Tanak seeks WRC safety restructure following Rally Mexico crash

The Estonian feels the time has come for the governing body of world motorsport to consider change, and bring in a former top-line competitor to guide them on improving safety on the World Rally Championship stages.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT after he and co-driver Raigo Molder emerged unaided from their sinking Ford Fiesta RS WRC, Tanak identified recently retired WRC event winning co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen as the man for the job. Lehtinen won 13 rallies alongside Mikko Hirvonen between 2002 and '14.

"In the championship there are plenty more places like this and Jarmo is the guy who has the most experience of us - he should be the guy who the FIA is listening to," Tanak said.

"Safety should be number one and we need Jarmo in to drive the route for all of the stages for the rest of this year. It's easy for him, he has done all of the stages last year and he knows his way around.

"It's easy to work with a guy like this who has all of the experience and who knows what to look for. Maybe it's time for the FIA to listen to these guys."

The rally organisers moved a team of divers from the start of the Los Mexicanos test to the location of Tanak's crash for the second pass of the stage.

Rally Mexico director Patrick Suberville said he had been surprised by the depth of the water, with the car reckoned to have been rescued from five metres.

"Normally, there is no water there," said Suberville. "Usually, they would have been able to get back to the road, but this year the water level was higher.

"We didn't have the divers there because we never had a problem here before - it's a straight piece of road."

Tanak's accident was caused after he damaged the Ford's steering in a compression mid-way through a preceding corner.

"Even if the divers had been there, the crew were out of the car within eight seconds - the divers wouldn't have even got to them by then," Suberville added.

"What we have to remember as well is that the divers we have are not trained in rescuing people. This is something we need to think about."

The FIA's WRC manager Michele Mouton was keen to avoid a kneejerk reaction to the crash. After visiting the site of the crash, Mouton told AUTOSPORT: "We have being driving this stage for a lot of years without any problem.

"The organisers say the water is much lower usually, that's why they have the divers at the start of the stage. We can think about that [bringing a former driver or co-driver in], but don't ask me to make this decision today."