WRC main class in 2025

[Kenneth]

Well Toyota hinted that already by presenting the ICE hydrogen Yaris at Ypres lol

[seb_sh]

Well Toyota hinted that already by presenting the ICE hydrogen Yaris at Ypres lol

And they reiterated at a moment when much more eyes and ears are on them than at Ypres. Considering that Hyundai is also interested and Cyril was at Le Mans too btw I think we are getting the answer to this thread. Toyota plans to race a hydrogen car at Le Mans in 2026. This is WRC's chance to catch up and stop being the laggard that it has been for the last 20 years. Let's see what happens.

[fiscorpun]

Jeeez WRC, FIA RedBull...
Just let Toyota run their Hydrogen car and Renault race their electric car. Build them up to Rally2 specs. I like that idea. Skoda is already there, they have new cars, they have Kressel with electric kits at Rally2 specs-ISH... Msport would be even more active in that class, Hyundai is active on that class - plus thousand cars sold around the world for that class. Thats solved. I dont understand why this is not happening.

[Kenneth]

I might be wrong here, but don't Hyundai want to use hydrogen fuelcell powered electric cars, rather than ICE like Toyota?

But for real, WRC need to loosen up to rules a bit. They could get inspiraction from LMDh, where anyone can build their car on one of four different spec chassis from four different manufacturers (and none of them is big auto brand). WRC is killing itself by letting only big auto makers build and homologate a rally car.

[lmmjvss]

They could get inspiraction from LMDh, where anyone can build their car on one of four different spec chassis from four different manufacturers (and none of them is big auto brand). WRC is killing itself by letting only big auto makers build and homologate a rally car.

Thats part of my suggestion. Have Msport, Prodrive, Vermont, etc building/transforming the "cars". Let teams, rich privateers BUY them like in Rally2... But for the top class (at WRC's 2013-16 specs, which were already great). We are not gonna have 10k car solds like in rally2 of course, but at this point, if theres 15 cars, ITS A GOLDEN AGE compared to current what? 6 cars? (Sorry Loubet)

[becher]

I might be wrong here, but don't Hyundai want to use hydrogen fuelcell powered electric cars, rather than ICE like Toyota?

But for real, WRC need to loosen up to rules a bit. They could get inspiraction from LMDh, where anyone can build their car on one of four different spec chassis from four different manufacturers (and none of them is big auto brand). WRC is killing itself by letting only big auto makers build and homologate a rally car.

But as I already mentioned, LMDh is not loose, it is very strict with basically everything a spec component bar a few things here and there. In my opinion it is not worthy of a top class, let alone fits to what you would want. LMH is much more like it, but in rallying we never really had the problems that led to BOP formulas like LMH so I don't see a point in it to be honest.

[Franky]

If Rally2 cars would become the top category cars, then we would have another naming clusterfuck on our hands with Rally2 and Rally1.

[Sulland]

If Rally2 cars would become the top category cars, then we would have another naming clusterfuck on our hands with Rally2 and Rally1.

Why, we will just park the rally1 name until we will see a new Rally1 class.

[AndyRAC]

But as I already mentioned, LMDh is not loose, it is very strict with basically everything a spec component bar a few things here and there. In my opinion it is not worthy of a top class, let alone fits to what you would want. LMH is much more like it, but in rallying we never really had the problems that led to BOP formulas like LMH so I don't see a point in it to be honest.

And yet plenty of manufacturers have signed up for both categories......and others are showing interest. Meanwhile the WRC flounders attracting nobody....

[becher]

Because its cheap as f*uck for what it offers, there are more reasons why manufacturers get involved in a certain series. I think a detail explanation on who is there because of this or that in sportscar racing would be too off topic. Just look back 20 years and compare the state of sportscar racing with rallying, peaks and troughs.