The World Rally Championship is set for its largest season since 2008 following the confirmation of an expanded 2025 calendar which features 14 events.
As previously reported, the WRC schedule will expand next year to accommodate three new rallies, with the Canary Islands, Paraguay and Saudi Arabia joining the calendar.
The schedule features five flyaways events, four asphalt rallies, nine gravel rounds and one snow-based event.
Monte Carlo retains its spot as the season opener in January with the rally once again based in Gap. Next year it will feature its longest itinerary since 2018, beginning with three stages in the darkness on the Thursday night.
The championship then heads to the snow of Sweden in February before the annual visit to Kenya in March. The first of the new rallies will host April’s fourth round as Spain rejoins the calendar after a two-year absence through Rally Islas Canarias, which steps up from the European Rally Championship.
The asphalt event has taken the place of Croatia, which has dropped of the calendar after being unable to secure a new deal.
Portugal kicks off a run of seven consecutive gravel rallies which includes Sardinia and the Acropolis Rally, the latter moves back to a traditional June date having been held in September in recent seasons.
Grégoire Munster, Louis Louka, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Ford Puma Rally1
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Estonia rejoins the calendar in place of Latvia in July, ahead of Finland with the WRC heading to Paraguay for the first time in August. The South American nation has secured a multi-year deal to host rallying’s top-flight. The gravel round will be held two weeks before the championship’s second South American round in Chile.
Following its inaugural edition last year, the Central European Rally that features asphalt stages in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic returns in October ahead of the fourth asphalt rally of the season in Japan.
The all-new Rally Saudi Arabia, which has penned a 10-year deal with WRC, will close out the season in November as the Middle-East region is represented on the WRC calendar for the first time since Rally Jordan in 2011.
“This is a hugely exciting calendar which perfectly blends our traditional rallies with three exciting new challenges, two of which are outside of Europe, highlighting once again the global appeal of our championship,” said WRC Promoter Managing Director Jona…
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