WRC plans major safety changes

A radical overhaul of safety in World Rally Cars will be incorporated into new technical regulations for 2017.

There are concerns from some in the WRC that safety measures have not moved on sufficiently from the accident that killed Michael Park nine years ago. Co-driver Park died when Markko Martin's Peugeot 307 WRC hit a tree on Rally GB in 2005.

The plan for 2017 is to introduce a monocoque inside the cabin of the new cars in an effort to improve side-impact protection. Volkswagen Motorsport technical chief Francois-Xavier Demaison said more needs to be done.

"From the manufacturers we have this impact-absorbing foam in the doors and now we have the new seat standards from the FIA, but these are small steps," he said. "We could spend more energy on this. When you see how things have moved on in other areas of motorsport, we are not on the same level. And, in some areas, we have more risk."

As well as a new safety cell structure being fitted inside cars for 2017, significant improvements to the way seatbelts work with the seats themselves are also expected – something the crews have been campaigning for.

Mikko Hirvonen's co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen said: "In other areas of motorsport, the belt is attached to the seat itself – that's what we need.

"The trouble is, if we have a sudden stop or a big impact and the seat breaks away and moves, then the driver or co-driver is kept in place by the belt, which is not moving. Already, we have seen this causing bad injuries. It needs changing."

Demaison added: "When you have an impact, we have to absorb the energy and if we have the monocoque inside the car then we are using this rather than the driver to absorb that energy – it's the cell moving and not the driver. Incorporating the harness to the seats within this monocoque is all part of this process."

Side-impact protection is the biggest area of concern in rally car safety and the teams have worked hard to move the crew as close together inside the cars as possible to move them away from potential impact points.

The safest way to run the crew in a rally car is in tandem, with the co-driver calling pacenotes from behind the driver. The use of smaller-category cars would make that difficult, prompting some calls for a return to larger sector machinery.

The FIA's WRC manager Michele Mouton said the governing body was always working to improve safety.

"We are investigating this area at the moment," said Mouton. "Of course, safety is the most important thing for us."