The FIA has confirmed next year’s Rally1 cars will be given more power in an effort to ease them clear of the Rally2 pack.
Toyota’s all-new 2027-specification car, the two constructors cars from Project Rally One and WRT Rally1 Spain and any Rally2 being fitted with the 2027 upgrade kit, will be permitted to run a 33mm rather than 32mm restrictor.
FIA technical director Xavier Mestelan Pinon confirmed: “[The] Plan is to increase a little bit the power, but there is no massive changes.”
The restrictor change, which teams expect will offer around three per cent more air flow, should deliver around 12bhp more, taking Rally1 cars north of 300bhp, while Rally2 cars will remain at 290.
A car updated from Rally2 to Rally1 (M-Sport’s Ford Fiesta, for example) will also gain performance from a drop of 10kg in the minimum weight.
In a further tweak, the FIA is now allowing manufacturers to commit to the running the kit and upgrading a Rally2 to a Rally1 car up to April next year.
Both of these changes form part of a validation package which will be discussed at World Motor Sport Council on October 15.
One source told DirtFish: “This is something we’ve been talking about. It’s really important for the next two years that we can see the difference between Rally1 and Rally2. The FIA has been very clear now – like DiftFish told the story last week – we know exactly what is a Rally1 car and now we will soon know how fast they will be.
“For the teams (constructors) coming to the sport, it didn’t make sense to see the second [category] car beating the top car.”
