During this period the WRC has gone full circle. There was a concept to abandon the hybrid-powered Rally1 cars entirely and install Rally2 as the top tier. There was the idea of creating a Rally2 plus category by downgrading Rally1 cars and upgrading current Rally2 cars. But on balance stability in Rally1 and Rally2 technical regulations for the next two years is the most sensible and logical outcome.
It is important to note that fundamentally stakeholders in the WRC want change to improve the championship; from its manufacturer involvement to better promotion.
This is why the FIA initially took action in the first place by setting up a working group to evaluate the future direction of rallying, which resulted in a raft of proposals, including a move to change the technical rules for 2025, communicated in February.
As FIA road sport director Andrew Wheatley explained in April there were a number of reasons why the FIA took action to try and help the WRC reach its potential.
“There were three key elements, the first was Pirelli not committing [to a new tyre deal],” said Wheatley.
“The second, the drivers not wanting to do the [full] championship [Kalle Rovanpera going part-time] and the third was, and we always have this discussion about Ford, whether they are in or out, but there was an additional layer and that was about Hyundai continuing [in the WRC]. That has been a fundamental change in the discussion going forward.”
The teams and manufacturers at the end of the day are effectively customers and if a customer doesn’t like what is being presented, they simply won’t buy it. This in a nutshell is what has happened in the WRC. The FIA presented a radical vision which was resoundingly rejected as WRC teams united together and wrote a letter to the FIA in April requesting the technical rules to remain unchanged.
In hindsight, if the reforms were pushed through the change could have risked losing one of the three current Rally1 marques given their concerns about investing more funds into changing the current cars in a race against the clock for a two-year period, before new rules in 2027. Losing a manufacturer would have left the championship in a much more difficult predicament.
It will be seen as a victory for teams and the WRC Promoter, who also wasn’t in favour of the change either. Making changes for 2025 and 2026 was always unlikely to attract a new marque and could have shaken confidence among car makers if a…
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