Former Volkswagen motorsport director Jost Capito has urged against the World Rally Championship adopting fully electric cars for its next set of regulations.
The current Rally1 regulations expire at the end of 2026, with 2027’s next set seen as crucial for the WRC in a bid to attract more manufacturers.
Cost control will likely be a key factor but so will propulsion. Currently the Rally1 cars utilize hybrid power which could be retained, but there are other options for the FIA to consider.
However Capito, who masterminded Volkswagen to four years of WRC dominance from 2013-16 after a successful period with Ford and M-Sport, doesn’t believe fully electric power will ever work in rallying, primarily due to safety concerns on special stages.
Capito told DirtFish: “I think you should not look at one category of racing when you define the future. You should look at all the categories and you should look what are the technologies for the future. There are more technologies.
“In the past this was natural aspirated engines but now you have natural aspirated engines with e-fuels, you have hydrogen, you have the fuel cells with hydrogen and you have electric and you have hybrid.
“When you look at rallycross, electric and rallycross is fantastic. It’s got the right… the power to weight ratio is the same, you are in a closed environment, even that the noise is not there is helpful because you hear the speaker as there is action for five minutes and then it’s done. So it’s brilliant.
“As I see that in the US, in Nitrocross, it’s absolutely brilliant and the power and performance those cars have is great. In rallying, full electric will not work. Rally could offer the e-fuels, for example.
“No noise in rallying would be dangerous because you have the people on the stages. If you don’t have a noise, then it is dangerous. And with e-fuels, you are CO2-neutral and you could do that. And I think the price they pay now for the petrol is not less than what you would pay for e-fuels. So it could be done very quickly and be CO2-neutral.
World Rally Championship already uses sustainable fuel
“And this is a category where you show roughness, where you show long distance, and that is a solution for that. And car manufacturers are going for this as well. And you have hydrogen as well, where you could look at Le Mans, for example.”
Other championships have allowed more than one type of propulsion to compete for top honors, like rally-raid as Audi’s electric RS Q e-tron took on petrol-powered rivals from Toyota and Bahrain Raid Xtreme, while World Rallycross’s new ‘Battle of Technologies’ formula began last weekend with petrol RX1 machines taking on electric RX1e counterparts.
But Capito doesn’t feel rallying should follow suit.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “For me not, because that would bring balance of performance into place, and I hate motorsport with balance of performance.
Johan Kristoffersson's conventional ICE powertrain beat Niclas Grönholm's electic motivation in WRX on Sunday
“I think that one category should not offer all technologies for one, but you have different categories. If you do rallycross, full electric is the future, I’m absolutely convinced.
“For rallying, my view is that e-fuels is the future. And for Le Mans and circuit racing, maybe there is also hydrogen as a solution. So that you have different categories and different offers for different manufacturers.
“Also, manufacturers just do not go in one direction. They need the development of all these technologies. And there will be a use for all these technologies on specific areas. And that should be the same reflected in motorsport. That’s my personal view.
“Not just one is correct for everything, and this is the difference from now to the past I think,” Capito added. “This is really exciting.”
The 2027 WRC regulations will be presented for approval at December’s meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council.
