The FIA World Rally Championship’s 500-horsepower hybrid Rally1 monsters are being put out to pasture. Motorsport’s global governing body approved a new flexible, future-proof and cost-controlled ruleset for international rallying’s top category in 2027. The “WRC27” regulations will allow internal combustion, hybrid and full electric powertrains under a wide variety of body styles.
With Rally1, the WRC firmly believed that fielding its fastest-ever cars would garner attention from automakers and fans. However, only Hyundai, Toyota and Ford showed up to compete. The trio were openly frustrated by how much they were spending to outrun the iconic Group B machines of the 1980s without any fanfare. The struggle to make rallying popular proved so fruitless that the WRC’s commercial rights holder, jointly owned by Red Bull, was put up for sale at $550 million in August, according to Reuters.
The “WRC27” ruleset aims to make the championship more appealing for automakers by being flexible while significantly reducing costs. The FIA is capping costs at €345,000 ($362,000) by controlling the design and cost of specific components, slashing the cost of running a team in half compared to the current Rally1 rules. The regulations will also limit the number of personnel that teams can bring to rallies.
The FIA intends for most manufacturers to build cars powered by turbocharged 1.6-liter engines, but the rules allow for hybrid and electric cars. Performance between the different powerplants would be equalized using a torque sensor, similar to the current top-class prototypes in endurance racing. The current Rally1 spaceframes will be carried over to the next generation, but automakers will be allowed to drape a wild variety of bodywork over them. Hatchbacks, sedans, coupes, SUVs and even bespoke designs could theoretically compete against each other in the WRC.
WRC needed to take a step back and reset itself. It wasn’t realistic to believe that it could garner a massive TV audience to fuel a technological arms race akin to Formula 1. The “WRC27” ruleset probably won’t propel rallying to the stratosphere, but it will save it from fading into irrelevance.