Teams unite against Rally Sardinia, although it looks set to remain on WRC calendar Ogier calls for rally organisers to think about jumps after airborne Italy nightmare

World champion Sebastien Ogier has urged rally organisers to think more about the way jumps in stages are built – the Frenchman labelled Rally Italy’s Monte Baranta leap as “stupid” last week.

The jump was built into a long straight in the final stage of the Friday morning loop. Ott Tanak retired from third place as a result of damage sustained from it, as did triple Asia Pacific Rally champion Gaurav Gill.

Ogier told MN the drivers were as one on this subject.

“We all agreed as drivers, it’s not clever to build these artificial, short, kicking jumps in the middle of a long straight,” said Ogier. “I have nothing against jumps, I love it and they can make as many jumps as they want, but make them progressive and not the ramp so sharp and short. We come in sixth gear and it’s stupid. It’s bad for the World Rally Car, but I really would not want to do this jump in an R5 car.”

The front of both Tanak and Gills’ cars were destroyed and required engine-out all-nighters from Toyota and M-sport respectively to put them right for the weekend.

Toyota team principal Tommi Makinen agreed with Ogier and directed organisers towards the jump he had built on the Ouninpohja stage of Rally Finland to entertain corporate guests.

“You can go really flat over that jump [in Finland], it looks good and it’s easy on the car because we made it without a short [ramp]. There’s no point to make something unnatural, which is only breaking things. For Ott, the suspension had no chance – he didn’t land on the wheels, he landed on the front bumper!”