The FIA's road sport director, Andrew Wheatley, says that the second generation of Rally1 cars will have great similarity with the current ones, but FIA faces two problems which are related to the high speed and cost of these cars.
FIA is already examining the new technical regulations for 2027 and insists on the continuation of hybrid cars as it was speculated that the future WRC cars will be full-electric or hydrogen-powered. The new regulations are set to be finalized not until the end of 2024 which means that the rally community has to wait two years to learn how the cars will be modified. Although the current Rally1 cars are the fastest in WRC history, the sport faces a serious problem as World Rally Championship as lost its prestige compared to the past years due to the fact that there are only three car brands that are involved at the top level while it is hinted that Subaru may join the championship in the future. Other car brands, including Stellantis Group and Renault, are interested in entering WRC if the cars go full-electric in the future, but for now FIA is not thinking of this option. Last but not least, another innovation is that these cars are using sustainable fuels since 2022, something that never happened in the past.
"We have a very good collaboration between the stakeholders on the future of the technical regulations", Wheatley said.
"We have an outline agreement as to what the future will look like, but as is always the case the devil is in the detail.
"80% of the current Rally1 car will stay.
"I think we all know there are challenges with the speed of the cars, they are pretty quick and they are expensive and they are more expensive than we imagined.
"So those are two key elements of how we want to try and improve the second generation of Rally1.
"The challenge is how we achieve those two targets.
"Obviously nobody wants to change anything but actually we all know we should and we need to change some details.
"It will be a hybrid car but this is exactly the discussion on the detail because there are many ways to achieve a hybrid car.
"The development cycle will start at the beginning of 2025 and 2026 to launch in 2027.
"Manufacturers need two clear years, but we are talking about changes that are relatively small.
"We don't want to release the proposal until we have consensus across the board and we are very close to getting that."
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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