WoRDA (the World Rally Drivers’ Alliance) was formed in response to Adrien Fourmaux’s fine for swearing during a stage-end interview at the 2025 Rally Sweden, breaking Article 12.2.1.l of the 2025 International Sporting Code, in the stewards’ view. They deemed his language to be “inappropriate” and imposed a €10,000 fine, with an additional €20,000 suspended for 12 months – the punishment that is outlined in Appendix B of the International Sporting Code for “any misconduct”.

In their original statement, WoRDA also requested for direct communication between the president of the FIA, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, and its members to “find a mutually agreeable and urgent solution” to the issue. One month later at Safari Rally Kenya, the WRC drivers decided to either remain silent or speak in their mother tongue during stage-end interviews as a protest towards Fourmaux’s penalty, once again requesting the FIA President’s co-operation in creating “positive changes in the rules to help [them] achieve this goal.”

In the time between the Safari Rally Kenya and this weekend’s Rally Islas Canarias, meetings involving the FIA road sport director Emilia Abel and eight-time world champion co-driver Julien Ingrassia reached a conclusion, with a compromise found between the FIA and WoRDA.

The compromise says that drivers will no longer be penalised for swearing during stage-end interviews and in high-adrenaline scenarios, such as team radio communication. Instead, penalties will only be applied to those who swear during press conferences or in official media zones.

In an interview with Motorsport.com, Ingrassa said: “We have 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 Appendix B [of the FIA 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 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… 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.”

While an agreement has been reached between the FIA and WoRDA, the International Sporting Code regulations have not been adapted to reflect these changes, perhaps as they also apply to the FIA’s other world championships.

The Rally Islas Canaries starts tomorrow in Gran Canaria, with the Shakedown scheduled for 09:00 local time. The full itinerary can be found here.