What’s new for 2025 in WRC?

Predicting this year’s World Rally Championship is virtually impossible following the biggest shake-up to regulations and the calendar since 2022.

One of the key ingredients of the original Rally1 regulations is no more, after the FIA decided to remove hybrid power from the cars for 2025. After a long-drawn-out affair, during which hybrid was on and off the table on more than one occasion, rising costs to repair the control hybrid units from supplier Compact Dynamics has resulted in their demise.

Rally1 cars will now run 87kg lighter, albeit without the extra 130bhp. The cars will, from this season, rely on being powered solely by 1.6-litre turbocharged engines. The FIA has also decided to reduce the air restrictor from 36mm to 35mm to maintain the 2024 power-to-weight ratio figures.

As a result, Rally1 cars are expected to be slower than in previous years, with the effect felt the most on asphalt. At last year’s Monza Rally Show, the gap between hybrid and non-hybrid Rally1 cars was approximately two seconds over a 2.8-mile stage.

“I’m not so enthusiastic about the prospect of losing this hybrid,” reckons Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul. “But, as I said on many occasions, we also have to be pragmatic about the situation of the sport, in terms of supplier capacity, product reliability and control.”

The much-derided radical points system introduced last year has also been tweaked to make it simpler to understand while increasing the reward for rally winners. Eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier went so far as to lambast it as a “joke”, with his main gripes being that the complicated methodology devalued rally victories and was difficult to understand.

This year the total points available from a rally will increase from 30 to 35. Saturday points have been abolished, with the scale 25-17-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 awarded to the top 10 at the end of a rally. ‘Super Sunday’ excitement should remain intact, but its points weighting has decreased from 12 to 10. Instead of the top seven crews scoring points, it is now the top five on Sunday’s classification who score, while the Power Stage points structure (5-4-3-2-1) remains untouched.

It is important to note that the overall winner of a rally will score eight more points than the runner-up, so only on rare occasions should the events of Sunday mean that the victor doesn’t walk away with the biggest points haul.

“This already looks better,” says Toyota’s two-time world champion Kalle Rovanpera of the 2025 points system. “Last year it was just bad, so let’s hope it works for us.”

“It feels as though it will be my least prepared one [Monte Carlo] in a way” Sebastien Ogier

Perhaps the biggest unknown heading into 2025 is how the WRC’s new tyre supplier Hankook will perform and who will adjust to the new rubber the best and quickest. Hankook takes over the deal from Pirelli following a four-year stint.

Although the South Korean manufacturer has previously developed tyres for rallying, this will be its biggest test in the discipline. In order to prepare for this, Hankook worked with WRC teams all through last year to develop the tyres. Even so, the majority of the field had only one day to test Hankook’s asphalt rubber before this week’s Monte Carlo Rally, which will only increase the unpredictability, particularly during the early rounds.

“It will be a big job to understand them before the start of the season,” Ogier has predicted. “It is a big change so it will be difficult to be 100% ready for Monte Carlo. I think there will be some compromises. It feels as though it will be my least prepared one [Monte Carlo] in a way.”

The WRC welcomes three new events in 2025, with the Canary Islands, Paraguay and Saudi Arabia joining the fray to create an expanded 14-round calendar. 

The arrival of Hankook as the WRC’s new tyre supplier brings another intriguing dimension to 2025

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Rally Islas Canarias, which was formerly part of the European Rally Championship, effectively replaces Croatia as April’s asphalt round, and means a WRC return to Spain for the first time since 2022. Meanwhile, Paraguay’s unique gravel roads will make their WRC debut in August at the start of a South American double header with Chile, while Saudi Arabia will host the season finale as the Middle East returns to the WRC for the first time since 2011.

Event itineraries should be more flexible in 2025. For example, Safari Rally Kenya has been extended to 240 stage miles, while Sardinia is expected to continue its condensed 48-hour contest format trialled last year.

Remote service zones will be officially part of the WRC this year. Each service will be 20 minutes in length, with only three mechanics and the competing crew able to work on the car during that time.

This article is one of many in the new monthly issue of Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the February 2025 issue and subscribe today.

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Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool