Following news of a testing delay for 2022 Rally1 cars, World Rally Champion Ott Tänak says it’s time to see decisions coming quicker and more decisively from the FIA.
Testing on the World Rally Championship’s first ever hybrid cars was expected to start in early January. Because of delays in hybrid delivery, that date has moved to February.
“It’s a complicated situation from the FIA side,” Tänak told DirtFish.
“These things seem to have been left too late and now everything needs to happen in quite a small window – it doesn’t seem to be too clever way to do things.
“For me, there’s nothing much to say, this is the big boys’ game but, for sure, it looks like we’re running a bit close now.”
Asked how he felt about the WRC’s timetable for introducing hybrid technology, Tänak said: “Don’t forget, it’s not only the hybrid we have to test, it’s the tubular chassis as well.
“Everything is new with these cars. OK the engine is a bit the same, but for the chassis and other things, it’s not like we’re carrying anything over from the previous cars. We’re starting from a blank sheet of paper and still there are many jobs to be done in a short space of time. These guys need to know themselves exactly what is the next move.”
FIA rally director Yves Matton is a man familiar with development schedules for new cars from his time as team principal at Citroën. He said: “From what I know from my previous life, one year to test the car normally it’s OK. We know engineers will complain about it, [saying] 18 months is perfect, 24 even better.”
