SAME BUT DIFFERENT: WRC 2025

At its traditional Rallye Monte-Carlo opener, the 2025 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) begins tonight with selective alterations set make for an interesting season. 

On the face of it, the WRC 2025 season can be regarded as somewhat of a holding or transitional year ahead of the sweeping regulation changes due in 2027. With the FIA and WRC stakeholders vitally targeting a regulation cost cap to attract manufacturers back into the top tier and more versatility around what can be added around the current space frame chassis, there’s true hope for a new era… but first things first: 2025.

At a simple glance, this season won’t have an expanded Rally1 field, there have been two major changes specific to the driver and crew experience, there’s a few regulation tweaks, some calendar changes with a view to the future, a returning dual-champion, a new defending champion, a new points system, and some team alterations.

But while rally fans wait for what’s to come and can spend another season picking the bones out of what’s wrong now, it’s easy to forget just how entertaining and dramatic 2024 was. And while it will undoubtedly come down to another title bout between Toyota and Hyundai, what a fight it may yet prove to be!

WHILE WE WAIT…

Kalle Rovanpera in the snow

The two biggest technical alterations this season are the removal of the hybrid system and the change of tyre manufacturer. While an optional hybrid system is still on the table for 2027 (along with electric and combustion engine options), it won’t feature in ’25. 

After three seasons, the German-made Compact Dynamics 100kW hybrid unit has been dropped, returning the Rally1 to rely solely on the 1.6 litre turbocharged internal combustion engines (powered by 100% sustainable fuel).

The hybrid unit weighed 87kg, so the minimum weight has been reduced from 1260kg to 1180kg, resulting in a similar power-to-weight ratio, and a slightly smaller air restrictor (-1mm) has been employed as a result. Without the hybrid system, the lower gear ratios will also be altered to compensate for the different power delivery. 

With the new adjustments, not too much should change in regard to performance.

The other major change is the rubber. Stepping up to replace Pirelli is the South Korean Hankook tyre. No other category in world motorsport performs on such variable surfaces, and Hankook is far from a stranger to the rally tyre, having been widely used in Europe and other regional competitions.

While only Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux and Toyota Kalle Rovanpera have tested them in competition, the tread is still being experimented with, the former saying, “I was happy with the tyres. The slick is good. The winter needed a little bit of development, but it’s really good that Hankook is very open to talk about everything.”

The true wait will be to see what comes out of Sebastien Ogier’s mouth as one of Pirelli’s most formidable critics.

BEHIND THE WHEEL…

Adrien Fourmaux hopes to take a further step forward for Hyundai.

Thierry Neuville (who’ll sport the #1) finally broke the duck for a world title in ’24, but the full-time return of generational talent Rovanpera will seriously test the Belgian’s ability to go back-to-back. The “Flying Finn” still managed four wins as a part-time competitor compared to Neuville’s two. 

Will Rovanpera retain his sheer dominance after his (kind of) gap year? It would be easy to suggest a return to a one-way show, but there should be four genuine contenders in ’25: Rovanpera, Neuville, Ott Tanak, and Elfyn Evans.

There is also the substantial addition to the i20N team in Fourmaux, with the Frenchman having had a stellar season for Ford M-Sport last year with five podiums and four top-fives before jumping ship.

At times, Hyundai will run a fourth Rally1 in addition to its permanent third machine, with the talented Esapekka Lappi (2024 Sweden winner), Andreas Mikkelsen, and Dani Sordo still all in the running for those part-time drives.

WRC2 champion Sami Pajari has also been added to the four-car lineup that Toyota will employ this year, with the fast Finn impressing in his limited Rally1 outings last season, taking some stage wins along the way. He’ll operate full-time under what Toyota calls its TGR World Rally Team2. That also means any points will count solely towards that satellite team and not to the main TGR team in terms of the manufacturer fight.

Josh McErlean is flying to the top level.

His new TGR teammate, Elfyn Evans, is still searching for his first WRC title. Having taken over the mantle as the WRC’s “Perennial Bridesmaid to Neuville” with four runner-up seasons, the Welshman is expected to be front and centre as Toyota looks to reclaim the drivers’ title. 

Ogier will again be a constant threat as a part-timer in the GR Yaris as a regular fifth entrant (though perhaps not as many outings as last year), while in turn, full-timer Takamoto Katsuta will keep trying to deliver as the marque’s homegrown talent.

