ...this is Evans year.

Formaux: as all of you noted, he used his lady luck favors in Monte; he is not 22 any more, some common sense would have to used.

Sesks - consistent, fast, good fight with Pajari, will be interesting how he develops going forward. Ford is clearly not the most developed car in the field, might be on backfoot in fast sections - what we saw on Sunday morning - fast sections, losing time to Pajari, as more narrow and technical - he got back a lot of seconds. That was the most impressive. I expect Rally Estonia as another big performance of him.

McErlean - read my previous posts; this guy knows how to drive fast and steady. Good job by Irish Rally Academy.

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Originally Posted by Eli

a driver that needs to realise that to finish first (or 3rd for that matter) first you must finish.

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At first, drivers try to win stages. When they can do that reliably, they try to win rallies. And when they can do that, they focus to winning chamionships.

Fourmaux still has to win his first rally, he's not yet a driver who will be able to focus on the long run.

After the first two rallies I got immediate Duval wibes about Fourmaux.

Getting from MSport to top team, immediately having speed to challenge teammates on stage times....and not knowing how to moderate the speed.

Strong team leadership and advisory needed.

I’m not so sure it’s about defending swearing. It’s more to do with the punishment doesn’t fit the crime, and about letting drivers personalities shine through instead of listening to a corporate robot interviewed at the end of stage. It is about passion.

A couple points raised so far. How many people swear in their professional setting? Well, on a building site everyone. Is it a cultural thing? Maybe, I did a job recently and had to speak to a female director of the building company. She asked a question, I gave her my answer, and she replied with the word f**k. She is Italian, so if that had a bearing (I had not met her and this was my first phone conversation with her so we’re not familiar with each other)

Another point, the things that happened years ago had greater significance and consequences years ago but no one cared. I have been watching old rallies on YouTube recently. Last night there were two things in one video that made me laugh. One, a Marshall dragging a man with his trousers around his ankles and his bare arse hanging out away from the road in a stage. The commentator just remarked “there’s one person who wishes he was up a tree”
The second, in the same video, Tony Pond was asked if he was tired, he said “no I normally get up when I should go to bed” the commentator asked what he was going to do now and the reply was “I don’t know, go and find a couple of big girls I should think” and a big smirk spread across his face. All funny stuff, but then people were allowed to be themselves.

And lastly, this isn’t formula one. The drivers aren’t paid the sort of salaries f1 drivers are, sponsors are higher profile in f1, the fan base is mush larger and the age demographic of the fan base is younger. You are much more likely to have a 10 year old watching f1 than you are watching a rally. It just isn’t as evocative any more. F1 never has been relative to the common man but has always been popular with many different teams to cheer for. Nowadays, when people are driving around in generic white goods that have no real connection to rallying, and the only couple of teams use vehicles based on a car that your Nan would use to drive to the shops, it lacks the reach and appeal it once used to. At the height of its popularity, in this country at least, a lot of people would watch rallying on a programme like grandstand, as there wasn’t as much tech or things to do back then, kids didn’t have their heads buried in their phones or hid in their bedrooms playing Xbox.
Back then rallying was evocative. The cars used were exciting and you could go into a showroom on a Monday and buy one. Liveries where more exciting and often sponsored by tobacco and alcohol companies, and nobody really gave two f**ks if someone wound an f bomb in at an end of stage interview, and the commentary team wouldn’t feel compelled to apologise for the bad language. But this is the age we live in, free speech and all that, as long as it doesn’t cause anyone the slightest bit of offence then it’s no longer free, it’ll cost you 10,000 euros.

It is a bit off-topic from Rally Sweden, but as the discussion is here, I write it here.

First thing - I think every country has "wartime" and "peacetime" laws because the situation is different. If FIA wants to get interviews at the stage end, from a driver full of emotions and adrenaline, it should have "a wartime law". If one could make stats on how many times someone swears during a press conference in the media zone during a break, it would be a completely different situation. At the stage end, drivers are "without filters" and are answering purely as they are. That is the value and the beauty of it, it delivers emotions. The emotion can also be positive: "It was a f*cking awesome stage" - and the fine follows? With all of this, we are towards the situation do not have any meaningful interviews with a driver at the stage end.

Second, kind of oppose my previous point and agree with some previous comments here - it is a feeling the swearing word impacts if this is not your native language. Often swearing words are used as a filler or just slang-speaking. I can give examples from the Estonian language that has swearing influence from Russian swearing words from a soviet background. Youngsters may use the swearing words picked up from older-generation speech and use them with different meanings.

I'm not supporting swearing in public, but at the same time need to admit, I could not care if I'm full of adrenaline and pissed off with something. So if FIA wants to polish the interviews, it just needs to implement the beep-machine into the coverage.