World Rally Championship drivers are largely united in their belief that the championship should reintroduce the qualifying stage next year.
Road-order regulations have long been a thorny issue in the WRC due to the disadvantage of running first on loose-surface rallies. The WRC briefly adopted qualifying stages to determine road order on the opening day of events in 2012-13.
But, since 2014, the world championship leader has always led the way on Fridays, with the order re-seeded based on a reversal of the end-of-day classification for subsequent legs.
Next year a brand-new set of technical regulations will be introduced, with Rally1 cars scaled back to have performance akin to Rally2 cars, with Rally2 Kit cars also thrown into the mix.
With more cars expected to compete in the top class from 2027, road order has become a more significant headache as with more cars capable of winning rallies, the championship leader faces an even bigger disadvantage on loose surface rallies.
DirtFish, however, understands there will be no change to the running order in next year’s World Rally Championship.
“Then we can all go home,” said Solberg. “Imagine if I won Monte Carlo next year and you start first in Rally Sweden with 30 cars, or 20 cars or something. If you have a Rally2 car, it will be the same performance as our cars, probably. Then it will be difficult.”
As two of the drivers most affected in recent years, Solberg’s Toyota team-mates Elfyn Evans and Sébastien Ogier in particular have often spoken out against the current regulations. Their argument is based on a principle of sporting fairness.
“I’m going to sound like a moaner now because obviously I’ve been in the position where I’ve had to open the road a lot,” said Evans. “But you know there’s been certain rallies and certain instances where you have no chance when you’re starting first, and it feels a bit unfair, especially when the bias is so heavily towards the gravel.
“I think if the mix between Tarmac and gravel [rallies in the calendar] was much more equal then it would be less of a topic. But, yeah, we have such a gravel-dominant championship and the majority of them are held in summertime weather in their respective countries. It makes it very difficult.
“It’s rare in any other sport that the guys fighting for the championship have to play at such a huge disadvantage.”
Ogier added: “I’ve always been a fan of fairness of sport. And for me, it’s never been normal to penalize so much the championship leaders.”
Ogier spent years disadvantaged as the first car on the road, particularly in 2015-16
M-Sport’s Josh McErlean pointed out that next year’s regulations offer the prospect of local specialists fighting for victories – even with inferior equipment.
“If you go to the likes of Portugal and you bring Kris Meeke in, who starts 30th on the road, and you have Ogier or Elfyn running first on the road, even if he’s in a Rally1 car – a ’27 car – and a Rally2 car, I think the difference is going to be in the road cleaning,” McErlean said.
Striking the right balance between sporting fairness and entertainment is something that many sports wrestle with. Handicapping the leading competitors helps avoid runaway dominance that can be a turn-off for fans.
“For me, it’s always 50-50,” said Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, who has yet to secure a top-tier drive for 2027. “It’s better for us drivers [to have qualifying] because then you can fight all the time with an opportunity.
“And at the same time, for the championship, you can have a winner after six events [otherwise].”
That was, after all, the thinking behind the more extreme version of the current regulations that operated in 2015-16. In a clear attempt to peg back Ogier and Volkswagen, the championship leader had to open the road on Fridays and Saturdays.
If you have five Formula 1, five Formula 2 and five Formula 3, how are you going to run a qualifying between those cars? You cannot mix apples and bananasThierry Neuville
Most drivers appear to agree that qualifying should return, but Thierry Neuville argued that the upcoming technical regulations would make that complicated.
“Since 10 years I have been for qualifying stage and trying to fight for the qualifying stage,” said the 2024 world champion.
“Nobody ever wanted to listen. And now, when people are not running the same cars, they come up with the qualifying stage again.
“If you have 20 Formula 1 cars, you run qualifying. If you have five Formula 1, five Formula 2 and five Formula 3, how are you going to run a qualifying between those cars? It doesn’t work.
“You cannot mix, I don’t know, apples and bananas, like you say. Yeah, you can run a qualifying between all the five or six or seven Toyotas. Why not? But you cannot involve Rally2-plus Kit or Rally2 car.”
Neuville’s implication could be that the other cars need the benefit of a better road position to be competitive with WRC27 machinery, as intended.
But Solberg insists the vast majority of drivers were in favor of qualifying stages when asked by the FIA.
He said: “We have all had our opinions and I think 95% of us wanted it. At one point 100% of us drivers wanted it, then some drivers apparently turned [against it] after a week for some reason.
“And then we were down to maybe 98% who wanted it. But still, everyone wanted it. And that’s what I don’t understand.”
