Consistency is needed to clean up the WRC

One of the things this decision would appear to expose is a lack of consistency, not only in the structure and placement of chicanes – but also in the approach from the powers that be.

We got another example last Saturday night with a stewards’ decision which left Sordo (and, after the finish on Sunday, Esapekka Lappi) hit with a 10s penalty for not going around the tyres in Rally of Portugal’s Porto street stage ( see below).

A pre-event bulletin from the organisers stated: “A penalty of 30 seconds will be applied to any competitor who fails to follow the indicated route at any of these points.”

In their decision regarding Sordo’s infringement, the stewards justify a 10-second penalty by saying: “Bulletin 1 sets a 30-second time penalty to be applied to any competitor who fails to follow the route as indicated in the diagrams. However, the stewards consider that the penalty stated in Bulletin 1 is merely meant for cases where a driver fails to complete all necessary laps around each roundabout and not for cases where the bales are displaced by accident.”

In that case, what’s the point of the bulletin? Where’s the continuity of rule and regulation? Clearly, by hitting the tyres, Sordo didn’t make the 270-degree turn – the diagram in the bulletin shows a line going around the tyres and not through the tyres

The bulletin makes no mention of a penalty for hitting the tyres – but in Mexico there was no mention of a penalty for hitting the chicane. If hitting the tyres is following the route in Portugal; then hitting the chicane is following the route in Mexico.

Now more than ever we need strength of leadership, permanent stewards, a uniform approach and, above anything, concrete regulation. At the Monza Rally, for example, crews know, they hit a chicane and it’s a five-second penalty. Ogier, Sordo, Lappi and others would certainly have given the barriers a wider berth. Let’s have the same here. A few years ago, the FIA sought input into the best way to make chicanes, Rally Germany’s straw bales was seen as best practice and a regulation was expected to follow. And still we wait. Failure to address this will turn the teams in on themselves – as has already started – and a tit-for-tat approach which will cost nothing but time, money and the sport’s credibility.

But getting back to Mexico, as far as I can see, the punishment simply doesn’t fit the crime. All we can hope is that any championship battle involving Ogier is decided by a differential of more than four points.