Engine regulations for the next generation of the World Rally Championship are expected to be inked at Friday’s WRC Commission meeting – with the five-year development freeze confirmed.
DirtFish reported last week the potential for a cost-saving engine freeze from next year for WRC’s new hybrid era and understands it will sit high on the agenda at this week’s meeting.
FIA rally director Yves Matton told DirtFish the matter would be voted on this week.
“[The engine freeze] stops the development cost,” he said. “I would say it’s a compromise we were able to find with the manufacturers concerning the engine.
“Even if it’s impossible to make a global agreement on each single detail of the technical regulations with the three manufacturers, you need some common agreement and we were able to achieve this.
“We have an engine that will be more cost-effective if you accumulate the development and running costs.”
The proposal is that each team’s engine specification is fixed at the end of March next year, with that motor running through until the end of 2026, with the hybrid unit fitted alongside.
Matton admitted there had been an investigation into running a Rally2 (formerly known as R5) base engine from the start of 2022.
He added: “I have to say we tried and some manufacturers were maybe also in favor to go even further with another kind of engine.
“It’s not a secret to know that one of the proposals was to go for the Rally2 engine, but at the end with the manufacturers we had on the table it was not possible to go to an agreement – that’s why we went to this freezing arrangement.”
