WRC to consider service park changes

A raft of proposals to make the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) more accommodating to changing times will be put on the table for discussion at the World Rally Championship Commission meeting on Friday.

The championship’s commercial rights holder, WRC Promoter is considering changes in service park management like relaxing rules on the “clover leaf” central service park concept introduced over 20 years ago.

This ended roadside service or more than one service park during the three days of rallying which the world was accustomed to before 1999. 

Instead, the route was designed in such a way that cars could not be repaired at one service park twice a day and took away the spectacle which connected rallying to the fans who watched in awe as mechanics carried out service and repairs at close range.

Local rally fans have only seen the Rally1 car in motion and have no idea of what this impressive engineering masterpiece looks like or how mechanics attend to a near terminally ill car and bring it back to life.

“We are absolutely open to changing the single service concept,” the WRC Promoter event director told the motoring blog Dirt Fish in Greece.

“Maybe we need to have a model where a certain number of parts and tools can be carried in a certain way or in the car. If two mechanics are already there for a 15-minute tire fitting zone… how long does it take to fit the tires, four or five minutes? They can do more in that time and this can help keep cars in the event.”

But the most significant suggestion of the year is a relaxation of rules by the Federation Internationale de I’ Automobile (FIA) to consider allowing non-hybrid Rally1 cars to compete in national and regional rallies like the Kenya or Africa championships for those who can afford them.

The FIA introduced hybrid technology on Rally1 cars in the 2022 season, and so far competition between Toyota, Hyundai and Ford has been stiff. Cars for the top 12 drivers have shown great pace.

The rest of the categories in Rally 2 and 3 bring together cars running on combustion engines only.

These proposals will also address the ever-widening rift between the privileged drivers contracted by the manufacturer teams and the rest of the field as well as make business out of the WRC for autonomous teams like M-Sport.

M-Sport is a commercial entity and has been able to sell cars. Team principal Malcolm Wilson said he sold one car after being given an assurance by the FIA that he could sell Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1 cars to private drivers. But he wants the non-hybrid Rally 1 car to be available to more customers in other events apart from the WRC.

“It’s not enough. We need to be selling around 10 cars each year to make this work. Right now, nothing can be taken for granted next season,” he told Dirt Fish.

Wilson – along with the other WRC manufacturers – met with FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem at Acropolis Rally Greece earlier this month where he outlined the issues and is hoping for swift action in the wake of the meetings.

“Mohammed won seven of his Middle East (Rally Championship) titles with us,” said Wilson. “I explained to him that he was using, essentially, a Rally1 car. He won those championships in the premium class car – the car we were running at the top of the WRC."

The good news is that Wilson won support from other stakeholders with his suggestion of a non-hybrid solution and Ben Sulayem has tasked FIA rally director Andrew Wheatley with looking into the use of Rally1 cars outside of WRC.

“We could easily run a non-hybrid Rally1 car. We take the hybrid out, replace it with some ballast and you have a regular car which can run under normal rules."

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