FIA sporting delegate Timo Rautiainen has explained the thinking behind Rally Portugal’s brutal itinerary.
Even before the fifth round of this year’s World Rally Championship had taken place, drivers expressed concern at the length of time they were out in the car on Friday, coupled with another early start on Saturday.
Friday’s leg included 10 special stages and two remote services with parc fermé scheduled at 9.15pm for the first competitor, and their out-time being 6am the following morning.
Kalle Rovanperä questioned the safety of crews being afforded such precious time to rest, with several other drivers expressing their discontent at the situation – feeling long days are fine, but so long as there is a sufficient gap before the start of the next leg.
But Rautiainen, formerly co-driver to Marcus Grönholm, explained that the legs had to be that long in order to satisfy all local stakeholders.
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Rautiainen said: “The itinerary included two new stages this year, which made Friday a longer day than usual for everybody. But it’s something that needs to be done in Portugal because there is a reliance on including as many municipalities as possible within the route to support the rally and make it happen.
“A mammoth Friday made for a strong opening to the rally and we kept all but one of the P1 crews in the game. The crew that did retire was due to an unfortunate mechanical issue that can occur on any rally.
“We also look to the event organizers to freshen up their routes and, while it’s not a rule, it’s always nice for at least 20% of the route to be renewed yearly.
“Of course, we would not look to include a day as long as Friday on every round of the championship, but a day like this in Portugal can work. However, the volunteers, police, army and medical support is vital, not just on the stages but also on the access roads, parking areas for fans, etc. It’s a huge number of people needed and, like on every rally, without volunteers nothing would be close to being possible.
“We’ve always counted on a very strong level of organization in Portugal, they have done this for decades and you can see this in every aspect of how the rally is run, so I am pleased how the rally went.”
Event winner Sébastien Ogier told DirtFish a preferable solution for drivers would be to just condense the hours spent in the car during the day.
I know the organisers are trying their best to make it as optimum as they can,” Ogier said. “But the truth is, long days like Friday, it’s a little bit over the edge, I guess, for us drivers, for every crew.
“Think about our mechanics, our engineers, they also sleep very little hours. And for the show, it doesn’t bring anything. I think you’re anyway living in a time where everything needs to be compact.
“So we need to find a way with the itinerary that’s somehow a shorter day in range, but you can fit the same amount of stages with less cross-section. And that basically [means] look even closer [at] how you can group them more together, the stages. I think that’s probably the way.”
