The WRC continues to find itself in the middle of a ford and, at times, it almost seems that it is not looking – or cannot find – a sufficiently safe way out of theimpasse in which it has been stuck for some time now.
A few months ago the FIA, the body that controls the World Rally Championship at a technical and regulatory level, announced the introduction of a new technical regulation starting from 2025 which will provide for the abolition of the hybrid and the reduction of aerodynamics, so as to bring the Rally1 closer to the performance guaranteed today by the Rally2 (with these, however, being able to count on more sophisticated aerodynamics than the current one).
The teams have already started carrying out the first tests to understand how to adapt the current cars to the needs imposed by the new regulations and, as often happens in these cases, the first doubts have arisen. In this case, however, it is a real alarm. It was launched by Hyundai Motorsport.
“We found the 2025 version of the car to be very complex, because it involves a massive loss of downforce. So it changes the balance of the car massively,” Abiteboul told Motorsport.com.
“The weight distribution of the car will change, as will the mechanical and aerodynamic balance. It will be a rather ugly car to drive and this is a big concern, because ultimately we have the responsibility of having an optimized and competitive car.”
“It is ridiculous to believe that we can make such a radical change to the car and not give the manufacturers the opportunity, in terms of time or use of homologation Jolly, to optimize the entire package again, so the car will end up be not optimized for what is an FIA world championship”.
“You’ll find that drivers are very unhappy with this car, and I don’t want to talk about the safety aspect, but it could be very difficult to control. I know everyone will say that you just need to drive slower, but if the fundamental characteristic of the car is wrong. I don’t think he’s up to this championship. For this reason we decided not to develop that car, but to concentrate on the one we have now.”
The FIA has already announced new technical rules for 2025, but the game seems to still be open. It is probable, in fact, that these will be changed, if not cancelled, maintaining the current ones until the end of 2026.
“I believe that now the technical regulations we have are working. If you consider the gaps seen in Croatia, it is surprising that there is no category in motorsport that offers such small gaps for a category that does not have a Balance of Performance and has the possibility of develop the cars”.
“Right now it’s difficult for us and for our design office, because the time available is very limited and there are many options to cover. Hybrid yes or no, rear wing yes or no, and whether we will change the engine power with the restrictor, there are a lot of question marks. I talk to the people in the design office, I don’t know what to ask them to do.”
“What I can say is that at this moment we are not able to cover all possible scenarios in terms of technical regulations. We have decided to focus on what we believe is the right scenario for the sport and for us and to focus on this, because if you start squandering your resources in motorsport, you know you won’t achieve anything.”
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