Talk FIA World Rally Championship and motorsport fans immediately recall the helter-skelter days of unrestricted, fire-belching, 600bhp Group B monsters such as the Lancia Delta S4, Peugeot 206 T16 and Audi Quattro S2. Ultimately, these cars were banned by the FIA as being too fast to race after a string of fatalities involving crews and spectators, though they’re still remembered fondly.
Less well known, however, is that the current 500+ horsepower hybrid WRC cars are substantially faster per stage kilometre than their predecessors by virtue of the instant torque provided by their 134bhp electric motors, more sophisticated powertrain electronics, improved driveline systems and advances in tyre technologies. Indeed, current WRC cars are the quickest overall in the 50-year history of the series.
Increased speeds improve the spectacle, but also heighten the chances of high-speed incidents, all of which brings the FIA – as motorsport’s global regulator and the EU-sanctioned body responsible for safety – into play to ensure the sport continues to thrive under all conditions, on all continents.
That is key to the WRC’s popularity, both as a spectator sport and an incubator for the motor industry, particularly given the visual and technical similarities between consumer and competition vehicles. They are front-engined, hybrid-powered hatchbacks ferrying driver /passenger often on roads accessible to the public, albeit closed during events. These factors alone set WRC apart from Formula 1.
That is not the only difference between the
