In the early afternoon of today, the WRC unveiled the long-awaited 2023 calendar. Almost all the appointments anticipated by Motorsport.com have been made official. Only the Saudi Arabian Rally scheduled for the month of December has been skipped, thus leaving the calendar with 13 events and not 14 as planned until a few days ago.
The 2023 World Championship will open at the Rallye Monte-Carlo, a prologue for some seasons now, on the weekend that will run from 19 to 22 January, or the week following the end of the Dakar.
In February the first and only event on snow: the Rally of Sweden scheduled from 9 to 12 February, followed by the great return of the Mexico Rally. The Central American event will be held in March, thus occupying the only month in which, in recent seasons, no WRC rallies have been scheduled. In short, break cancelled.
Rally Croatia will be the first on asphalt, one of three – very few – to be held on that particular surface. In May, to be precise from 11 to 14, the Rally of Portugal will still find its place, followed in early June by the long-awaited Rally Italia Sardegna which, due to rotations, will be based in Olbia. The Sardinian event will be held from the 1st to the 4th of the month.
At the end of June there will be the Safari Rally, followed the following month, from 20 to 23 July, by the Rally Estonia. The Rally of Finland instead maintains its slot at the beginning of August, to be precise from 3 to 6. The protagonists of the WRC will meet again to battle from 7 to 10 September at the Acropolis, Rally Greece.
The last event in the series of 7 consecutive gravel rallies will be the Rally del Chile, scheduled from 29 September to 1 October. For the grand finale, however, here are 2 rallies on asphalt. The final combination of events will open from 17 to 29 October with the Rally of Central Europe, which will involve three nations: Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. The Service Park will then give way to the East for the grand finale at the Rally of Japan, scheduled for November 17-19.
The last act should have been the Rally of Saudi Arabia, on dirt, from 1 to 3 December. it was instead taken off the 2023 WRC calendar. However, the intention is to introduce it from 2024, thus bringing the number of events from 13 to 14 with a year’s delay.
This means that in 2023 we will see the withdrawal of Mexico, Chile and Germany (one of the three nations involved in the Central European Rally). Instead we will lose the Rally of Spain, but also that of New Zealand and the Rally Ypres.
WRC 2023 – the official calendar
Number | Event | Bottom | Date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Rallye Monte-Carlo | Mixed | January 19-22 |
2 | Sweden Rally | Snow | February 9-12 |
3 | Rally of Mexico | Land | March 16-19 |
4 | Rally of Croatia | Asphalt | April 20-23 |
5 | Rally of Portugal | Land | May 11-14 |
6 | Rally Italy Sardinia | Land | June 1-4 |
7 | Rally Safari Kenya | Land | June 22-25 |
8 | Rally of Estonia | Land | July 20-23 |
9 | Rally of Finland | Land | 3-6 August |
10 | Rally Greece Acropolis | Land | September 7-10 |
11 | Rally of Chile | Land | 28 September – 1 October |
12 | Rally Central Europe | Asphalt | October 26-29 |
13 | Rally of Japan | Asphalt | November 16-19 |
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