According to AKK’s sport manager Henrik Frank, WRC cars are as safe as possible these days.
Sakari Lund,
Pertti Lappalainen
Sports manager of the AKK sports association Henrik Frank believes that next week’s Croatian World Rally Championship will be driven by Hyundai by Craig Breen despite death.
– I don’t see it possible that the rally would be cancelled. This is a commercial activity and certain agreements and financial terms and conditions apply. I can’t say how it affects an individual athlete or even a team. However, I believe that even in the case of Hyundai, for example, there are certain frameworks that obligate participation, Frank said.
The situation is difficult for the organizers of the World Rally Championship in Croatia.
– With my own 16 World Rally Championship experience, I dare to say that the situation is shocking for the organizers. If I’m thinking about the fact that the race week is about to start and something like this happens, then you have to go through your thoughts. The competition event is the absolute culmination of the year for the organization. This poses a big mental challenge, Frank stated.
Breen died in the tests before the World Rally Championship in Croatia on Thursday. Breen’s car veered off the road and crashed head-on into a wooden fence. According to public information, the fence has penetrated through the glass into the car.
Frank does not believe that, for example, the Hyundai team, the World Championship or the International Automobile Federation FIA will inform about the matter in more detail, but the responsibility for informing lies with the police.
According to Frank, today’s WRC rally cars are as safe as possible. In Breen’s case, the worst possible misfortune happened.
– If you take a vehicle moving on four wheels, all cars that comply with FIA rules are extremely safe. In the Ralli1 car, it has been taken to the furthest and, for example, the focus has been on withstanding side collisions. The only risk is that. that something penetrates inside. Frank stated.
– People’s skills are developing and certainly in ten years’ time things will have been made longer, but at the moment cars are as safe as they can be.
Frank reminds that the previous fatal accident at the World Cup level happened in 2005, when Markko Märtinin map reader Michael Park passed away.
– Then it was a side collision. That type of situation with today’s cars is very unlikely.
Death has touched Breen close before. Breen lost his cart by Gareth Roberts in the 2012 Sicilian IRC rally crash.