When the FIA World Motorsport Council announced its new roadmap for the World Rally Championship on Wednesday, the standout headline was obvious.
Hybrid had been dumped.
Something less obvious at the time was where that left the WRC’s current hybrid supplier, Compact Dynamics.
As reported by DirtFish in September 2023, Compact Dynamics’ contract to provide hybrid units to the Rally1 teams had been extended to run through the end of the 2026 season.
In a roundtable discussion with the media on Thursday, WRC Working Group leader David Richards confirmed that as of right now, that contract remains in place.
Rally1 cars are wearing Hybrid stickers for now – but the FIA hopes to end its contract with Compact Dynamics early
“There is a contract in place, but contracts are up for renegotiation at any time and the parties are talking to each other,” said Richards.
Declining to go into more detail about how the FIA intends to resolve the contractual situation with Compact Dynamics, he added: “Rather than going into commercially sensitive contracts and discussions that are going on with the manufacturers, let’s just say that it is an issue to be resolved at the moment and we’ll get this sorted out between the various parties in the next few weeks.”
Aside from the contractual difficulties it creates, the decision to ditch hybrid power also gives the WRC’s three Rally1 manufacturers – Hyundai, M-Sport Ford and Toyota – a sizeable headache; they now have to get their cars ready for a non-hybrid future in 2025.
There’s also the political ramifications to consider; three of the world’s biggest car companies signed up to a hybrid-powered formula just a handful of years ago. Now, that future is gone.
So, were all the teams in favor of the WRC’s abandoning of hybrid?
“I wouldn’t say they all wanted rid of it immediately,” confirmed Richards. “There are some issues to resolve with that, to the immediacy of that.
“But in principle, I believe they would all support the removal of it, yes.”
M-Sport had previously expressed a desire to sell Rally1 cars without the hybrid element to customers, while Richards revealed that Hyundai – who had already been hesitant to extend Compact Dynamics’ contract last year – was in favor of ditching hybrid immediately.
“We had a long talk with Cyril [Abiteboul] about that from Hyundai,” said Richards. “He was fully supportive of removing the hybrid system.”
M-Sport was already keen to sell its Rally1 cars without hybrid components – and Richards has suggested that Hyundai is happy to run its factory cars without hybrid too
For South Korean brand Hyundai, like Toyota and Ford, the removal of hybrid technology from its Rally1 offering is somewhat at odds with its road cars line-up found in showrooms around the world. Hybrid remains very much a part of the global car market, and will do in the short-term at least.
But Richards remains convinced that taking the sustainable fuels route is the right choice for the WRC.
“Remember, one of the big platforms now for the World Rally Championship is we’ll all be on sustainable fuels. This is a unique opportunity to really promote sustainable fuels. That’s got to be one of our real promotional platforms for the future.”
