For the 2021 FIA World Rally Championship, several amendments to the FIA Sporting Regulations have been made ahead of next season.
Firstly, for manufacturers Power Stage points in the newly renamed Rally1 class will be handed out to the top two drivers of each team who also finish in the top five on the Power Stage.
The championship now also needs to complete at least half of its originally planned rounds in 2021 for it to be classed a fully legal series – this comes after the calendar was heavily shortened this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the WRC2 class, each participating team will now have to register themselves no later than the closing date of the fifth round in the 2021 calendar and to score points, a team will have to enter at least two cars in a maximum of seven rallies including a minimum of one round outside of Europe.
The drivers and the teams from the WRC2 class will also need to nominate which of their entered events they are wanting to score points in.
The registered crews can also enter additional rallies under the Priority 2 rule without scoring points in the class, with only six of the seven nominated events counting towards the final points total of each competitor.
In WRC3, each driver will now need to enter seven rounds throughouht the season, with the five best counting towards the championship. There have also been some specific requirements added to restrict the class entry to aspiring drivers who are using the series to develop their skills.
The FIA Junior WRC has also seen its number of rounds that count for a championship challenge increased from from four to five for the upcoming season.
Finally Pirelli – who will become the sole tyre supplier for the championship for next season, – have along with each team been granted a total of nine test days as they look to get used to the new rubber ahead of 2021.
