No sense in getting rid of mousse, says Sutton.

by Rob Wilkins

David Sutton has slammed the decision to get rid of run-flat mousse in tyres in the FIA World Rally Championship from 2008.

Speaking exclusively to Crash.net Radio at the recent Rallyday 2006, Sutton, who is the only man to date to have guided a private team to the pinnacle of the WRC, when his Rothmans Rally Team Ford Escorts took the 1981 drivers' championship title with Ari Vatanen, added that he just can't see any sense in the move.

"I am amazed at how that's going to work; I mean what's the point in taking away mousse? It's no pleasure for rally drivers to have a high ratio of punctures - that doesn't help anybody - we don't want rallies won on a puncture, we want rallies won on skill on the stages," he said. "To take away mousse - I can't see any sense in that at all."

As for the calendar, Sutton added that in his view a rotation system with events would not be a particularly negative thing, despite a lot of opposition to it: "I would support this rotation idea. I think there are more than 16 rallies out there that deserve a crack at the world championship and if an event has to drop out, it will only be once or twice every 16 years, so it's not going to be that bad," he explained. "There are new events that we need to see - in Jordan, South Africa and Poland - I think it'd be great to have those events in too."

Next year, three new events will join the fold, with Norway, Ireland and Portugal all having been given a place. However while they have joined the WRC, Cyprus, Turkey and Australia have been axed to accommodate them.

"I think the only one [to go] that was a surprise to me was Australia, because I've done that event several times and it is a superb event. There's nothing really very special to say about Cyprus, it's twisty and has got very rough roads, Turkey is pretty much the same and neither of those countries has a particularly strong Automotive industry. I think to lose Cyprus once or twice every 16 years isn't going to hurt them that much," concluded Sutton.