Stage-end interviews will return at this week's Rally Islas Canarias after the World Rally Drivers Alliance (WoRDA) and the FIA reached an agreement over penalties for swearing during an event.
World Rally Championship drivers opted to remain silent or speak in their mother tongue during stage-end interviews at Safari Rally Kenya last month after Hyundai driver Adrien Fourmaux became the first to be sanctioned under the FIA's new motorsport-wide clampdown on “inappropriate language”.
Fourmaux was slapped with a €10,000 fine and hit with a suspended €20,000 fine for swearing during a television interview at the conclusion of Rally Sweden in February. Fourmaux was deemed to have breached Article 12.2.1.l of the 2025 FIA International Sporting Code that covers use of “inappropriate language” after saying “we f***ed up yesterday” during an interview when referring to a messy start to stage 11.
Fourmaux’s penalty triggered WRC drivers to form a new alliance, through WoRDA, in response to the incident, requesting the FIA to rethink its regulations and sanctions on swearing in heat-of-the-moment circumstances, such as stage-end interviews.
WoRDA, headed by eight-time world champion co-driver Julien Ingrassia, has held discussions with the FIA since Kenya that have resulted in a compromise between the organisations being struck regarding how penalties for using inappropriate language will be applied moving forward.
Starting from this week’s WRC round in the Canary Islands, drivers will no longer be punished for swearing during stage-end interviews and other heat-of-the-moment scenarios, such as radio communication with the team. Instead, drivers will only be sanctioned for swearing during press conferences or official media zones. This follows a similar clarification adopted in Formula 1.
While the agreement is firmly in place and understood by both parties, the current Appendix B of the International Sporting Code regulations themselves have not been reworded.
“Everyone realised that our sport is unique with specific elements - we don’t know any other sport where sports people will have 20 or so live interviews in the heat of the moment during one event,” Ingrassia told Autosport.
“We reached a very good solution. Now we have decided that the rally itinerary is divided into two zones.
“The controlled zone, which can be press conferences, media pen and media zone, those places where drivers can have much cooler heads, is where the Appendix B [of the International Sporting Code] is applied from A-Z.
“There are then uncontrolled zones which are the stage-end interviews, the radio communication and the stage itself as we know drivers can have a bad reaction if you hit a rock or whatever.
“These zones are uncontrolled, and of course, as long as we just speak about swear words and not violence or gross misconduct, we agreed a bit like in Formula 1 like when drivers speak to their team via radio communications they are not punished for any swearing.
“We reached this agreement which is good because it solves a lot of things and now we can focus on the sport itself as we head to a new rally in the Canary Islands. We know the fan atmosphere there is going to be quite crazy and we have all the good elements to have a really nice event.
“What I have said to WoRDA members is basically that we have to trust in this agreement and the FIA is trusting us also. I said to them just be yourself and deliver us the best show you can in the Canary Islands.”
“The FIA has held constructive talks with the crews, the outcome of which has communicated to them prior to Rally Islas Canarias,” the FIA said in a statement. “Controlled and uncontrolled zones have been defined in line with the specificities of the WRC and in collaboration with the WRC Promoter a technical solution has been implemented to mitigate the risk of breaches at stage-end, ensuring that the principles of Appendix B – which is in line with other global sport – are upheld.
“There has been a strong input from the FIA Drivers’ Committee throughout, and a representative of the crews has been invited to attend Committee meetings.”
The process to reach this compromise has resulted in the FIA inviting Ingrassia to join the next WRC drivers’ committee meeting to ensure lines of communication between drivers and the FIA remain open moving forward.
“The FIA have invited me to participate in the next WRC driver committee, which is good,” Ingrassia added. “This is one step forward in communication and the link that we want to create between the FIA and the drivers.”
