The next generation of Rally1 car will come a step closer when the 2027 technical regulations are discussed by the WRC Commission meeting on Wednesday – with the aim of World Motor Sport Council sign-off next month.
As anticipated the next set of regulations are expected to retain the current Rally1 chassis technology, continuing the goal of the FIA and the manufacturers to make these the safest premium category cars in the sport’s history. The question of how to power those chassis will be at the heart of next week’s debate.
DirtFish understands a target price for a 2027 Rally1 car is €400,000, around half the cost of a current model.
One manufacturer insider told DirtFish: “It looks like everything will be on the table for 2027. We can stay with what we’ve got now, go full internal combustion with sustainable fuel, hydrogen and electric.”
DirtFish understands the electric vehicle aspect of the regulations will be deferred by at least a year to allow for sporting regulation changes and improvements to battery technology.
At the moment Rally2 is not really going anywhere, the manufacturers don’t have cars from this segment – it’s a class of car which is sort of dying.
In an effort to encourage more private team or tuner-level participation, there’s a discussion surrounding the sale of components.
The source added: “I guess [the] plan is to make the series cheaper for private teams to compete on the same piece of paper like manufacturers. The teams (manufacturers) would be expected to make many parts from the car commercially available – even major parts like powertrain, transmission or chassis.
“The idea to bring EV later is probably sensible – right now is [the] market ready for Rally1 EV? I don’t think it is. For sure, championship’s infrastructure is not ready; how to charge these cars? OK, we can make refuel into re-charge, but maybe this can’t happen overnight.”
The FIA’s technical department is working hard to contain the cost of parts with the potential for price caps and a Rally2-style approach to certain components being used across the car.
The potential for Rally2 regulations moving to a spaceframe chassis is also expected to be discussed on Wednesday.
Lifetime Rally2 sales across all manufacturers combined surpassed 1000 long ago – but its time at the forefront of customer rallying may be up in the not-too-distant future
“At the moment Rally2 is not really going anywhere, the manufacturers don’t have cars from this segment – it’s a class of car which is sort of dying – and it’s good planning to bring the spaceframe from Rally1. OK, it will be more expensive, but it makes Rally2 available to more [manufacturers].”
The FIA is also looking to further develop the use of Rally1 and Rally2 cars – potentially basing future World Rallycross Championship regulations around the same cars. Theoretically, the same chassis could compete in WRC one week and WRX the next.
This is, of course, nothing new from the governing body of world motorsport, after its announcement that Rally4 and Rally5 cars could be used for touring car’s all-new Touring Car Lite class, TLC4 and TLC5 cars. There’s talk that those entry-level two-wheel drive cars could even be used for rallycross as well.
