Rally Croatia 2022

[wyler]

so if something was accepted in 1990 or last year, it should still be accepted ?

I understand your point if penalties are lighter in future again but I hope that for now on you will get penalty every time in every rally.

that's already arguable. i'm sure there were other minor speed infringements on this rally, like in any other, without sanctions. they punished the one that was "too big to tolerate". you think that's a good way to handle it?

[AndyRAC]

What Neuville did at the weekend is still 'bad', no doubt about it, but compared to what went on before every car had a tracker on it, and every holier-than-thou motorist had a camera phone or dashcam?

Driving standards on road sections in the pre-tracking days (and still in national rallies without tracking) were appalling. People look back fondly on the likes of McRae, Loeb and Gronholm trying to drag damaged cars back to service, far faster than would be 'safe' and in completely unroadworthy condition, and those guys are heroes. Neuville breaks the speed limit on a practically empty dual carriageway and, to some, he's the devil.

Yes, there's an element of truth to this; however, it comes across as 'whataboutery'. You can't do these things anymore, it's 2022, especially with the FiA Road Safety campaign. Fines are useless; hit them hard, points deductions, and for regular transgressions, banning from events. 156km/h in an 80km/h zone is appalling and it's not his first time; he should really sit an event out. It's a good job the sport has a low profile, as it would be picked up on.

[seb_sh]

lol, read better.
never said it was right. just that is a bit funny that people pretend to be surprised or indignant, and also that once in a while become a big issue when almost all the time is not a big deal, while we all know that happens regularly and fia knows every inch of the race via gps system.
i don't like people taking pride of their pureness randomly once over a thousand times.

edit for clarity: not personal to you or any other in particular, just on the topic.

No worries. Not trying to pretend anything, but as Sal said the drivers are supposedly ambassadors for road safety and also times change and what is acceptable changes. Roads and traffic are not the same as they were in the 90s. Also the famous Elena ride was stopped by police and almost not allowed to continue if I remember correctly, they were only allowed to go with an escort so even in Mexico 15 years ago some things were not acceptable.

But my main point is that in my opinion the sport can't afford a rta with injuries or major damage. The cars have trackers, even in dakar they penalize speeding in the villages...

[dupanton]

I have no problem with time penalties for speeding on the road sections. But I do have a problem with the random way it happens now. It depends on the stewards what penalty you get (cfr Croatia last year, Estonna last year, Croatia this year).

They should make clear rules. Fine for small offences, time penalty for big offences (like 5" per kph over the limit for exemple) and than DQ for really big offences.

Than it's clear for everyone, no discussions, and drivers will think twice before speeding.

But as a codriver I just want to add, when you are in the car and getting late, you do everything you can to check in on time. It's just the way a (competitive) human works

[wyler]

No worries. Not trying to pretend anything, but as Sal said the drivers are supposedly ambassadors for road safety and also times change and what is acceptable changes. Roads and traffic are not the same as they were in the 90s. Also the famous Elena ride was stopped by police and almost not allowed to continue if I remember correctly, they were only allowed to go with an escort so even in Mexico 15 years ago some things were not acceptable.

But my main point is that in my opinion the sport can't afford a rta with injuries or major damage. The cars have trackers, even in dakar they penalize speeding in the villages...

yes, generally i think the same as dupanton. the thing i didn't stand is that kind of one-off to make a statement and then ignore everything for the next year, i find it really absurd.

for me there's 2 way:
a: fia review all the tracking data at every service, check and penalize for any breach, not only speeding: red light, overtaking, and so on. (i guess anyone who followed a race live has an anecdote or two about rally cars on road mode, from wrc1 to the least regional competitor)

b: drivers are on their own responsibility as any other user of a public road. law enforcers will check for breaches and issue law-related fines or suspenzions.

[AndyRAC]

Footage I saw of Neuville looked like a last minute undertake and dive for the slip road which would have been at least six points on my licence in the UK!

There are many eyes watching all aspects of motorised sport hoping for an opportunity to highlight its shortcomings and I can guarantee in my own country that the media would rather pick on this type of incident rather than cover the actual rally in their sports sections.

One can imagine the headlines; especially from the well known rags. The sport wouldn't have a leg to stand on; and the MSUK would be in full damage limitation.

[TypeR]

If it had been 80 vs 100kmh, then nobody would really care.. but double above the speed limit is something else.. and as mentioned before, not the first time.

[ouvreur]

One can imagine the headlines; especially from the well known rags.

Indeed - on the front page they would be about a celebrity doing something amusing or Boris Johnson lying again, and on the back they would be about football, or rugby, or cricket, or tennis. Not one mainstream publication gives even half a sh!t about rallying, unless someone has been killed that is...

[EstWRC]

Bunnings vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjXb0z2XWuI

[seb_sh]

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/teams...ure-situation/

apparently a lot of the punctures happened together with cracked rims. I suppose the tires can't be blamed for punctures if the hit is so hard that the rim breaks.