The FIA intends for the next set of World Rally Championship regulations to become the backbone of championships all over the world, not just the WRC.
Rally1 machines will be retired at the end of next season, before the more cost-effective ‘WRC27’ (working title) cars are introduced in 2027.
One of the failings of Rally1 – which in 2022-2024 featured hybrid units before they were dropped for 2025 – has been the rising cost; building on a trend set by the uprated World Rally Cars from 2017-2021 often referred to as ‘WRC+’.
Regional or national championships always used to adopt the same cars as the world championship for their front-running category, whether that was Group B, Group A or the two-liter World Rally Cars, but both WRC+ and Rally1 were overlooked in favor of Rally2.
The FIA wants that to change from 2027.
“The new regulation is for the world championship, European championship, but also national championships,” said FIA technical director, Xavier Mestelan Pinon.
“This is clearly something very important because the business model for the privateers has to be strong, as it is today with the Rally2 car, I would say. So it’s not a car which is dedicated to the world championship – it’s a car for the world championship, but also the national event.
“If we want to get the best chance to have 20 cars in the top category of the world championship, we need to be able to accept some cars coming from the national championship on some events.”
WRC Promoter however believes the car used in the WRC should be a step-up from other championships.
“We still think there can be an opportunity for a pinnacle car, even within the 2027 regulations,” said WRC event director, Simon Larkin. “There can be points of difference that can be made.”
Would the same cars featuring in WRC and ERC dilute the latter? Not according to WRC Promoter
It has no concerns that using the same category of car across the WRC and ERC – which it is currently also the promoter of – would dilute the WRC though.
Larkin added: “The cost of competition in a European championship event is quite a bit less than a WRC event. We can see that there’s a market in Europe to have the two championships, even if the cars are similar.
“And from an event point of view, we use the European championship as a test bed. Whether it’s the fact that we’ve got four tire suppliers in the European championship, we’ve got multiple brands involved, we use it as a springboard for events as well.
“Look what we’ve done in the last few years with Poland, with Latvia, this year in Canarias; it will still be a breeding ground, we believe, for stepping up into, whether it’s WRC2 or whatever our categories are called in the future.”
