[WRC] News & Rumours 2019

[the sniper]

If there's one place that you should never have to worry about chicanes or average speeds traps, it's Monte. They're a law unto themselves, good for them!

Something I've been thinking though, you've got to imagine the average speed traps will have to feature in the 2020 Safari (if it happens), as the average stage speeds there unhindered really could be quite unpalatable to some, and chicanes won't work...

[AnttiL]

In the end those roads didn't make it safer since they were still very fast with hidden rocks and tree stumps in the grass, trees also even closer. Also poor viewing for spectators making them stay closer to the road.

The biggest accident of the rally happened near the end of Oittila on a medium wide road that was super fast, with a Subaru hitting a tree. The WRC driver crashes happened also on similar roads (Lappi in Laukaa, Neuville in Äänekoski) although Mikkelsen's crash in Ässämäki was on a slower section, but the trees weren't close. I don't recall any crashes on the smallest and slowest roads, but then again none on the fastest and widest ones either (except stuff like Katsuta in Urria or Ogier in Jukojärvi last year, both with a some sort of issue with the car).

EDIT: Forgot Veiby's crashes in 2017 and 2018, on the same piece of road, also a medium wide but fast road.

And speaking of spectators, I've seen onboard footage of specators standing on the road even on stages like Pihlajakoski which isn't really a narrow path in the woods, or slow. Some people just will always want to see more than they're allowed.

The problem with roads is that they're not consistent. You might have a couple of kilometres of perfect road but to use that, you need to go through a hyper fast or a very narrow section to get a proper stage, and it's especially tricky with 20+ km stages. Ouninpohja is a perfect example of this.

I remember reading that some drivers actually liked Finland’s new roads and prefered them than using chicanes like in 2017.

https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/1...g-stage-safety

Basically they said that small roads are better than chicanes, but they feel the fast wide roads are safer to drive. I think it's true for the current WRC cars with a lot of power and aero and lots of side impact padding, but once we go to the lower classes, the safety drops considerably on the fast sections where the top speeds can be as high as on WRC cars.

[stefanvv]

Have you ever seen a chicane in Monte?

Plenty virtual chicanes with black ice

[Mirek]

Have you ever seen a chicane in Monte?

No, but a stage with 136 km/h average speed exactly ten years a go (Saint Bonnet - Saint Bonnet 2008) and nobody seemed to be concerned because the stage was in the rally at least till 2011 (maybe later as well).

Actually this is a stage where many big crashes happened (in 2011 I saw several of them personally and some of them were completely insane).

[AnttiL]

No, but a stage with 136 km/h average speed exactly ten years a go (Saint Bonnet - Saint Bonnet 2008) and nobody seemed to be concerned because the stage was in the rally at least till 2011 (maybe later as well).

Actually this is a stage where many big crashes happened (in 2011 I saw several of them personally and some of them were completely insane).

Just underlining the fact that Monte Carlo can do whatever they want and FIA will just shut their ears.

[TypeR]

if the point is only to see lower number of avg speed and not making any difference about safety then let's make it even better, f1 style stop&go format. driver must stop on the stage for 10 secs, wherever he thinks it's the best place for them(tactics).

[Mirek]

Just underlining the fact that Monte Carlo can do whatever they want and FIA will just shut their ears.

Actually the reason for these crashes wasn't that it was a high speed stage. Nearly all of them happened on the same bump (tree root under asphalt) on a fast downhill section.

[AnttiL]

No, but a stage with 136 km/h average speed exactly ten years a go (Saint Bonnet - Saint Bonnet 2008) and nobody seemed to be concerned because the stage was in the rally at least till 2011 (maybe later as well).

Actually this is a stage where many big crashes happened (in 2011 I saw several of them personally and some of them were completely insane).

https://www.ewrc-results.com/eventst...te-carlo-2008/
https://www.ewrc-results.com/eventst...te-carlo-2009/
https://www.ewrc-results.com/eventst...te-carlo-2010/
https://www.ewrc-results.com/eventst...te-carlo-2011/
https://www.ewrc-results.com/eventst...te-carlo-2012/
https://www.ewrc-results.com/eventst...te-carlo-2013/

Seems that in 2008 the average speed was 122 km/h, in 2009 106 km/h, in 2010 97 km/h, in 2011 119 km/h, in 2012 121 km/h and in 2013 87 km/h. So number-wise there's nothing to fix. Assuming the fastest runs were on dry tarmac, I don't consider that dangerous. But yeah, seems like it has been the fastest stage of the rally many years.

[Rally Power]

if the point is only to see lower number of avg speed and not making any difference about safety then let's make it even better, f1 style stop&go format. driver must stop on the stage (...)

That’s basically how the ridiculous virtual chicanes work. Their major aim is to provide a more practical way of lowering stages average speed, but it’s becoming more and more obvious that having lower stages average speed doesn’t necessarily mean having safer stages.

[Mirek]

https://www.ewrc-results.com/eventst...te-carlo-2008/
https://www.ewrc-results.com/eventst...te-carlo-2009/
https://www.ewrc-results.com/eventst...te-carlo-2010/
https://www.ewrc-results.com/eventst...te-carlo-2011/
https://www.ewrc-results.com/eventst...te-carlo-2012/
https://www.ewrc-results.com/eventst...te-carlo-2013/

Seems that in 2008 the average speed was 122 km/h, in 2009 106 km/h, in 2010 97 km/h, in 2011 119 km/h, in 2012 121 km/h and in 2013 87 km/h. So number-wise there's nothing to fix. Assuming the fastest runs were on dry tarmac, I don't consider that dangerous. But yeah, seems like it has been the fastest stage of the rally many years.

You are right. I remembered that wrong. 2008 and 2011 was indeed dry, 2009 and 2010 was full snow.

Off topic but maybe interesting for You
Here You can find our crash report from 2011 from this stage. All those crashes on the photos and video happened on one same place except one which was few corners farther. http://www.autosport.cz/clanek.php?cl=11626