FIM Commissions Update - Jean-François Wulveryck

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has influenced significantly the activities of all the FIM Commissions. In the “Commissions Update” series Commission Directors will explain how they have modified their working methods during the extraordinary times and how they foresee the future. In this article the director of the FIM Cross Country Commission CRT, Jean-François Wulveryck explains how the CRT has been able to overcome the challenges caused by the pandemic.

The pandemic linked to the coronavirus has led to the cancellation or postponement of all the events scheduled for 2020 to date, both the FIM Bajas World Cup and the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship.

“In March 2020, the CRT Bureau member Larbi Rida Sbaï carried out an inspection in Mexico on the occasion of the Sonora Rally. He had to interrupt his mission abruptly to return to Paris where he was confined for several months before being able to return to Morocco at the beginning of July! Jean-François Wulveryck explains the difficulties the CRT has faced.”

Concerning the work of the CRT, the commission has organised several bureau meetings by video-conference over the last few months.

“Together with the CRT Coordinator Gregory Ricci, we also took part in some meetings of the FIA Cross-Country Rally Commission by video-conference.

Additionally we took advantage of this pause of the competitions to work on our next regulations, in collaboration with ASO, the organiser of the Dakar, and to try to improve the safety of the riders on several aspects such as:

• Rider’s equipment (Air-Bag vest compulsory starting in 2021);
• Limitation of the number of tyres (one rear tyre for 2 days of racing);
• Reduction of the maximum speed of the machines (Together with the FIM Technical Commission, we have asked the manufacturers to work on the development of an air intake restrictor)

“Moreover, in the field of safety and in collaboration with the FIM Medical Commission, we have defined the content of the first-aid training that will henceforth be compulsory for any rider wishing to take part in one of our events. And for the first time ever we will have SSVs in both Bajas and Rallies. We worked jointly with the FIM Technical Commission to create the regulations. We are looking forward for the season to start, Jean-François highlights.”

And the FIM Cross Country season should see its start this weekend with the Baja of Portugal.

“We are working jointly with our organisers and we try to maintain and/or reschedule as many events as possible in the FIM Cross-Country World Championship and the FIM Bajas World Cup. As of today, we can count on one event in Cross-Country, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in November (tbc). We should have three Bajas, two in Portugal (Serta and Portalegre) and hopefully the last one in Dubai before the end of the year.”

After a very demanding year, Jean-François Wulveryck looks for the future with confidence.

“As previously announced, we will continue to work in collaboration with the Rally organisers, manufacturers, riders, etc. in order to improve safety in Rally. We are in discussion with Rally organisers to draw up the 2021 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship calendar. We are also trying to improve our FIM Bajas World Cup format. The goal would be to have qualification rounds in different regions of the World and a final to award the title of Winner of the FIM Bajas World Cup.”

FIM Communications