It was, according to Kris Meeke, as though somebody had thrown a duvet across the windshield of his DS3 WRC. The analogy was slightly strange, but it did the job. He was blinded by the dust.
Admittedly, circumstances at that Rally Australia a decade ago were compounded by the second pass of the Valla stage running in the darkness, but it was the dust that had Meeke and Sébastien Ogier so angry.
Dust is an inevitable byproduct of summertime gravel rallying and this week’s Acropolis Rally Greece could be the worst affected WRC round of the season. No sooner had the crews finished dusting themselves down after Sardinia earlier this month before they were on the phone to their respective teams suggesting a request for four-minute gaps on the hard-baked tracks in the hills of central Greece.
But what does that actually mean? What actually happens when the team asks for more time between them and the car ahead?
Timo Rautiainen is poacher turned part-gamekeeper on this one. Two decades ago, he was on the radio complaining about the dust and instructing his team manager of the need to be talking to the FIA or the clerk of the course.
Kris Meeke was furious at being forced to run in dusty, dark conditions a decade ago down under
Now he’s on the other side of that call and, on matters like this, more often than not the clerk of the course’s right hand.
The Finn, the FIA’s sporting delegate, said: “When we start to discuss about the intervals on a rally, especially here with the dusty conditions and the standard three minutes, obviously the competitors might think three minutes is not enough because of this, that and the other.
“The things that we consider, they are like the itinerary: how does it affect the running on the stages? Can we afford bigger gaps before we are back to the [repeated] stage again? Then, obviously, the weather: how is it? Will there be any wind? Which direction the stage is going? Is it going towards the sun, the rising sun in the morning? Because that would be bad.
“And then we try to be fair to all, because it’s not only the top 10 or 12 cars in the rally. There are 50 or 60 other cars in the rally. And what do we do with them? They are also asking for more gaps, and we cannot afford to give it to everyone. And then, one more thing: the longer days we have, then we go towards the sunset. And that’s not good either when we are having some cars driving in the darkness.”
In Greece, as on other WRC rounds, the three-minute gap between cars shrinks to two minutes for WRC2 backwards. That’s often a source of frustration for the competitors on the second tier.
Rautiainen added: “When we look at the gaps for P1 (Rally1 drivers), they have three-minute gaps, and P2s (WRC2), they have two-minute gaps. Then P1s are asking for an extra minute, so they have four-minute gaps and in WRC2 it’s staying at two minutes.
“It’s not only the top drivers we are talking about. Giving additional minutes to the whole field, obviously it will increase the length of the field to incredible numbers. And one factor to consider is the Rally1 cars creating more aero, so they are lifting more dust into the air. That kind of says that they kind of require more minutes between them for the visibility.
“It’s hard, it’s never an easy decision to make. Sometimes we can get it wrong, for example we can judge the weather wrong. We say that we get the understanding that it will be six meters per second of wind in the morning and it’s nothing. It’s full still, no wind. And I have already told the teams in the team managers’ meeting the night before, there is zero chance to get four-minute gaps because we have to get the safety caravan between the first and second pass of the stage.
“Another factor is when the airplane is up, we need the airplane for the tracking and timing and radio communication and TV. So delaying the length of the field might affect on these schedules as well. So, plenty of things, the weather, how the wind is going, where the sun is shining, are we driving eastwards or westwards. So much to consider.”
Rautiainen was no stranger to dust when he was competing in the World Rally Championship
Rautiainen is also very much across the process of crews being awarded time back if they’ve been delayed by a slower car ahead. This used to be stewards’ decision – now it sits with the clerk of the course, with the two-time world champion on hand for advice.
He explained: “The team representative contacts the clerk of the course or the competitor relation officers and they explain the situation: “We were on the stage, we caught the car in front of us and we couldn’t pass and we were delayed by this and that and the other…”
“So what we require is the full statement where this happened, when it happened, which car it was, why it was slow and then what is your idea? How much did you lose time? And then provide evidence. That’s critical.
“So, they will give us the onboards so that we can see and evaluate how much the dust indeed was the trouble. And then we look. And then we calculate. How much did he lose? And then we give the time back.
The FIA's sporting delegate won two World Rally Championship co-driving Marcus Grönholm
“Obviously, we try to do our best. The regulations say that the clerk of the course may give a time that is the fairest time and that’s quite a broad concept: what is the fairest time? It’s not an exact science, and every situation is slightly different.
“There is no such thing as a ready formula: use this and that’s the time. I wish it was, but it’s not. So we have to take a lot of variables, a lot of things into account and then we can proceed with the time which is our best estimate.”
