WRC set to expand to 14 rounds for 2025 campaign

The World Rally Championship is set to expand to a 14-round calendar for 2025 which is expected to be revealed later this month.

The championship has targeted a more global schedule for next year with five flyaway rounds expected following recent confirmation that Paraguay and Saudi Arabia will make their debut, joining the already contracted Chile, Kenya and Japan.

The calendar is set to be presented to the FIA via an e-vote this month before its release. WRC event director Simon Larkin confirmed at Rally Poland last week that the calendar would be 14 rounds.

“The calendar is basically ready, it’s a 14-event calendar,” Larkin told Motorsport.com.

“We said that we’d have it ready for presentation to the World Motor Sport Council by the end of June. So, we’re not far off.”

Paraguay and Saudi Arabia are two of three new events with the asphalt Rally Islas Canarias graduating from the European Rally Championship [ERC] to the WRC for the first time. It means Spain will be represented on the schedule for the first time since 2022.

It is anticipated that Monte Carlo will open the campaign in its traditional January slot, while it has been announced that Saudi Arabia will host the final round, although dates are yet to be revealed.

Poland won’t feature as last weekend’s round was a one-off for this year, while Estonia will return in place of Latvia, which is making its WRC debut this year after earning a promotion from the ERC schedule.    

Sweden, Portugal, Italy (Sardinia), Finland, Greece and the Central European Rally are expected as the other European rounds, while Motorsport.com understands Croatia is tipped to drop off the calendar, having been part of the championship since 2021.

With the WRC fulfilling its ambition of hosting two South American events, the championship is hoping to run those events within a three-week window to ease the stress of logistics for teams.

The championship adopted a similar approach in 2019 when it ran the Chile and Argentina rounds effectively back to back.

“We’ll do those two events over three weeks so that [there is] just one weekend in between. It means we can fly everything from Europe into Paraguay, do that rally pack-up and go over to Chile, and then fly home from Chile,” Larkin added.