The FIA re-organised the calendar for the 2017 season to include a greater variation in surfaces between events, bringing the Tour de Corse forward from October to April.[5][17] The decision was made after concerns were expressed about the 2016 calendar, which originally contained six consecutive gravel events followed by four tarmac rallies.[18]
The Rally of China was removed from the calendar.[6] The event had been included on the 2016 calendar before storm damage to the proposed route forced its cancellation.[18] The round was removed from the 2017 calendar to give event organisers more time to prepare for a future bid to rejoin the calendar.[19] Similarly, the FIA put the Rallies of Argentina and Poland on notice regarding safety concerns, threatening to rescind their World Championship status for the 2017 season unless safety standards were improved in 2016,[20][21][22] with drivers citing a lack of safety marshalls and expressing concerns over spectators getting too close to the cars as the main areas to be addressed.[23] Both events were subsequently included on the calendar.[5][6]
The Rallye Monte-Carlo introduced a heavily revised itinerary, with eighty-five percent of the route used in 2016 being revised for the 2017 event,[24] which saw the competitive distance increase from 337.59 km to 382.65 km and included the Col de Turini as part of the Power Stage.[24] Rally Sweden adjusted its route to remove the emphasis on purpose-built stages that had filled out the event itinerary in previous years. The new route raised the average speed of the rally and introduced more competitive mileage in Hedmark County in neighbouring Norway.[25]
Rally Mexico also featured route revisions, with the eighty-kilometre Guanajuato stage—the longest in the championship in 2016—removed from the schedule;[26] however, the addition of new stages and further changes to existing ones meant that the overall competitive distance of the 2017 rally was only six kilometres shorter than the route used in the 2016 event. The rally started in Mexico City with a spectator-friendly stage before moving to its traditional headquarters in León.[27] The Tour de Corse shortened its route by seventy-four kilometres, from 390.92 km in 2016 down to 316.76 km in 2017, with most of the changes coming from shortening each of the individual stages used in 2016.[28]Rally Portugal shortened its route by twenty kilometres, reintroducing stages that had not been used for several years and reconfiguring stages from the 2016 event.[29]Rally Poland also revised its route, introducing a series of brand-new stages close to the Russian border. The changes saw the crews compete on a wider ranges of surfaces—including tarmac and cobblestones—within individual stages, although the rally was still officially classified as a gravel surface event.[30]
Following the cancellation of stages in Rally Sweden when the front-running cars exceeded the maximum average speed mandated by the FIA,[10]Rally Finland was forced to revise its route to find ways of keeping the average stage speed down—with some estimates predicting that the 2017 generation of cars could exceed 140 km/h (87.0 mph)—to avoid stage cancellations.[31] This was achieved by installing artificial chicanes into all but two of the stages, which proved to be controversial as drivers complained that they were too narrow and thus had the potential to damage cars, and were poorly-positioned with little regulatory oversight from rally organisers.[32] With Rallye Deutschland moving to a new headquarters, the rally routed was revised. The vineyard and military proving ground stages in the Baumholder region were retained, but the final leg of the route was changed to introduce high-speed stages based on country lanes.[16]
Rally Catalunya introduced several new and returning stages to its route, focusing on the tarmac legs of the event.[33] Organisers of the Wales Rally GB retained the event route used in 2016, but revised the itinerary to increase its difficulty, with the route featuring earlier start times, later finishes and the reintroduction of night stages.[34]Rally Australia underwent route revisions, introducing a new loop of stages north of the rally headquarters in Coffs Harbour. The new stages were designed to be faster and more technical than in previous events.[35]
The season started with the Rallye Monte Carlo. In the category, there were six entries, including four by Renault Sport. The rally was won from start to end by Raphaël Astier, winning by more than nine minutes over the rest of the crews. The podium was completed by Renault's Luca Panzani and Charles Martin.[47]
Louise Cook was the sole entrant for Rally Sweden in the category. She had to retire after losing the bumper of her car before the Colin's Crest jump during the second pass over the Vargåsen stage.[48] She was able to re-assemble the car, but an homologation problem in the spare seat brackets, made her unable to start the final leg of the rally, leaving the category with no winner.[49]
After there were no entries in Rally Mexico, the action continued Tour de Corse, which also featured the first round of the Junior WRC championship. Raphaël Astier lead the event from start to finish, winning the event by almost a minute and a half from Junior entrant Nil Solans. The podium was completed by local Nicolas Ciamin, who claimed to that position after a driveshaft problem prevented fellow Frenchman Terry Folb the means to finish in the podium.[50]
^Rallye Monte Carlo was shortened when the first stage was cancelled due to a fatal accident involving a spectator.[7][8] The sixteenth stage was later cancelled owing to overcrowding of spectators.[9]
^Rally Sweden was shortened when the second pass over the Knon stage was cancelled on the advice of the FIA as the leading drivers exceeded the maximum average stage speed of 130 km/h (80.8 mph) during the first run through the stage.[10]
^Rally Mexico had its route shortened when a highway accident prevented the cars being transported to León in time for the start of the first stages.[11]
^The sixth stage of Rally Poland was cancelled after heavy rains in the region created large puddles of standing water on the stage which was subsequently deemed too dangerous.[12]
^Rally Australia had its route shortened after a bridge in the Newry stage was found to be damaged, making the second pass over the stage impossible to complete.[13] The penultimate stage, Pilbara Reverse 2, was also cancelled after heavy rain made conditions unsafe.[14]
^"Rally Sweden Entry List"(PDF). rallysweden.com. Rally Sweden. 16 January 2017. Archived from the original(PDF) on 14 December 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
