Kalle Rovanperä has called for more stringent regulation around how World Rally Championship itineraries are designed, suggesting a rule should be implemented that enforces a maximum duration between the first and last time controls of a single day.
The double world champion was one of several drivers who struggled with the long hours of Portugal’s Friday itinerary, which lasted just over 15 hours between checking out of parc ferme and then checking back into the day’s final service at Matosinhos.
Sébastien Ogier said it was the most tired he’d ever felt on a WRC round, while Ott Tänak said he felt the drivers had “been treated like animals”.
Now Rovanperä is calling for rules enforcing maximum durations for how long a WRC day can last to avoid a repeat of those issues.
“There should be some clear rule from the FIA what the maximum day length is,” Rovanperä told DirtFish.
We are always talking about road safety and stuff. We are driving with four or five hours of sleep during the weekend, many nights in a row.Kalle Rovanperä
“There should be some clear rule from the FIA what the maximum day length is,” Rovanperä told DirtFish.
“If we have a long day like Friday then we need to have a late morning the next day. We woke up at 5am on Saturday again and maybe it’s midnight that we are ready [to finish] with the videos and stuff, so it’s just the point where you need to have some rest. When we arrive here in service, it doesn’t mean we go to sleep 10 minutes later.
“It’s quite easy: we don’t need to be going out from the parc ferme around 6am. [We can start at] 9am or something and make the schedule work after that. Every organizer can do that.”
Rules prescribing what format a WRC event should follow already exist: section 10 of the FIA WRC Sporting Regulations is dedicated entirely to that subject, which stipulates maximum competitive mileage across the entire itinerary and between visits to services or tire fitting zones.
Total accrued distance including liaison sections, both in terms of distance covered and time elapsed, is currently unregulated. Events must start on Thursday with either a ceremonial start or superspecial and end with a Sunday powerstage, unless a specific agreement is reached with both the FIA and WRC Promoter.
It's not about how much time is spent covering competitive mileage – Rovanperä's sticking point is on the insufficient gap between one day's itinerary ending and the next beginning
In Rovanperä’s opinion the need for such a rule is a safety concern: against a backdrop of the FIA’s long-running Action for Road Safety campaign, he suggests such long days are incompatible with that messaging.
Running on fewer than four fully rotating wheels and tires – in other words, driving on a puncture – was banned in 2007 to better align with the FIA’s road safety mission. Only months beforehand, Sébastien Loeb had driven down a Greek highway with his rear-left wheel missing, sparks flying from his suspension scraping along the highway, all while Daniel Elena hung out the passenger-side window for balance.
In Rovanperä’s view, another conflict between safety messaging and practical reality came to pass with Portugal’s itinerary.
“We are all here, but I don’t think it’s clever at some point,” he said. “We are always talking about road safety and stuff. We are driving with four or five hours of sleep during the weekend, many nights in a row.
“We can do it, but I don’t know if it’s clever when we try to stay awake on the road sections. It starts to be quite tough at some point.
“It’s just unnecessary to be 15 hours in the car like that.”
