Rally 3 class

[becher]

The dyno on the Fiesta shows "a few" hp more

Can you give a more specific number?

[Andre Oliveira]

Renault asked FIA to open JWRC.

Info by Shakedown Media

[Sulland]

Renault asked FIA to open JWRC.

Info by Shakedown Media

How long is the Ford deal signed for?

[Danny0405]

How long is the Ford deal signed for?

In an old interview, Nogier (former chief of Renault in Rally) told it was probably a standard 3-year contract with the Rally3 cars (would mean 2 years left including 2023).

Personally, a bit skeptical about opening it or to be more precise, I think we will not be back to the 2000’s era with plenty of brands and drivers.
Even if the high cost + low reward is one of the issue of the JWRC today, I think the fall of this championship is first a consequence of the lack of ladder of the manufacturer:
- Toyota has nothing under Rally1 today (and only Rally2 in the near future)
- Hyundai has nothing under Rally2 and a youngster policy... very special
- M-Sport has the full range of car but needs money
- Renault has nothing higher than Rally3
- Stellantis has Rally4 and Rally2 but no Rally1 so we cannot wait them to make a big ladder of development for youngster

And I don’t see what Renault can bring to this championship with no car higher than Rally3 (so no ladder).
To end with it, opening JWRC to multiple brands would cause the issue of what to give as a prize to the winner (and if it’s just a championship with no prize to discover the world level, well, you can do WRC3 in that case so no interest in opening JWRC).

[Danny0405]

Well, after the pathetic result of M-Sport in Monte with the Rally2, I would review a bit my judgement (even if I already said multiple times that the prize for winning JWRC is way too weak with 4 rounds in the worst Rally2 car to attract drivers in JWRC).

I still think it should not be an open Championship as Renault as no car above Rally3 but I clearly think that it’s impossible to have an attractive JWRC championship with M-Sport considering the awful level of the Rally2.

Personally (but it’s just an idea), I would really like that Toksport makes a bid to take the JWRC championship.
Renault can’t take it by itself as they have no car to offer as a prize but Toksport has good links with Renault in Rally4, they have organized the Clio Trophy in RC5 in ERC and, over all, they can offer a good program as a prize if financed by promoter, considering their links with Skoda.
What I would see is a formula with equal Clio Rally3 run by Toksport with the winner obtaining a full WRC-2 (7 rounds) program with the new Skoda RS with Toksport. Even if it would probably needs an increase in the entry cost for competitors, it would attract a lot more drivers than the current formula in my opinion.
We saw than when the prize was good, the number of competitors increased.

[Kenneth]

Dunno if that's really a problem. JERC is open and still have JWRC as prize, but winner get only 3 rounds covered vs full championship, if he wins JERC with Fiesta. Also I'm not sure how much attractive prize Fiesta is. All winners switched as soon as they used their prize.

I'm sure that opening it would help all sides.

[Sulland]

Have Renault said anything on how many firm orders they have for the Rally3?

[dupanton]

Have Renault said anything on how many firm orders they have for the Rally3?

Plenty

They want to deliver the first 25 cars by the end of July, but order book is probably already full for 2023 (+- 1 car / week)

[manthey]

With more mm on the restrictor, wrc3 can close the power - gap with wrc2 cars...

[BBman]

At 32 mm (currently 31 mm) we would be at Group N class restrictor size, which Rally 3 should replace. Especially when considering that Gr N had 2.0 litre engines, while Rally 3 has max displacement of 1.6l, I feel like this is where Rally 3 should have started in the first place.