The World Rally Championship will feature mandatory rest periods next year following approval for amendments to the sporting regulations by the FIA World Motor Sport Council.
Rally itineraries have been a hot topic within the WRC for some time, with the matter brought into sharp focus at this year’s Rally Portugal.
The event’s itinerary, which featured 15-hour days without midday service, drew criticism from drivers. Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera stated the schedule posed a safety risk for crews, while rally winner Sebastien Ogier admitted it was among the most physically demanding contests of his career and felt changes to the future schedules would be required.
The WRC Commission tabled a proposal to install minimum rest periods to ensure competitors and personnel receive the necessary time to recover between days on rallies. This has now been approved by the FIA.
Total rest hours across the rally are now required to be at least equal to total competition hours, with the exception of the opening day. A minimum of 10 hours per day must be dedicated to rest, with one leg featuring at least 12 hours.
“Following feedback from teams and competitors regarding extended rally competition hours during recent seasons, a new regulation has been introduced defining minimum rest periods at FIA World Rally Championship events,” read a statement from the FIA.
Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: Toyota Racing
“The regulation establishes formal definitions of competition and rest hours across each rally. Setting minimum thresholds for overnight recovery periods, requiring total rest hours across the rally to be at least equal to the total competition hours, with the exception of the opening day of the competition, while daily rest periods may not fall below 10 hours, including at least one day providing a minimum of 12 hours of recovery time.
“These measures are intended to ensure greater consistency across events and provide increased rest time for crews, teams, officials and volunteers.”
The FIA has also announced a new framework for candidate rallies – test events before an event can join the WRC calendar. These must now be held the year prior to WRC calendar inclusion and no later than nine months before its debut.
Rules regarding the changing of engines have also been tweaked. Competitors suffering an engine failure after the start of the competition may replace their engine, with the exception of Rally1 cars nominated to score manufacturers’ points.
A 60-minute time penalty will be issued for any engine change made after the start of the competition element of the rally, and prevents any competitor who has changed their engine from scoring points in any of the FIA championships or cups at that event.
Midday service has been reduced from 40 to 30 minutes, which was the standard before the introduction of the Rally1 hybrid rules in 2022.
There has also been a change to the regulations regarding chicanes on stages. A penalty of five seconds will be issued to a competitor only when a chicane element is completely displaced from its marked position. Toyota’s Elfyn Evans was handed a penalty at the Central European Rally for touching a hay bale chicane in October.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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