What’s new for 2025 in WRC?

Predicting this 12 months’s World Rally Championship is nearly unimaginable following the largest shake-up to rules and the calendar since 2022.

One of many key elements of the unique Rally1 rules isn’t any extra, after the FIA decided to remove hybrid power from the cars for 2025. After a long-drawn-out affair, throughout which hybrid was on and off the desk on a couple of event, rising prices to restore the management hybrid models from provider Compact Dynamics has resulted in their demise.

Rally1 vehicles will now run 87kg lighter, albeit with out the additional 130bhp. The vehicles will, from this season, depend on being powered solely by 1.6-litre turbocharged engines. The FIA has additionally determined to scale back the air restrictor from 36mm to 35mm to take care of the 2024 power-to-weight ratio figures.

In consequence, Rally1 vehicles are anticipated to be slower than in earlier years, with the impact felt probably the most on asphalt. Eventually 12 months’s Monza Rally Present, the hole between hybrid and non-hybrid Rally1 vehicles was roughly two seconds over a 2.8-mile stage.

“I’m not so enthusiastic concerning the prospect of shedding this hybrid,” reckons Hyundai group principal Cyril Abiteboul. “However, as I stated on many events, we additionally must be pragmatic concerning the scenario of the game, by way of provider capability, product reliability and management.”

The much-derided radical factors system launched final 12 months has additionally been tweaked to make it easier to grasp whereas growing the reward for rally winners. Eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier went as far as to lambast it as a “joke”, along with his primary gripes being that the sophisticated methodology devalued rally victories and was obscure.

This 12 months the overall factors out there from a rally will improve from 30 to 35. Saturday factors have been abolished, with the size 25-17-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 awarded to the highest 10 on the finish of a rally. ‘Tremendous Sunday’ pleasure ought to stay intact, however its factors weighting has decreased from 12 to 10. As an alternative of the highest seven crews scoring factors, it’s now the highest 5 on Sunday’s classification who rating, whereas the Energy Stage factors construction (5-4-3-2-1) stays untouched.

You will need to be aware that the general winner of a rally will rating eight extra factors than the runner-up, so solely on uncommon events ought to the occasions of Sunday imply that the victor doesn’t stroll away with the largest factors haul.

“This already appears to be like higher,” says Toyota’s two-time world champion Kalle Rovanpera of the 2025 factors system. “Final 12 months it was simply dangerous, so let’s hope it really works for us.”

“It feels as if it is going to be my least ready one [Monte Carlo] in a means” Sebastien Ogier

Maybe the largest unknown heading into 2025 is how the WRC’s new tyre provider Hankook will carry out and who will alter to the brand new rubber the perfect and quickest. Hankook takes over the deal from Pirelli following a four-year stint.

Though the South Korean producer has beforehand developed tyres for rallying, this shall be its greatest take a look at within the self-discipline. So as to put together for this, Hankook labored with WRC groups all by final 12 months to develop the tyres. Even so, the vast majority of the sphere had solely someday to check Hankook’s asphalt rubber earlier than this week’s Monte Carlo Rally, which can solely improve the unpredictability, significantly throughout the early rounds.

“It will likely be an enormous job to grasp them earlier than the beginning of the season,” Ogier has predicted. “It’s a large change so it is going to be troublesome to be 100% prepared for Monte Carlo. I believe there shall be some compromises. It feels as if it is going to be my least ready one [Monte Carlo] in a means.”

The WRC welcomes three new occasions in 2025, with the Canary Islands, Paraguay and Saudi Arabia becoming a member of the fray to create an expanded 14-round calendar. 

The arrival of Hankook because the WRC’s new tyre provider brings one other intriguing dimension to 2025

Photograph by: Pink Bull Content material Pool

Rally Islas Canarias, which was previously a part of the European Rally Championship, successfully replaces Croatia as April’s asphalt spherical, and means a WRC return to Spain for the primary time since 2022. In the meantime, Paraguay’s distinctive gravel roads will make their WRC debut in August firstly of a South American double header with Chile, whereas Saudi Arabia will host the season finale because the Center East returns to the WRC for the primary time since 2011.

Occasion itineraries ought to be extra versatile in 2025. For instance, Safari Rally Kenya has been prolonged to 240 stage miles, whereas Sardinia is anticipated to proceed its condensed 48-hour contest format trialled final 12 months.

Distant service zones shall be formally a part of the WRC this 12 months. Every service shall be 20 minutes in size, with solely three mechanics and the competing crew in a position to work on the automobile throughout that point.

This text is certainly one of many within the new month-to-month problem of Autosport journal. For extra premium content material, check out the February 2025 problem and subscribe today.

Who would be the mixture to beat when the aggressive levels start in earnest?

Photograph by: Pink Bull Content material Pool