2022 World Rally Championship

The 2022 FIA World Rally Championship will be the fiftieth 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 Rally1 and Rally2 regulations;[lower-alpha 1] however, only manufacturers competing with Rally1 cars homologated under regulations introduced in 2017 are eligible to score points in the Manufacturers' championship.

2022 FIA World Rally Championship
Previous: 2021 Next: 2023
Support series:
FIA World Rally Championship-2
FIA World Rally Championship-3
FIA Junior World Rally Championship

A significant change to the regulations is planned to be introduced in 2022 as the sport adopts the use of hybrid drivetrains for the first time.[2]

Entrants

Team changes

M-Sport will develop a new car based on a Ford model. The car will use the engine from the Ford Fiesta WRC. This is based car on Ford Puma.[3] Petter Solberg, the 2003 World Drivers' Champion, announced his intention to enter a manufacturer team in the 2022 championship.[4]

Driver changes

Seven-time World Champion Sébastien Ogier announced his intention to retire from the sport at the end of the 2021 championship.[5] Ogier had previously planned to retire at the end of the 2020 championship, but the disruption brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the reduced number of events in 2020 prompted him to reconsider.

List of planned events

The following rallies are under contract to be run as part of the 2022 World Championship:

Rally Rally headquarters Surface Ref.
RACC Rally Catalunya de España Salou, Catalonia Mixed[lower-alpha 2] [6]
Rally Chile Concepción, Biobío Gravel [7]
Rally Estonia Tartu, Tartu County Gravel [8]

Calendar changes

The Arctic Rally was added to the 2021 calendar as a replacement for Rally Sweden. Organisers of the Arctic Rally signed a one-year contract for the 2021 event.[9]

Changes

Technical regulations

The championship is due to introduce a new set of technical regulations known as "Rally1". The Rally1 regulations will place a greater emphasis on standardised parts than in previous years to make the sport more accessible.[1][10]

The sport will introduce hybrid drivetrains for the first time.[2] All cars competing under World Rally Car regulations will be required to be fitted with a hybrid system. This will take the form of an e-motor that produces 100 kW (134.1 bhp) fitted to current 1.6 L turbocharged inline-4 engine[11] and must be used to power the car when travelling around service parks and through built-up areas when driving between stages. Drivers will be free to use the e-motor to offer additional power when competing in a stage, with the FIA dictating how much power can be used and how long a driver can deploy it for.[2] The hybrid system and the software governing its use will be standardised for three years as a way of keeping the costs of competing down.[12] The system will be provided by Compact Dynamics, a subsidiary of Formula E team Audi Sport ABT supplier Schaeffler.[13]

The championship will also introduce a standardised safety structure in a bid to improve safety standards. This will coincide with the homologation requirements being re-written to allow teams to build prototype chassis based on production cars rather than having to adapt a chassis to fit a roadgoing model.[2]

Notes
  1. Rally1 cars were previously known as World Rally Cars and Rally2 cars were known as R5 before changes to the sporting regulations were introduced in 2020.[1]
  2. The first leg of Rally Catalunya is run on gravel stages and the second and third legs on tarmac stages.

References
  1. Evans, David (8 October 2019). "FIA steps up plan to simplify WRC into five-tier career ladder". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  2. Evans, David (21 December 2019). "WRC cars will get a boost from hybrid power on stages from 2022". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  3. Craig, Jason (22 May 2020). "WRC News: M-Sport making "good progress" on new 2022 car". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  4. Thukral, Rachit (11 April 2020). "Solberg in talks with manufacturers for team return to WRC". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  5. Craig, Jason (20 January 2021). "Ogier expects his final WRC season to be the most open yet". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  6. Evans, David (27 September 2019). "WRC drops Corsica, Spain and Australia, three events return for 2020". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  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. "Rally Estonia included in WRC calendar through 2022 season". Estonian Public Broadcasting. 14 January 2021.
  9. Craig, Jason (14 January 2021). "WRC adds Arctic Rally Finland to 2021 calendar as Sweden replacement". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  10. Garton, Nick (16 March 2020). "Neuville doesn't see point of "s***" 2022 proposed WRC rules". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  11. https://www.wrc.com/en/news/season-2020/wrc/existing-engines-to-stay-in-wrc-hybrid-switch/
  12. Newbold, James; Evans, David; James, Matt; Malsher, David (26 January 2020). "Digging into the 'scramble for hybrid". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  13. Newbold, James (31 March 2020). "WRC announces exclusive 2022 hybrid systems supplier". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
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