The FIA has revealed that the next set of World Rally Championship technical regulations, primed to begin in 2027, will not be fully finalized until August.
The new regulations, which were announced back in December, will feature cars less expensive than the current Rally1s (with a cost cap of €345,000) that will rely on Rally2-based engines, but are expected to deliver similar performance to the current top-class machines.
Manufacturers or tuners will be able to design their own bodywork to fit the spaceframe chassis, including different classes of car (hatchback, SUV etc) as well as totally unique concepts.
However in a media roundtable on the eve of this week’s Rally Islas Canarias, FIA chief technical officer Xavier Mestelan Pinon revealed that “all the last details” of the bodywork will not be signed off until August – just 16 months before the new regulations will be introduced.
It's tight, but we know that manufacturers and tuners who are working on this project, they ask us to keep 2027 [as the year of introduction].Xavier Mestelan Pinon, FIA chief technical officer
Mestalan Pinon said: “We have finalized the common body frame, because as everybody knows, it will be the same body frame for everybody. And currently, we are finalizing all the design, including the safety matters, and especially the dynamic test regarding the side impact. And we will be able to deliver all the last details by the end of August.
“We already share all the main dimensions, but all the details will be finalized by the end of August. But the target is to have something which is close to the current Rally1 car. At the cheapest cost, of course, but same kind of design.”
Mestelan Pinon acknowledged that this did not leave teams a lot of time to design their bodywork, but argued there is still plenty that can be worked on.
“They already have the [technical] details,” he said. “They want to design all the front and the rear part of the car? They can do it.
“It’s tight, but we know that manufacturers and tuners who are working on this project, they ask us to keep 2027 [as the year of introduction].
The bodywork regulations were designed to accomodate almost any vehicle bodywork shape imaginable, a target which is creating the longest lead time element of the new regulations
“We know that some manufacturers are trying to push to postpone the introduction, but people who are already working on that do not want to postpone it.”
Asked who was interested in creating a car for 2027, Mestelan Pinon said there is interest from “several entities who are now today not involved in rallying on a daily basis”.
He confirmed that included both manufacturers and tuners, but that tuners is “where we have the most newcomers”.
FIA road sport director, Emilia Abel, added the target for the new regulations was to have at least 20 cars competing in the top class.
“This is the target. And I do think that this is reachable,” she said.
