[WRC] News & Rumours (part V) 2017

[EstWRC]

sooo here we goooo


Rally Finland set to slow its stages for 2017 World Rally Cars


Rally Finland, the fastest event in the World Rally Championship, has been forced to consider ways of artificially slowing its famous roads down for the 2017-specification cars.

The FIA demonstrated its concerns over rising average speeds with the cancellation of a Rally Sweden stage deemed too fast earlier this season, when Ott Tanak's Ford Fiesta WRC registered an average of 85.63mph on the first pass of the 20-mile Knon test.

Last year's Rally Finland featured six stages with an average of more than 80mph and it is thought that number could rise to 87mph on the most famous of all its stages, Ouninpohja, with the new generation of World Rally Cars.

In a route issued last month, Ouninpohja - which returns to running in its more traditional direction of Hamepohja to Kakaristo - was cut in length to accommodate live television.

Stages taking each car around 12 minutes are preferred for TV and the full-length version was expected to take a shade over 15 minutes, but in trimming the length, organisers have removed the slower, narrower section.

"This narrow section in Ouninpohja would bring the average speed down," Toyota's Jari-Matti Latvala told Autosport.

"The FIA is worried after Sweden and the second day's stages in Finland this year, Ouninpohja, Paijala and Pihlajakoski, are all going to be very fast.

"We could even see a 140km/h [87mph] average on these stages."



Latvala expects drastic action to cut speeds and avoid the need to cancel stages.

"I think they will make some artificial chicanes to slow the cars down and this is not the characteristic of the roads in Finland," he said.

"It's unnatural on gravel [to have chicanes], it's a bit more normal on asphalt.

"It's fair to say the drivers don't like this."

Rally Finland clerk of the course Kai Tarkiainen conceded the needs to contain average speeds would inevitably have an impact.

"We will have to do something, that's quite clear," he told Autosport.

"We have talked to the FIA, to Michele [Mouton, FIA safety delegate] and Jarmo [Mahonen, FIA rally director] about this and they're very much in favour of trying to use some natural kind of chicanes, by maybe taking the cars briefly onto a smaller road for a short loop or going to long way around a junction.

"We're keen to do this to try to avoid dragging concrete or whatever's needed for a chicane into a stage in the middle of nowhere.

"Using junctions also makes the recce easier - with open public roads, we can't set the chicane up and this can make things a bit vague."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report...-for-2017-cars

[steve.mandzij]

As good as the season has been so far, and as awesome as the new cars look and sound, these regulations are the most stupid the WRC has ever had.

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[Arnold Triyudho Wardono]

They should waiting until next year..

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[N.O.T]

I cannot wait to see how the autism masters of safety the british are going to handle the speeds... Maybe a roundabout stage and bogey times can solve the problem...

[Rallyper]

And how will they come around the top speeds, which still occur in places on the fast stages? Those spots (straights) will be as dangerous as before.

[Mirek]

This is all like from a Monty Python sketch. How on Earth could one slower section make otherwise same stage more safe? They made the cars faster so they go faster. Naturally. This following switch into a panic mode is plain ridiculous.

PS I'm well aware that our ASN has mastered this nonsense already but the more I don't like when this nonsense spread everywhere else.

[stefanvv]

They're just slaves to the utopia that slower average speed is making the stage safer, while they should focus on spectators safety more than slowing the cars down.

[wia5958]

Its ridiculous if slow section is kept at the end stage runs as normal with the fast and flowing sections. Remove the slow bit and they want to slow a stage that otherwise would have been declared safe to run. If brains were dynamite that lot at the fia couldnt blow their noses

[Simmi]

They're just slaves to the utopia that slower average speed is making the stage safer, while they should focus on spectators safety more than slowing the cars down.

Slaves to the lawyers and insurance. As we all are.

[Franky]

There's one place where the modern WRCars would be slow enough, the old Cyprus Rally route.