FIA road sport director Andrew Wheatley says there will be consequences for Rally Japan after a non-competing car found its way onto a live stage for the second time in three years.
The police escorted a minivan away from SS12 after it was driven the wrong way down the stage and arrived at the start just before Elfyn Evans was set to launch his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 into the test.
“The first thing we have to do is understand exactly what happened,” Wheatley told DirtFish. “We have to understand how it happened, and then we need to understand how we can ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“The initial report we have is that it’s similar in principle to the one [incident] two years ago, but not the same. So, we need to understand how we can first of all get the information from the organizers, they’re working very hard on that, and then work with the organizers to make sure we don’t have this situation in the future.”
Asked if there could be consequences following the second stage intrusion since Japan’s return to the WRC in 2022, Wheatley said: “Yes, for sure. They were under a yellow card last year [following the 2022 incident] and the yellow card system is there to ensure that the correct people and the correct skills are in place to try and review the situation.”
Wheatley confirmed this year’s event was not running under a yellow card, but indicated a return to that status was likely for 2025.
He added: “I can’t say at the moment [whether it goes back to yellow card status] because we haven’t done the full investigation, but I’m pretty sure we’re heading down that road again.
“We have a very good relationship with the organizers, they did a lot of work and that’s why it’s such a surprise that we had this situation this year because they are fully aware of the issue and they’ve done a lot of work to try to resolve that issue.
“This is a good rally, it’s a good rally with good organizers with a lot of support across the organization, with very good and experienced people around the event, and I’m exceedingly surprised that we have this situation, but absolutely it needs to be given very full attention.”
Japan began its world championship journey on the northernmost island of Hokkaido, where it ran between 2004 and 2010. The nation’s 12-year WRC hiatus ended with the current format of a Toyota City base and asphalt stages around the Aichi and Gifu prefectures.
