Rally Italy will be the first World Rally Championship round to run a new compact itinerary format, with the first competitive mileage held on Friday afternoon and all 16 stages covered within 48 hours.
Sardinia is the first event to trial a new event structure “based on the new FIA guidelines from 2025,” designed to make rallies operationally shorter.
The traditional ‘cloverleaf’ format of three stages run twice in a day with a service in between has been binned, though the event still runs entirely of a centralized location: Alghero will host the service park once again after being on the east coast of Sardinia in Olbia last year.
The new event design squeezes Shakedown in on Friday morning, followed in the afternoon by two stages run twice with only a regroup, no tire fitting zone or service, in between.
On Saturday morning Tempo Pausania and Tula are run as a pair of stages twice with only a regroup between them, followed by a tire-fitting zone and then another pair of stages run twice in a row: Monte Lerno and Coiluna-Loelle, again with only a regroup between.
The rally finishes with a more traditional Sunday itinerary: Cala Flumini and Sassari run as a pairing twice, with the latter as the powerstage.
In total 266.48 kilometers (166 miles) of competitive stage mileage will be covered.
