Rally1s have just made their debut as the WRC flagship cars, replacing the WRC Plus, but their future is already in question. The plan for the adoption of these cars, the first in the history of the WRC powered by hybrid propulsion, is three years.
Apparently, however, the new era of the FIA opened with the arrival of Ben Sulayem will lead to a change of course by the WRC, which will thus see the Rally1 protagonists for a three-year period before being replaced by the new generation of cars at the apex of the rally pyramid.
In fact, the new vice president of the FIA, Robert Reid, declared that he had urged the promoters of the World Rally to think about the new generation of cars. The Rally1, which as mentioned adopt hybrid propulsion, are a step forward from the point of view of sustainability compared to the WRC Plus, but they arrived too late considering how many years the hybrid has been present in other motorsport categories.
“One of the things I said to the promoters is that we need to start thinking about the next generation of cars now,” Reid said in a briefing with select media, including Motorsport.com.
“We have to make sure we continue to make progress. What we are currently doing is a good step. I would say that we are probably a few years behind where we wanted to be, but the situation is not terrible.”
“The next regulations will be tied to the demands of the manufacturers, let’s see where they want to go. Much of the auto industry is driven by political decisions and everything is moving towards electrification.”
“I think there is a huge opportunity for the FIA and for motorsport in general. We can be the test bed for a lot of different solutions.”
“We have gas hydrogen, liquid hydrogen, we have hybrid, we have complete electrification, sustainable fossil-free fuel. We also have E-fuel, which is 100% synthetic. To date it is expensive, but it will go down of price “.
“We have a lot of different options and solutions for a lot of different problems in different disciplines. We can adopt these technologies as well.”
However, the complete electrification of the WRC seems to be an impossible road for the future due to battery technology.
“I think with what we know at the moment it’s hard to imagine such a solution, but battery technology is changing,” continued Reid.
“Driving a Tesla we know that you do not have a great range of batteries in certain climatic conditions. Currently there are restrictions for precisely these reasons. I would say that the full electric technology has fertile ground in the category whose races have short duration, rather than in a discipline like rally that includes many special stages around the common roads “.
Indeed, there is fear that the WRC will remain too long without further manufacturers intending to enter the competition, thus leaving Toyota, Hyundai and, in part, Ford alone. A concrete fear, considering that 2022 has already begun and that almost certainly there will be no manufacturers willing to build cars over the next few months to run just a year with Rally1, before developing a new car.
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