Thierry Neuville has questioned the consistency of penalties in the World Rally Championship after he was docked one-minute, and fined €1500, at Rally Sweden.
The Hyundai driver forgot to tie his helmet strap for the final stage on Saturday, meaning he drove the entirety of SS15 Umeå Sprint 2 with his helmet unfastened.
“We were in a rush,” Neuville explained to DirtFish. “I put the helmet [on] between TC and start. There was enough time but I don’t know. When you change a bit your habits… it’s the first time in 16 years of rallying [I’ve done this].”
Neuville had set the fastest time on the stage by 1.1 seconds over Takamoto Katsuta, but his penalty was added directly to his stage time rather than at the next time control.
“There has never been any consistency in how they apply the penalties so I’m not really surprised,” Neuville added. “We knew we would get a penalty. First there was a fine, then [Sébastien] Ogier got the minute now we got both, so yeah. And the next one, probably I don’t know, will pay 10,000 and get 10 seconds! Nobody knows.”
Neuville’s Ogier reference dates back to 2021, when the eight-time champion was handed a one-minute penalty at Rally Finland for the same chin strap offense. That time the penalty was not applied to Ogier’s stage time. He’d been fined €400 for the same thing in Monte Carlo earlier that year.
Neuville also questioned whether a penalty was necessary as it was not a sporting advantage.
“I mean applying a penalty… sure safety is important, but it will not prevent others in stressed situations to forget it again,” he said.
“We always take care of putting all the safety equipment [on], it’s our own safety and risk and I mean I am the father of a family, I want to make sure I have the best safety possible. But if I forget, what can I do? I pay the penalty, I take the minute and I carry on.”
The FIA, however, says there are “three comparable instances” to Neuville’s penalty since 2023, and “this decision follows that established precedent”.
Those are Pierre-Louis Loubet and Benjamin Veillas at Central European Rally 2023 (where Veillas didn’t have his seatbelts correctly fastened after restarting following a tire change), Grégoire Munster and Louis Louka at Acropolis Rally Greece 2024 (where Louka also didn’t correctly fasten his seatbelts after restarting following a tire change), and WRC2 driver Roberto Daprà at Acropolis Rally Greece 2025 (who completed SS5 without his helmet strap correctly fastened).
The FIA pointed to three previous cases, including Loubet in 2023 (pictured), that show precedent for Neuville's penalty
Daprà’s case is the closest to Neuville’s as it was the same breach and the one-minute time penalty was added to his stage time (although he was fined €400 not €1500). Loubet and Munster’s penalties were applied to TCs rather than the stage the offense was committed, and while Loubet and Veillas were jointly fined €1500, Munster and Louka escaped any financial penalty.
An FIA spokesperson told DirtFish: “The driver of Car No. 11 completed SS15 with the helmet chin strap not correctly fastened while the car was in motion. As a result, the matter was referred to the stewards.
“After reviewing the evidence and hearing from the competitor’s representative, the stewards determined that this constituted a breach of the applicable regulations. A one-minute time penalty was applied to the special stage time of SS15 for the competitor of Car No. 11, and a fine of €1,500 was imposed on the driver.
“Sanctions for safety-equipment infringements have been applied consistently over a number of seasons, including most recently in 2025. The stewards assess each case on its specific circumstances. There is a distinction between situations where a fastening issue is identified and corrected immediately, and cases where a car completes a stage distance while the equipment remains not correctly secured.
“Since 2023, there have been three comparable instances where a stage was completed without the helmet being correctly fastened, and this decision follows that established precedent.
“Drivers are regularly reminded during safety briefings and pre-event sessions of their responsibility to ensure that all mandatory safety equipment is worn and fastened correctly at all times while the car is in motion on a special stage.”
