2021 World Rally Championship

The 2021 FIA World Rally Championship will be the forty-ninth season of the World Rally Championship, an auto racing competition recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as the highest class of international rallying. Teams and crews are due to compete for the World Rally Championships for Drivers, Co-drivers and Manufacturers. Crews are free to compete in cars complying with World Rally Car and Group R regulations; however, only manufacturers competing with World Rally Cars homologated under regulations introduced in 2017 are eligible to score points in the Manufacturers' championship.

2021 FIA World Rally Championship
Previous: 2020 Next: 2022
Support series:
FIA World Rally Championship-2
FIA World Rally Championship-3
FIA Junior World Rally Championship

List of planned events

The following rallies are planned to be run as part of the 2021 World Championship:

Rally Rally headquarters Surface Ref.
Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo Gap, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Mixed[lower-alpha 1] [1]
Rally Sweden Torsby, Värmland Snow [1]
Safari Rally Kenya Nairobi, Nairobi County Gravel [2]
Rally de Portugal Matosinhos, Porto Gravel [1]
Rally Italia Sardegna Alghero, Sardinia Gravel [1]
Rally Finland Jyväskylä, Central Finland Gravel [3]
Rallye Deutschland Bostalsee, Saarland Tarmac [1]
Rally Japan Nagoya, Chūbu Tarmac [1]
Rally Australia Coffs Harbour, New South Wales Gravel [4]
RACC Rally Catalunya de España Salou, Catalonia Tarmac [5]
Wales Rally GB Llandudno, Conwy Gravel

Calendar changes

With the addition of Rally Chile to the calendar in 2019, the FIA opened the tender process for new events to join the championship in 2020.[6] Three events were successful, but the championship was affected by a series of cancellations in 2019 and 2020 that necessitated changes to the 2021 calendar:

  • Rally Australia is due to return after a two-year absence;[4] the event was included on the 2019 calendar, but was cancelled due to a bushfire emergency. It was omitted from the 2020 calendar as part of an event-sharing agreement with Rally New Zealand that would see an event alternate between the two countries every other year.[4]
  • Rally Catalunya is due to return to the championship. The rally was removed from the 2020 schedule as part of an event-sharing agreement that would see it removed from the calendar for one year, but be guaranteed a spot on the calendar for the next two.[5]
  • Rally Chile is due to return after a one-year absence. The rally had been included on the original draft of the 2020 calendar, but was later cancelled in the face of ongoing civil unrest in the country. Organisers of the event negotiated a return to the calendar for the 2021 championship.[7]
  • The Rallies of Finland and Great Britain are due to return to the championship after a one-year absence. The 2020 events were cancelled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3][8] However, Rally GB was not included on a draft of the calendar published in June 2020.[1]
  • Rally New Zealand had been scheduled to return to the calendar in 2020; however, the rally was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[9] Under the agreement planned for 2020, Rally New Zealand would have alternated with Rally Australia,[4] but with the cancellation of the 2020 event it was reported that the rally would feature on the 2021 calendar.[10] The event is planned to return to Auckland;[4] however, it was not included on a draft of the calendar published in June 2020.[1]
  • The Safari Rally is scheduled to be run as a World Championship event for the first time since 2002. The event is to be based in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and feature stages around Lake Naivasha.[11] The event had been planned to make its return to the championship in 2020, but was cancelled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]

In addition to these planned changes, several bids for events were announced:

  • In January 2020, the West Australian opposition party began campaigning to have Rally Australia return to the state capital, Perth. The city had hosted the event from 1988 to 2006 before it moved to New South Wales.[12]
  • In May 2020, the government of Northern Ireland announced a bid to move the Rally of Great Britain from Wales to Northern Ireland.[13] The World Rally Championship last visited Northern Ireland in 2009 when several stages of Rally Ireland were run in the region.

Entries

The following teams and drivers are under contract to contest the 2021 World Championship:

Entrant Car Driver name Co-driver name Ref.
Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC
Ott Tänak Martin Järveoja [14]
Thierry Neuville Nicolas Gilsoul [15]
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC[16] Elfyn Evans Scott Martin [17]
Kalle Rovanperä Jonne Halttunen [17]

In detail

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT had planned to introduce a new car based on the Toyota GR Yaris,[18] an "homologation special", or road-going version of a car specifically designed for competition and with production limited to the minimum number required to meet homologation requirements.[19] However, the team later announced that it had abandoned development the GR Yaris, citing the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the automotive industry and the costs of developing the car when new regulations were due to be introduced in 2022.[16]

Six-time World Drivers' Champion Sébastien Ogier announced that he would retire from full-time competition at the end of the 2020 championship.[20]

Changes

Technical regulations

Pirelli will replace Michelin as the sport's sole tyre supplier.[21] Under the terms of the agreement, Pirelli will supply tyres to all teams entering World Rally Cars and R5 cars.

Notes
  1. The Monte Carlo Rally is run on a tarmac and snow surface.

References
  1. Craig, Jason; Thukral, Rachit (20 June 2020). "Motorsport UK "optimistic" despite Rally GB ommission from draft 2021 WRC calendar". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  2. Thukral, Rachit (15 May 2020). "WRC News: Kenya's Safari Rally cancelled due to coronavirus". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  3. "No Neste Rally Finland for 2020". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  4. Herrero, Daniel (27 September 2019). "Australia drops off WRC calendar in 2020". speedcafe.com. Speedcafe. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  5. Evans, David (27 September 2019). "WRC drops Corsica, Spain and Australia, three events return for 2020". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  6. "FIA announces World Motor Sport Council decisions". fia.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 12 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  7. Evans, David (29 November 2019). "WRC's 2020 Rally Chile cancelled due to political and social unrest". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 31 December 2019. Rally Chile's Felipe Horta said: 'The decision was to wait a year to take the world championship. We have talked with the FIA and the WRC [Promoter] in Germany, where they have fortunately understood very favourably what is happening and are allowing us to cancel the 2020 date and resume the contract we have established for three years.'
  8. Herrero, Dan (9 June 2020). "Rally GB cancelled". speedcafe.com. Speedcafe. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  9. "New Zealand's 2020 WRC return off". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 4 June 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  10. Klein, Jamie (4 June 2020). "WRC News: Rally New Zealand cancelled for 2020 due to coronavirus". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 4 June 2020. New Zealand was set to hold its first WRC round since 2012, and will now work on being ready to take up its place on the 2021 schedule.
  11. "Safari back in 2020". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 27 September 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  12. Herrero, Daniel (28 January 2020). "WA Opposition launches petition to get WRC back to Perth". speedcafe.com. Speedcafe. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  13. Craig, Jason (15 May 2020). "Bid to take WRC to Northern Ireland "very exciting" - Secretary of State". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  14. "Tänak quits Toyota". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  15. "Neuville signs new Hyundai deal". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 12 September 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  16. Thukral, Rachit; Rauli, Giacomo (15 June 2020). "WRC News: Toyota decides against introducing GR Yaris for 2021". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  17. "Toyota reveals 2020 line-up". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 27 November 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  18. Benyon, Jack (8 February 2020). "Toyota begins testing with 2021 GR Yaris WRC contender". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
  19. Ottley, Stephen (13 January 2020). "Toyota's WRC monster for the road". torquecafe.com. Speedcafe. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  20. Evans, David (1 August 2019). "Sebastien Ogier says 2020 definitely his final World Rally season". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  21. Evans, David (20 December 2019). "Pirelli wins tyre tender to supply WRC top tier and R5s from 2021". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
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