Τhe WRC senior sporting director, Peter Thul, admits that FIA and WRC Promoter have detected three potential marques to join the World Rally Championship in the future, but the federation must hurry to decide the new regulations.
Hyundai, Toyota and M-Sport Ford are under contract with FIA and WRC Promoter for their stay in WRC until 2024 as there will be an evolution to the current regulations from 2025 meaning that the 75% of the current rules will remain the same. In 2022, Stellantis Group, Skoda and Alpine have expressed their interest to return to the World Rally Championship whereas Renault was considering to join WRC if the cars go full-electric in the future. However, both sides (FIA, WRC Promoter) are confident that there will be an additional car brand in WRC apart from the current teams.
"We are working on it" Thul said.
"I was with Andrew talking to anyone who is even close to competition.
"We have now two options and maybe three manufacturer options to continue to talk with.
"We will not talk about it until we have a feasibility, as it is a very fragile system but having four manufacturers would be perfect.
"First of all everybody are welcome to come to the WRC but we have a strategy as to who we are approaching and how we are approaching.
"We are doing this together with the FIA.
"We can make some suggestions regarding the regulations but the decision is done by them.
"We need to know the regulations very fast but the FIA cannot invent something without consulting the manufacturers properly and this is an ongoing process.
"As you may know the car industry itself is changing direction and all-electric is not an option for rallying if we want to keep this current format and technology.
"The good thing with the current Rally1 regulation is that 75% of the car can stay and so there is only the question of which combination of drivetrain.
"We believe sustainable fuel and even e-fuel is a good option for the future and for existing cars very important and also for markets that cannot do the pure electrification".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: M-Sport
Post a Comment