Was the Tour of Corsica too soft?

Corsica. What was all the fuss about? They went out. They came home.

In the mid-'80s, Corsica's reputation was the rallying equivalent of the Nordschleife - it was a killer.

For three years in succession, death marred the World Rally Championship's trip to the French Island: Attilio Bettega in 1985, his Lancia team-mates Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto a year later, and a private Peugeot crew in 1987.

Last week's Tour of Corsica winner Jari-Matti Latvala was just a year old when his hero Toivonen lost his life in a terrifying fire.

Before 1986, Markku Alen was the only Finn to win on what remain some of the world's most specialised asphalt stages. In the 31 years since his victory, Finland has celebrated 11 WRC titles. But, before Sunday, not a single Corsica success.

Latvala knows why.

Bettega died in Corsica in 1985 © LAT

"After Henri died, the Finns, they didn't want to come to Corsica. It took a long time for Toyota to convince [Juha] Kankkunen to come here to drive. He hated the place. Because of Henri's accident, this was not the favourite place for the Finns."

There's definitely an overtone of Latvala finishing the job that Toivonen started 29 years ago.

Put this to him and he adds, quietly: "Here in Corsica he was so dominant, but then everything ended so quickly that day. Henri was able to lead and he would have won that event for sure."

Driving around the island, fear's never far away. Unforgiving doesn't come close.

Or should that be didn't come close? Like every rally in the world championship with any kind of tradition, Latvala knows its story. After watching films of events past and reading possibly every word written about it, Latvala saw big changes in the rally he won last week.

"At that time, if it hadn't been Henri who died, then it would have been somebody else later on; the cars were getting too fast and they couldn't control them anymore.

"But this rally has changed completely from those days. The roads are the same, but now we're driving more inland, and in the '80s they were closer to the coast where there were more drops. This was a problem a lot of the time.

Toivonen was dominating in Corsica when he suffered his fatal crash © LAT

"Of course, the drop was not the problem [for Toivonen]. Where Henri went off, the place was not too fast and the impact was not so big. The problem was the car not being fireproof.

"For this rally - and in those days - the cars were fitted with extra [fuel] tanks because they were doing two long special stages. And they didn't have safety tanks. And, don't forget, the tanks were full coming out of [service in] Corte."

Latvala is, of course, correct. The route has changed significantly over the years, although last week's rally actually passed the place where Bettega died instantly when his Lancia Rally 037 hit a tree on the Zerubia test.

At the same time, we shouldn't forget accidents are mercifully more survivable these days, courtesy of improvements in areas like side-impact protection and HANS devices. Oh, and not sitting the drivers on top of petrol tanks full of 'rocket fuel' has been a big step forward.

Last week was trumpeted as an endurance round of the world championship. It wasn't, of course. It was the shortest Tour of Corsica in WRC history - current sporting regulations make no room for a 700-mile round-island race anymore.

The nature of the long-stage itinerary harked back to the endurance age, but 200 miles is a drop in the ocean by comparison (and that's before the rain robbed us of a quarter of that).

The way last week's event was financed - by bringing in cash from towns all over the island, including Bastia, Ajaccio, Corte and Porto-Vecchio - meant the organisers had a clean sheet of paper to take the rally down whichever roads they wanted. Understandably, they went safe. Or safer...

Did the modern crews have it too easy? © XPB

There were definitely some in the service park who felt Corsica had gone soft.

The challenge simply wasn't the same. I mean, the organisers had even put a chicane on one stage to slow the cars down. That's so not the '80s.

I'm not convinced about the need for more speed. I drove the powerstage - admittedly in the pouring rain before the rally - but the pace was simply staggering down the same lanes on Sunday. I defy anybody to look at some of those onboards and say we're working with a watered-down Tour of Corsica.

Kris Meeke's probably better placed than me to comment. And he agrees.

"Look at the TT," he says. "Outside of what we're doing here, that's about the most dangerous motorsport - and they postpone races when it starts raining. What we're doing here is dangerous enough."

M-Sport's Malcolm Wilson is another who's not sure the unique challenge of chasing over Col after Col in changeable weather on compromised tyres is still such a good idea.

"I never had a problem competing in Corsica," he says. "I didn't mind the rally, there was some really nice driving and it was actually one of the few places where I didn't have an accident!

The classic Corsica routes had more coastal sections © LAT

"But Corsica is the most demanding asphalt rally in the world. You could say Monte Carlo's the most difficult, but if the weather conditions are tricky on the Monte then the speed's not so high.

"In Corsica, you're going over a couple of Cols and you could have six or eight different [weather] conditions on a stage, and because those conditions aren't as difficult as the snow or ice you get on Monte, you're still trying to push on. I didn't have a comfortable feeling going back there."

Corsica returned last week for one reason: Alsace no longer had the wherewithal to keep France's WRC round centred on what had rapidly become one of the most popular service park's in the sport's history.

Ahead of last week's Tour of Corsica, the WRC was utterly divided over whether we should go back, but that had much more to do with the commercial argument than safety.

Corsica is cheaper for the French Federation to run; it requires fewer police officers to contain fewer spectators and there's nothing like the environmental demands placed on the rally that there are in Alsace.

And, while it offers history, ambience, context and the sporting challenge of the alpine stages, the return for the manufacturers is nothing like they got from crowds measured comfortably into six figures on the mainland.

Unfortunately for Corsica, the argument was further skewed by those once-in-a-decade storms that washed stages away and turned the service park car park into a mud bath.

Heavy rain didn't help matters © McKlein

The organisers' response to some of the most challenging conditions in the recent history of the series was very good. Their effort to save the 22 miles of Francardo to Sermano was rightly and roundly applauded.

But there were flaws with this rally, the biggest of which involved one of the most expensive routes of the season.

Running the cars to the north and south of the island for an overnight parc ferme might have ticked the box for the financing regions, but it didn't exactly endear the event to the manufacturers who had to buy the crews two hotel rooms every night - one at the parc ferme location and one in Corte in case they retired.

The majority of drivers and team principals would far rather go back to Alsace, if offered the choice.

I'm still trying to decide. I loved the roads, the history, the smell of log fires drifting through stunning mountainside villages coloured beautifully by autumn.

I didn't like going to the media-centre toilet after dark in Corte. I do hope visiting FIA president Jean Todt wasn't treated to an unlit loo.

Regardless of the ramifications of last week's tricky return to the WRC, the fact that the event has still to reach commercial and sporting agreements with the WRC Promoter and the FIA is of more concern.

Corsica's set for a return to its traditional spring date next year, but only if it signs on the dotted line before the end of November.

It wouldn't be possible for a rally to be included without such agreement, would it? Surely not. That's fodder for another column.

But for now, Corsica's back. And, for me, it's lost none of its sporting edge by taking the lane more safely travelled.