The next few weeks will be crucial in deciding the impact COVID-19 could have on delivering the next generation of World Rally Cars in 2022.
The FIA recently offered further information on incorporating hybrids into Rally1 regulations with news of Compact Dynamics supplying new components.
The teams are now working with the German firm on the final design of the powertrain and battery that is expected to be delivered in the summer ahead of parts being made available at the end of this season for testing in 2021.
M-Sport team principal Richard Millener has urged the stakeholders to use the current absence of competition to forge ahead with the new cars, but there is an admission that finalising key details could be complicated by working remotely.
“The impact of coronavirus will become self-evident to the teams and the suppliers and the FIA in the next weeks,” Toyota’s technical director Tom Fowler told DirtFish.
“We don’t know the deadlines around what government restrictions are and what the rest of the virus means.
“I think we have to go into this in a positive way and say we’re going to do our best to make this work, but planning around this virus is almost impossible – we just don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Asked how much of a factor COVID-19 was in his planning, Fowler replied: “It’s a factor, for sure. How big a factor? That’s the question.
“These kind of complicated projects are notoriously difficult without at least some face-to-face meetings. Online meetings are generally working pretty well and we can share some data via the internet. But when you do sit down around one computer, you do move forward a lot faster.
“We’ve seen this many times in different projects that sometimes you really have to make the effort to get in the plane or get in the car and go and visit and spend some time away to really get things done.”
The biggest fear in the championship is having to delay the arrival of hybrids. Formula 1 and NASCAR have both pushed back planned major technical rules changes amid the current coronavirus hiatus.
Such a move in the WRC could mean the loss of Hyundai and Ford, both of whom have made clear the need to use alternative energy from 2022.
Toyota’s hybrid Prius road car has been around since 1997, so there’s arguably not the same urgency for the Japanese manufacturer to advertise its hybrid credentials, but Fowler said it remained vital for the teams to work together.
He added: “The co-operation is good between the teams. We all want the same thing, we all want the sport to go forward, but at the same time we all have our own priorities either driven technically or driven by marketing needs or whatever it might be.
“We all have slightly different requirements and it can be difficult to balance that bigger picture of how the championship needs to go forward against what we’re individually after.
“We have to work together. Any lobbying needs to be done as a group to ensure we have the competitors in the WRC.
“It’s possible pushing the regulations back might suit Toyota more than the others, but we need to be conscious that we don’t lobby ourselves out of a good championship.”
