Stage-ends, and fines, are big on the news agenda right now in the World Rally Championship, as the next chapter of driver reaction unfolds in Kenya following Adrien Fourmaux’s financial penalty in Sweden.
The €30,000 fine (€20,000 of which is suspended) the Hyundai driver was slapped with due to comments that violated the FIA’s new code of conduct surrounding language was undoubtedly hefty.
But it’s nothing compared to what Fourmaux’s French compatriot Gilles Panizzi was billed a quarter of a century ago.
On his, and Peugeot’s, first visit to the Safari in 2000, Panizzi was a troubled 16th after the suspension on his 206 WRC broke on the very first section, costing him nearly half an hour.
The rally was therefore hardly going to plan, but it only got worse on day two.
Starting behind several slower cars in the running order, Panizzi and his brother Hervé had a definite pace advantage – but were compromised by dust kicked up by the cars they were catching.
That unfortunately meant the Frenchmen were in trouble again, clobbering a rock they could not see due to their impaired vision.
Two punctures were the result, and it’s fair to say Gilles was not a happy man.
“The driver before, he’s not sport,” he raged.
Why?
“Because I remind him, and my helicopter say to him ‘stop’. He don’t stop. And me? Baff!” Panizzi exclaimed, clapping his hands together before whistling and twisting his finger to the sky to imply his rival’s state of mind.
“I have two punctures, not possible. No.”
It wasn’t Panizzi’s words that got him into trouble however; rather his decision to take the law into his own hands once he’d reached the end of the section.
Both Panizzi brothers leapt out of their Peugeot, and sprinted towards the Subaru Impreza of Group N driver Roberto Sanchez – attempting to pull the Argentine out of his car.
What followed was the maximum possible fine at that time: $50,000.
And Panizzi’s boss was in no mood to defend him, making it clear it was the driver’s responsibility to cough up the cash.
Panizzi's boss at the time did not back up, or condone, his actions
“Marshals took a quite wise decision,” said Peugeot team director Corrado Provera.
“I think it’s normal that somebody doing this type of thing should be penalized, and not his time. So Gilles will have to pay $50,000.
“It’s a big amount of money, but I think that in a way he deserves it.”
Panizzi would go on to have far better days for Peugeot, winning seven rounds of the WRC for it from 2000-2003; all of them on Tarmac.
As for the fine, the clear and obvious difference to today is there could be very little argument that, as the late Provera said, it was nothing other than deserved.
