Rally Finland Used Tractors To Make A Chicane For Some Reason
What do you use to create a make-shift chicane on a rally stage? Tyre walls? Hay bales? No, how about tractors.
Rally Finland organisers have come under criticism, particularly from FIA World Rally Championship drivers, after they created a chicane using actual tractors on SS1.
Two tractors were positioned on the Harju spectator stage run to create a chicane as part of a tie-up with event sponsor Valtra.
Unsurprisingly drivers were not happy with the decision to use tractors, especially because they were running gravel tyres when the chicane was on an asphalt section.
In the above video you can see VW rally driver Andreas Mikkelsen tackling the tractor chicane at the 1m35 mark.
Here’s what three-time WRC champion Sebastien Ogier had to say to Autosport about the tractor chicane:
“We talked about this straight after the recce and said this can’t be serious. The FIA is fighting for road safety and in F1 we see such bad accidents involving tractors [Jules Bianchi’s 2014 Japanese Grand Prix crash.
“OK, our cars are a little bit safer with more [protection] around us and we don’t arrive with the same speed, but anyway there’s no point to do that - it’s not really clever. We asked for these to be removed after we drove the stage on Thursday night for the second time we went to the stage on Friday, but they were not.”
Volkswagen team principal Jost Capito called it “irresponsible” and said “tractors have no place on a [rally] stage”.
Rally Finland’s clerk of the course, Kai Tarkiainen, said he was surprised by the reaction the tractors had and added:
“The company consulted with me to see if that could be done. I consulted the FIA and then made the decision. We measured everything and considered everything that could happen. It was done with the FIA’s measurements regarding how much free space there has to be between the obstacles and the regulation doesn’t define what the obstacle should be.”
What do you think? Was it OK or completely crazy? Let us know below.
Comments
How are tractors less safe than trees on the outside of a corner?
the trees will jump to safety when they see a car coming their way but traktors arent alive so they cant do that
I understand why they wanted them there, but they should’ve put, say, hay bales around them, and maybe a safety-net to “cover” the wheelbase.
That would have made most of the tractors invisible, and be bad PR for Valtra. With a sponsorship deal like that it is all or nothing.
TRAKTORS
These stories just keep cropping up don’t they?
Did anybody plough straight into them?
Even on the track they make people slow down!
Vehicles just sat there doing nothing… Must be a con-tractor
Did they put them at exactly the same angle… Using a pro-tractor?
I can stop now if you want… These are getting a bit corny
you should just have picked the best one
Yeah, it was toooooooooooooooooooootally OK. wink wink
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