Saudi Arabia will be one of the new locations where the WRC will race from 2025 and will remain on the calendar for the next 10 years.
The news, in reality, is non-news, because it has been widely announced for several months. Yet the official nature of the agreement between the promoters of the WRC, the FIA and those of the Saudi event was announced in Sardinia yesterday evening by Prince Khalid Bin Sultan Al Abdullah Al-Faisal, president of the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation and the Saudi Motorsport Company.
the event, which has been missing from the WRC calendar since 2011, returns after 14 years. At the time, however, the rally was set in Jordan, another land in the Middle East.
“We are very happy to host the FIA WRC for the first time in 2025. The arrival of another series of this caliber in Saudi Arabia confirms the essence of our transformation into one of the most important venues for motorsport in our area of the world”.
“From 2025 we will proudly host Formula 1, Formula E, Extreme E, the Dakar and the WRC with the Saudi Arabia Rally. An achievement that is extraordinary for us.”
“With the growth of our motorsport portfolio and the further growth of our commitment to hosting major motorsport series such as the WRC, our focus remains on Vision 2023, which is to improve the lives of all Saudis,” he said Al-Faisal.
“We will use our experience that we have gathered from hosting so many motorsport series to ensure that the Saudi edition of the WRC event can become one of the best events on the calendar from 2025 onwards.”
WRC promoter Simon Larkin added: “This rally will complete our list. We’ve brought the Safari back to the calendar, the Acropolis, we’re back in Japan and now we’re going back to the Middle East.”
“We also have plans to go to the United States from 2026 and it is happening. We have gone to Saudi Arabia a few times now and what we have seen is more than encouraging.”
The president of the FIA, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, also welcomed the return of the Middle East to the WRC calendar starting from 2025. It could not have been otherwise. Regarding this announcement, however, it is always good to remember which values the FIA wants to export and respect – you can find them on the official website after a little research – and those which, instead, Saudi Arabia exhibits.
Every culture must be respected, and this must be a cornerstone regardless of motorsport, but, once the points of discord between the values required by one and not guaranteed by the other are known, more than one question needs to be asked. Each of these is legitimate.
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