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As the World Rally Championship safety delegate, Michele Mouton holds responsibility for overseeing the safety of every stage mile on WRC events. But, as remarkable as it seems, the behaviour of fans is no less of a concern now than it was in her heyday at the wheel, when spectators would virtually stand in the middle of the road as cars hurtled towards them at terrifying speeds.
Across social media in particular, there is a senseless celebration of the very thing that blighted the existence of Group B in the 1980s and regularly caused stage cancellations in the era of Colin McRae, Richard Burns and Carlos Sainz: lunatic fans.
Emblematic of this problem is the meme that shows an Audi Quattro airborne at Fafe on Rally Portugal with an unbroken sea of people in front of it. The next shot shows a Subaru Impreza 555 in the same position, with the crowds now standing on the verge, and the third shows a modern Hyundai i20 WRC from the same angle on the same jump with not a soul on either side.
