The FIA’s World Rally Championship manager Michele Mouton says she won’t make any quick decisions on regulation change in the wake of Ott Tanak’s crash into a Mexican lake last week.
Mouton visited the scene of the crash and immediately shifted divers from their position at the start of the Los Mexicanos stage to a boat in the reservoir close to where the M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC went underwater. She now wants to investigate further – particularly into the call to bring a former driver or co-driver in to check safety in the stages – before making any decisions.
Mouton said: “We have being driving this stage for a lot of years without any problem. The organisers say the water is much lower usually, that’s why they have the divers at the start of the stage. We can think about that (bringing a former driver or co-driver in), but don’t ask me to make this decision today.”
Tanak, who was caught out when he broke the front-right steering on his Ford and was unable to avoid the water, said there plenty more similar hazards remaining in this year’s WRC. He wants Mikko Hirvonen’s co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen to take up the potential new job.
He said: “Jarmo is the guy who has the most experience of us – he should be the guy who the FIA is listening to. Safety should be number one and we need Jarmo in to drive the route for all of the stages for the rest of this year. It’s easy for him, he has done all of the stages last year and he knows his way around. It’s easy to work with a guy like this who has all of the experience and who knows what to look for. Maybe it’s time for the FIA to listen to these guys.”
Published by: Maxrally