It wasn’t so long ago that the World Rally Championship seemed to be entering a new golden age. The regulation change ahead of the 2017 season brought in bigger and faster cars and, more importantly, multiple brands fighting at the front.
Instead of the new dawn welcoming more brands to the top of rallying’s pyramid, the opposite followed. Citroën left in 2019 and, after three seasons of a hybrid ruleset, Hyundai has been rumored as the next brand to depart the scene.
Around the same time as the 2017 WRC regulations came into action, the cross-country rallying equivalent not only lacked world championship status (the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies) but also full-season entries. But the inception of the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) in 2022 and technical regulations, which allow for flexible powertrain options overseen by a performance balancing torque meter, has attracted the likes of Ford, Dacia and Defender.
Such flexibility, according to Matthew Wilson of M-Sport – which made its official factory debut in the W2RC at the Dakar Rally earlier this year – is precisely why brands are flocking to the world of endurance rallying.
“The regulations that are in rally raid and W2RC, what they’ve done with the torque meter is an incredible tool,” Wilson tells DirtFish.
Wilson is a big fan of the torque meter that exists in W2RC
“We’re there with a naturally aspirated V8 engine, you’ve got a V6 twin turbo (Dacia) and although Audi weren’t there when we had torque meters, if you had something like what Audi had, it’s now very easy to have a torque meter fitted and have three completely separate powertrain options.”
Those competing in the W2RC effectively have free reign over what engine to use. Naturally aspirated or turbocharged V8s or V6s are commonplace, while alternative propulsion methods such as hybrid and hydrogen are also allowed.
The torque meters, which were introduced ahead of the 2025 edition of the Dakar, carry out live monitoring of engine output in an effort to create fair competition across the Ultimate class field.
Cynics may label such a regulation as overreaching interference by the FIA, essentially manipulating the sport to produce a show rather than sport, but Wilson is a firm believer in that by making the competition closer, more brands will be encouraged to take part.
“The fighting at the front remains,” he adds.
“These are things that the WRC can absolutely learn from because it just allows all these different powertrain options to come together and compete evenly.
“It’s something that the WRC really needs to start thinking about with the torque meter because it works so well, and even in harsher conditions than the WRC.
“On top of that, just the sound of our V8 engine has become really popular with fans, we get comments about it all the time. And that V8 engine is able to compete with the V6 as well, and it’s running on sustainable fuel.”
Across the Dakar bivouac, Toyota Gazoo Racing team principal Andrea Carlucci has been an omnipresent cross-country rallying figure for many years. As part of a large corporation that invests big money into the development of its range of Hiluxes, the regulations allow his team to maintain a road relevance while also playing for the highest sporting prize.
“We love to race in the rally raid, of course, otherwise we wouldn’t do it,” Carlucci explained to DirtFish.
“For us the spirit of the Dakar is still there, the challenge, the sense of adventure and this is still a discipline where passion counts more than money. And I wish that the spirit remains intact. Having done many Dakars and been in many bivouacs, drivers and riders who come and use their holiday time to race in the event, to me this is the most special.
“The amount of technical development with championships who have undergone sudden changes might lead to something. But there is one point: we are there as a manufacturer to develop our cars on the road, so we cannot stand still.
“As a corporation, we have a big interest in hydrogen and, in the long run, this is an energy factor that we have to be present for.
W2RC offers Toyota a great testbed for its technology
“The point is that the W2RC proves that we need to stay relevant to our stakeholders and make sure that our vehicle races through the desert for 900km – and there is no chance of recovering the car if it gets stuck there – so we want to test our technology. But if you make things too complicated, too sophisticated and too irrelevant, then it makes no sense to race.”
Whether the W2RC can indeed be a model which can re-energize the WRC in the years to come remains unclear, but few can fault the former’s attempts to expand its appeal by developing a formula that rewards ingenuity.
“Obviously, the championship as a whole is brewing,” said Wilson. “If you look at the numbers from when it first started to where it is now, it’s definitely growing but Dakar is the standout event that everyone wants to win. It’s the Le Mans of the W2RC.
“If you ask a manufacturer if they want to win Le Mans or if they want to win the World Endurance Championship, the answer will be Le Mans. And it’s the same with the Dakar.”
