WRC main class in 2025

[lmmjvss]

What about Ideas for Format change for WRC 2026:
10 to 12 stages on Friday and Saturday (like nowadays). After the last stage, points are awarded ONLY for the manufacturer/teams championship. The final result also works as a "qualy' ("starting grid") for sunday.

On Sunday we have only ONE stage broadcasted live to determine the winner. LIke a Time attack thing.
The broadcast introduce you to some of the drivers, then each one have one run to decide the event's winner. (Points awarded only for the driver's championship in this one) Its quick, intense, easy to broadcast live, easy to understand (the fastest win... period).
Haha thoughts?

[WRCStan]

Haha thoughts?

Not knocking your dream but the question was what car to be used to attract new manufacturers.

[lmmjvss]

Not knocking your dream but the question was what car to be used to attract new manufacturers.

haha right, right! WRC should run in 2025/26 what manufacturers are PLANNING TO SELL in 2027-28-29-30... Electric SUVs, hybrid Utes and ICE non-fossil fuel lightweight vehicules (which Im interested to know if SxS are actually cheaper than Rally3, Rally4 too) basically. Thats an easy one tbh. Tho Dakar and Extreme-E are already doing it so... ehhhhhh... it goes back to what I said on my first post about these FIA's exclusivity contracts that could ruin WRC in this decade.
But anyway.... if the product is only followed by the same 200k-ISH rally fans (sh*tty guessing haha) since the 2000's Why would manufacturers get interested at all? Thats why we could chat about "format changes" too.

Other thing that bothers me is that we are not thaaat distant from seeing these same manufacturers AND new ones (tech companies) looking more and more into autonomous-shared transportation. Can WRC participate on this?
Cuz I dont think so =/ ...its looks too complicated for the type of "terrains" wrc runs.
LeMans could use this, something like "Hypercars going 1 hour on fully autonomous mode" and that would be SO COOL looking from this tech angle...

[er88]

Rallying is all about spectacle, and noise is maybe the most important factor for me. Speed sure, but you're going to get a fast car regardless at the top level. For example the screaming s2000s in peak IRC days were much better than the r5s that replaced them imo. Look at the mistake F1 made when losing the proper V8(?) noise.

I'd be happy with full electric but only if they can properly create good noise. Fair play for what Paddon is trying to achieve with that, but the last I saw it still sounded like a malfunctioning washing machine. You'd lose a lot of stageside fans

[Kenneth]

Imo there's no way that WRC will be fully electric, same as F1 won't be fully electric. Hybrid and synthetic fuels are future.

[lmmjvss]

Imo there's no way that WRC will be fully electric, same as F1 won't be fully electric. Hybrid and synthetic fuels are future.

WRC is hybrid and use synth fuel right now... The future is eVTOL racing: Humans vs A.I.... but inside the metaverse. And its all part of a netflix show!

[becher]

Imo there's no way that WRC will be fully electric, same as F1 won't be fully electric. Hybrid and synthetic fuels are future.

BEV are just not suitable for high performance/motorsport application. You will allways have to compansate for dynamic shortcomings by increasing straight line performance . The marketing departments are hot on it at the moment but the Formula E manufacturer exodus and renewed interest in prototypes shows that under the right cicumstance ICE motorsport is long from dead.

[mknight]

1-2 years ago these forums were full of posts on how hybrid will never work in WRC.

Drivers and spectators were to be electrocuted during every crash and everything would catch fire from those batteries.

Look how hybrids work now and how many incidents like this happened even after few quite big crashes.

Electric rally cars work right now ( see Baumschlager) with same itenary as before on same rallies.
That car which is still based on a stock petrol chasiss (so definitely not super-optimized) can run some 500++ hp and still do a rally stage. Wi

Saying that BEVs can't do rallying seems rather short-sighted.

[pantealex]

1-2 years ago these forums were full of posts on how hybrid will never work in WRC.

Drivers and spectators were to be electrocuted during every crash and everything would catch fire from those batteries.

Look how hybrids work now and how many incidents like this happened even after few quite big crashes.

Electric rally cars work right now ( see Baumschlager) with same itenary as before on same rallies.
That car which is still based on a stock petrol chasiss (so definitely not super-optimized) can run some 500++ hp and still do a rally stage. Wi

Saying that BEVs can't do rallying seems rather short-sighted.

True but I still want ICE

[Mirek]

1-2 years ago these forums were full of posts on how hybrid will never work in WRC.

Drivers and spectators were to be electrocuted during every crash and everything would catch fire from those batteries.

Look how hybrids work now and how many incidents like this happened even after few quite big crashes.

Electric rally cars work right now ( see Baumschlager) with same itenary as before on same rallies.
That car which is still based on a stock petrol chasiss (so definitely not super-optimized) can run some 500++ hp and still do a rally stage. Wi

Saying that BEVs can't do rallying seems rather short-sighted.

Making conclusions like that after just one cold winter event with no fording is just as silly.