With Fourmaux’s predictable Hyundai defection, M-Sport will go ahead with Gregoire Munster as its main hope, while unexpected newcomer – Irishman Josh McErlean – has been given the nod to step into the top-tier as a shock graduate, with the 25-year-old having had three part-time WRC2 seasons to date.

M-Sport has said it will look to employ a potential third car at some events, but with Fourmaux gone, its podium threat is greatly minimised.

NEW YEAR, NEW CONTINENT…

Gregoire Munster will lead M-Sport Ford World Rally Team. Photo by McKlein / LAT Images

2025 will see three new events join the circus to make it a 14-round season, the most intriguing of which is Saudi Arabia – replacing Japan as the season closer – with a 10 year deal being signed.

Also added are the Rally Islas Canarias (asphalt) and the Rally del Paraguay (gravel). The Canary Islands – a Spanish archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa – has been a popular ERC tarmac event for several years and will add a great flavour to the party.

At the same time, Paraguay and its thriving rally scene has been awarded the second South American event on the calendar alongside Chile.

Croatia, Poland, and Latvia are dropping off the calendar, while the hugely popular and epically fast Rally Estonia has thankfully rejoined the fray after a season in limbo.

NEW POINTS SYSTEM, AND FURTHER REG ALTERATIONS…

Sami Pajari is a new face for Toyota.

The controversial points system that plagued opinion in 2024 has been dropped, with a more traditional approach employed to ensure a more representational point allocation. 

In short, the 18 available Saturday points have been removed, meaning the winner of a rally is unlikely to be outscored or matched in points – an absurd scenario that happened several times last season (but yes, this scenario is still possible should the ultimate winner, however unlikely, not take any Sunday points).

It will now be 25 points down to 1 for the top 10 crews (17 for second place), while the “Super Sunday” element will be retained but with the top-five fastest drivers awarded instead of the top seven, while Power Stage points will also remain.

The other changes that will feature with an ‘at-times’ noticeable impact, will be the Remote Services availability, the Obstruction ruling, and the Public Road usage tweak.

The Remote Service rules will allow three mechanics (plus the competing crew) with a limited but necessarily generous equipment bag – plus what’s carried in the car – to have a 20-minute repair window in remote service zones (RSZ). 

As for the obstruction rule, an event clerk (with a likely nudge from the obstructed team) can call for a notional time to be awarded should they be impeded by something like another competitor changing a tyre or a crash.

In terms of traversing a public road, unless the machine is operational with all four tyres rotational, the crew must “immediately stop, repair the damage if possible, respecting all the applicable regulations or retire”.

MONTE-CARLO MAGNIFIER…

Sebastien Ogier is looking for more Monte Carlo magic

Come the first round in the French Riviera region (the 93rd edition), Ogier will be aiming for a record-extending 10th win at the legendary event. And like most of the field, his time in the car has been limited, with this to say about the opener.

“There are so many changes, so I think this will probably be the Monte Carlo Rally where I’m the least prepared ever, but it’s probably the same for everybody,” he remarked.

“Honestly, it’s hard to predict anything at the moment. We’ll have only one test day in January, which will be very important to learn as much as possible about this whole new package.”

For Hyundai, Neuville will be looking for a second straight (and third overall) win at the event. Overall, the fleet of Drivers title winning i20Ns will also enter the event with a keen eye on the ensuing rounds, as the Hyundai will trigger all four of its homologation jokers at once (perhaps as early as Sweden) to introduce a package that they think can take the manufacturers title off Toyota.  

They’ll be bullish for the opener, as Fourmaux recently held off Rovanpera in the snow and ice (both in the ’25 spec machinery) in a regional French rally.

The weather is expected to be similar to last year, mostly dry, but with slippery conditions on the asphalt in the tight and twisty mountain passes, with the new Hankook’s expected to be under the microscope.

And while pundits will be spruiking the “unknown” factor (a popular and sometimes lazy rhetoric in motorsport commentary), it will likely be business as usual behind the wheel with the big names in a small 10-car Rally1 field up front to kick off an intriguing season. 

Auto Action’s tip: Ogier for a tenth Monte-Carlo over Neuville, and Rovanpera for a third title in four years.

FULL-TIME WRC TEAM LINEUPS – DRIVER/CO-DRIVER

TOYOTA                –  Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen

                              –  Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin

                              – Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston

                              – Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen

HYUNDAI              – Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe

                              – Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja

                              – Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria

FORD M-SPORT   – Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka

                              – Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy

2025 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP CALENDAR

Images: LAT

READ THE LATEST ISSUE OF AUTO ACTION HERE

Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.