Anybody for a V8? Or maybe a V6? Full EV? How about hydrogen? Retro hybrid maybe?
When they first landed, the beating heart of the 2027 World Rally Championship regulations was flexibility and inclusion. The revised WRC27-specification spaceframe chassis which, courtesy of Toyota, lands in Monte Carlo in five months will still be good for the 2036 season-opener. But what will be powering it?
For the next two years, we’re sticking with what we’ve got – a Rally2 engine. But, from 2029, there’s still firm encouragement from the FIA to have engineers let their imagination run wild.
“We’re open for business [in terms of new technology] from 2029,” FIA deputy president Malcolm Wilson told DirtFish.
Toyota has demonstrated hydrogen power more than once in the WRC service park, including last year with the GR Yaris Rally2 H2 concept
“The target is to make it so that the manufacturer has to be in the WRC. We want to make it cost effective, [providing a] return on investment, so that manufacturers have to be here. We don’t want to be having to push and try and get enquiries, it has to become an obvious choice.”
And central to that obvious choice is the ability to be flexible on powertrain.
“We have that [flexibility] in cross country,” said Wilson. “We have diesel, we have V6, we have V8, we have turbo-charging and it works.”
And it works because of the torque meter – a component which measures power being delivered to the wheels. If too much power is delivered, an alarm triggers and a time penalty is implemented in the World Rally Raid Championship.
M-Sport's Ford Raptor rally-raid machine has a V8 in a category where major rivals Toyota and Dacia run twin-turbo V6 powerplants
Wilson added: “We have to accept that it’s not going to be like it’s been for the last 100 years. It’s a changing world. Like I said, if somebody wants to come with hybrid, hydrogen, electric, we’re open for business.”
Is EV a genuine possibility?
FIA technical director Xavier Mestelan Pinon has been in discussion with electric vehicle manufacturers and admits it could work with revisions to the rally itinerary.
He said: “Full EV for a WRC application, it’s not completely crazy, except the fact that you need to charge between two stages. But full EV at the current power, so we’re speaking about 300 horsepower more or less, for stages around 30 or 35 kilometers, it’s not an issue.
“With the battery around 40 kilowatts you can do easily a stage with 35 kilometers plus 100 kilometers for the road section. So it’s not a challenge. Because rally you don’t have… The worst for full EV car is motorway. Full throttle for long times. But for rally it’s not [like this].
“So it’s possible. It’s just a fact that if we want to do that, then we need to put in place some charging station somewhere on the route. But it’s more a matter of what is the best for the rally.
Opel was first to market with a full-EV rally car with its Corsa GSE, initially using custom charging infrastructure to support its one-make championship on launch
“Personally, I strongly believe that hybrid with internal combustion, or why not hydrogen? It’s maybe the best just because of the noise for the show, but also for the safety.
“On the FIA side, we have a very broad portfolio. So what we try to propose is the best technology for each application. This is why today, for endurance racing, for example, we are not EV, of course – what we suggest for the future [for endurance racing] is to use hydrogen. It’s one of the solutions.
“For F1 today, it’s agreed, maybe full ICE with a certain amount of fuel in the future. So yes, we need to identify the best option. For rally, yes, we need to measure properly what is the best. If new manufacturers think that it’s an interesting solution, again, we are open to discuss about that. The car is designed for that.
“Diversity is something good in motorsport, whether it’s cross country, whether it’s WEC or the World Rally Championship. We need to be agile in our regulation, open as much as possible to flexibility. Because to be honest, to know exactly what will be the solution in 10 years, it’s impossible. There is no magic solution.”
