At the moment there are only three manufacturers at the top level of the FIA World Rally Championship. Toyota with the Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Hyundai with the Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, and Ford is running in conjunction with long-time partner M-Sport as the M-Sport Ford WRT.
At one point there were seven manufacturers in total in WRC, including the French Citroen Racing who most recently pulled out in 2019 following an announcement by Sébastien Ogier to join Toyota and blamed they couldn´t find any good replacer in the same caliber as the multiple world rally champion. However, despite having a short two-year commitment with the Citroen C3 WRC the French marque has hinted at a possible return.
For this year, the WRC adopted a fresh set of rules that aimed to align it more closely with plug-in hybrid technology currently deployed in passenger vehicles. A new, 100% sustainable fuel was also developed for the latest Rally1 hybrid cars following a tender process that was won by P1 Fuels.
FIA’s Rally Director Andrew Wheatley and his team will tell about the plans at the FIA World Motorsport Council Meeting in December.
“The key for me is to have three to five manufacturers at each level of the pyramid – that’s our long-term target. The question if more manufacturers will join is linked to the future of the World Rally Championship, which is something we’ll present to the final World Motor Sport Council meeting of the year. We are going to be bringing the results of our meetings with key stakeholders and our discussions with the manufacturers with a view to what is our proposed path for the World Rally Championship over the coming years when we understand what the next generation of competition cars and road cars is going to be.” Wheatley said.
“It has hit the targets that we set back in 2019 when we started working on this opportunity, the intention was to create a clear pyramid and what we have now is the pinnacle of the sport at the top of the pyramid with close competition on each round of the championship – not just close competition between the crews, but between the manufacturers as well.”
“Among the three different types of car – B-Class, C-Class, and Compact Crossover – all three manufacturers have been competitive, leading rallies, winning rallies, even sharing the exact same time on certain stages. This sends out a very strong signal and we’re also seeing really close competition at Rally2 level. I am equally very pleased to see Rally3 achieve its targets of demonstrating the raw pace of the next generation in 2023, despite being very new.”
