The 2026 World Rally Championship calendar has been confirmed, featuring several date changes but no trip to the United States.
Like 2025, next year’s WRC will be a 14-round affair starting in Monte Carlo, before the traditional trips to Sweden and Kenya in February and March.
Croatia returns as round four (and to its WRC date of April) after a season in the European Rally Championship before Rally Islas Canarias forms an asphalt double-header as round five.
Rally Portugal kickstarts the beginning of a now interrupted European gravel season in May, with Rally Japan moving forward from November to the end of May in a bid “to limit the impact of road sweeping for early championship leaders”.
Acropolis Rally Greece marks the halfway point of the season at round seven before back-to-back high-speed gravel events in Estonia and Finland, and then the South American double header of Paraguay and Chile – an unchanged sequence from 2025.
Rally Italia effectively switches with Japan, moving to an early October date – although intriguingly no actual event has been specified. Rally di Roma Capitale has long been understood to harbor WRC ambitions, threatening Sardinia’s place on the calendar.
Italy has a slot in the 2026 calendar, but Sardinia specifically is not yet confirmed
The 2026 WRC season concludes with Rally Saudi Arabia in November, meaning Central European Rally has lost its space – the organizer citing “economic conditions” that prevented it extending its agreement.
The most notable omission however is the USA, which misses out despite WRC Promoter labelling the country as a priority for a 2026 calendar place.
There is no return to the UK or Ireland either, although DirtFish understands both are in the running for 2027 but are unlikely to simultaneously win a place.
WRC promoter managing director, Jona Siebel, said the 2026 calendar “is a calendar built with purpose”.
He added: “It’s diverse, it flows well, and it reflects the feedback we’ve had from teams, drivers and stakeholders. We’ve put real thought into how the sequence of events can impact the sporting fight.”
2026 WRC calendar
January 22-25: Monte Carlo Rally
Feburary 12-15: Rally Sweden
March 12-15: Safari Rally Kenya
April 9-12: Croatia Rally
April 23-26: Rally Islas Canarias
May 7-10: Rally Portugal
May 28-31: Rally Japan
June 25-28: Acropolis Rally Greece
July 16-19: Rally Estonia
July 30-August 2: Rally Finland
August 27-30: Rally Paraguay
September 10-13: Rally Chile
October 1-4: Rally Italy
November 11-14: Rally Saudi Arabia
The perfect WRC calendar?
The 2026 calendar is good, but is it perfect? DirtFish's David Evans and Luke Barry dream up their perfect world championship calendars - but with some rules to follow
