The very first entry of the 2025 World Rally Championship has been published, with 70 crews taking on the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally.
Headlined by last year’s Monte winner and World Rally champion Thierry Neuville, 10 Rally1 cars will tackle the first of 14 rounds, with a healthy 24-strong entry in WRC2, too.
Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe will wear the #1 on their i20 N Rally1 – becoming the first crew to do so since Sébastien Ogier/Benjamin Veillas in 2022 – with Ott Tänak and new team-mate Adrien Fourmaux joining him in the Hyundai ranks.
Toyota fields five cars with Elfyn Evans the first of those ahead of Sébastien Ogier, Takamoto Katsuta, Kalle Rovanperä and Sami Pajari.
Evans, Ogier and Rovanperä have been registered to score manufacturer points for Toyota, while Pajari is also listed as a manufacturer-registered driver albeit under a separate, and new, ‘Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team 2’ banner.
Pajari will score points for a new second-string Toyota team
Grégoire Munster and new driver Josh McErlean will drive a pair of Ford Puma Rally1s for M-Sport; McErlean selecting #55 as his race number for the season.
Yohan Rossel and Nikolay Gryazin are the heavy hitters in the WRC2 class; Rossel driving a Citroën C3 Rally2 once more while Gryazin switches back to a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
Other notable entrants include Eric Camilli (Hyundai), Charles Munster (Hyundai), Léo Rossel (Citroën), Pablo Sarrazin (Citroën) and Elliott Delecour, the son of three-time WRC winner François, who’ll make his WRC debut in a Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo.
Oliver Solberg is the highest seeded Rally2 runner as he makes his debut in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, but for the third year in succession hasn’t selected Monte Carlo as one of his points-scoring events.
Gus Greensmith (Škoda) is another to compete but not for championship points, along with Toyota Next Generation drivers Hikaru Kogure and Yuki Yamamoto.
Eight drivers have entered WRC3 with an equal spread of Ford Fiesta and Renault Clio Rally3s. Last year’s category champion Diego Domínguez is the top seed.
Held on January 23-26, the 93rd edition of the Monte begins with three stages on Thursday evening before six stages on Friday and Saturday apiece, punctuated by a service stop in Gap.
Sunday’s final leg comprises three stages with the winner crowned back at Monaco’s Casino Square in the afternoon.
