In recent weeks plenty of discussion and brainstorming has focused on how rallying’s top tier can be improved on several levels. This has largely been orchestrated by current World Rally Championship drivers who believe it is time for the discipline to make changes to grow. Technical and sporting regulations, event formats and series promotion are all topics that have been debated in several meetings between the drivers, the WRC Promoter and the FIA, with those ideas now being collated and investigated.
However, the Safari Rally is a prime example where the WRC has succeeded and is a cornerstone event that it must keep moving forward. Just like competing on the snow of Rally Sweden, the Safari Rally is one of the WRC’s unique selling points. A condensed version of the famous rally that began in 1953, it returned to the WRC after a 19-year hiatus in 2021 as part of the championship’s push to refresh its calendar with a host of classic events including the Acropolis Rally, Rally New Zealand and Rally Japan.
There is an elephant in the room of course. There is an argument that this new-look Safari Rally pales in comparison with the previous relentless 5,000km open road marathon across the Kenya wilderness, which provided the ultimate endurance test for drivers, teams and machines.
Nicky Grist, a three-time Safari Rally winner as a co-driver for Colin McRae, made just this point ahead of last week’s rally while also acknowledging that the event remains a challenge. Writing on Twitter, he called the schedule “a shadow of its former self”.
“Longest stage 31km? Gone are the days of 150km road sections, gruelling five days of competition where getting the car back to the finish was the biggest challenge a driver could face,” he wrote. Grist later added: “Endurance aside. The Safari Rally still has some challenges for the modern breed of WRC rally cars."
There is no hiding from the fact that the current Safari Rally features only 355km of competitive stages. But as last weekend proved, the rally is still one of the most challenging events in global motorsport.
All 10 Rally1 cars encountered issues inflicted by the conditions and nobody had a faultless run. Winner Sebastien Ogier had to overcome a loss of hybrid power, three punctures, a near miss with a zebra, losing his tailgate to a tree, an overheating issue and a rock smashing his windscreen. He saw off Toyota team-mate Kalle Rovanpera by a mere 6.7s to claim a second Safari win.
PLUS: How Ogier held his nerve to repeat Toyota's Safari WRC rout
Source: Autosport