2023 World Rally Championship

The 2023 FIA World Rally Championship was the 51st season of the World Rally Championship, an international rallying series organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and WRC Promoter GmbH. Teams and crews competed for the World Rally Championships for Drivers, Co-drivers and Manufacturers. Crews were free to compete in cars complying with Groups Rally1 to Rally5 regulations; however, only manufacturers competing with Rally1 cars homologated were eligible to score points in the manufacturers' championship. The championship began in January 2023 with the Monte Carlo Rally and concluded in November 2023 with the Rally Japan. The series was supported by WRC2 and WRC3 categories at every round of the championship and by the Junior WRC at selected events.

Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen were the reigning drivers' and co-drivers' champions, having secured their first championship titles at the 2022 Rally New Zealand. Toyota were the defending manufacturers' champions.

At the conclusion of the championship, Rovanperä and Halttunen won their second World Rally Championship titles at the 2023 Central European Rally. Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin were second, trailing by thirty-four points. Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe were third, a further twenty-seven points behind. In the manufacturers' championship, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT successfully defended their title at the 2023 Rally Chile, holding over-one-hundred-point lead over Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, with M-Sport Ford WRT in third.

The season was marred by the death of Craig Breen in a pre-event test prior to the 2023 Croatia Rally.

Calendar

The 2023 season is scheduled to be contested over thirteen rounds crossing Europe, Africa, North and South America, and Asia.

Calendar changes

The championship was expected to be expanded to fourteen rounds from the thirteen rounds in the previous season by WRC Promoter GmbH, with eight Europe-based rallies and six fly-away events covering the season. However, when the calendar was released in late November following a lengthy delay, the number of the events was reduced to thirteen with the anticipated Saudi Arabian rally based at Jeddah, absent from the calendar.

• Rally Mexico returned to championship after missing the 2021 and 2022 championships. The organizers of the rally had previously held a national event in 2022 as a prelude for the 2023 return.
• Rally Chile rejoined the calendar after having been ruled out in 2020 and 2021 due to the Chilean protests and COVID-19 pandemic respectively.
• The Central European Rally, a tri-nation event held across Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, was introduced into the championship, replacing the Catalonian Rally. The rally was based out of southeast Germany, in the city of Passau in Bavaria, and ran on tarmac.
• Rally New Zealand, a round of the 2022 season, was not included on the calendar, but the organizers tried to seek an opportunity for a 2024 return as a part of the rotation program with Rally Australia.
• Ypres Rally Belgium, which was a part of the championship for the prior two seasons, dropped off the calendar and instead formed part of the 2023 British Rally Championship.

Several rally organizers also expressed their interests to return to the championship, including Rally Argentina, Rally Australia, the German Rally, and an event in Northern Ireland. The Argentine, Austrlian and Northern Irish bids failed and Germany organized the Central European Rally along with Austria and the Czech Republic. In addition to the candidate events, the WRC Promoter GmbH was also working on the calendar expansion to the Middle East and United States, but no rallies were added for the 2023 season.

Location changes

• The headquarters of the Rally Italia Sardegna would be once again moved from Alghero to Olbia. The 2020 event was previously headquartered in Olbia as a result of major route revisions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The 2023 edition of the Safari Rally was headquartered at the Lakeside town of Naivasha. The rally was previously headquartered in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Entrants

The following teams, drivers and co-drivers contested the championship under Rally1 regulations.

The below crews were not entered to score manufacturer points and were entered in Rally1 cars as privateers or under arrangement with the manufacturers.

In detail

M-Sport signed a full-year deal with Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja after they terminated their multi-year contract with Hyundai. Pierre-Louis Loubet's programme with M-Sport was expanded, with Loubet entered every round as a manufacturer-registered points scorer. Nicolas Gilsoul, who was formerly Thierry Neuville's navigator, became Loubet's new co-driver. However, their partnership ended before the 2023 Central European Rally. Benjamin Veillas, the ex co-driver of Sébastien Ogier, replaced Gilsoul. Adrien Fourmaux, who drove as M-Sport's Rally1 entry in 2022, was demoted to the team's WRC2 program, though he would substitute for Loubet at the season finale. Jourdan Serderidis continued to drive a privately funded entry for the team at selected events. Chilean rally driver Alberto Heller made his debut at his home event with the team. So was the Luxembourgian driver Grégoire Munster at the event. Gus Greensmith left the team after eight years, and drove for Toksport in the WRC2 championship.

Hyundai retained Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe. They were joined by Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm as the team's full-time crews. Craig Breen, who had previously driven for Hyundai from 2019 to 2021, rejoined the team despite having a two-year contract with M-Sport. He shared the third car with Dani Sordo, who had previously planned to retire at the end of 2022 season. However, Breen died in an accident during a test before the 2023 Croatia Rally. The FIA subsequently announced that his car number 42 would be retired for the rest of the season. Teemu Suninen succeeded his position with co-driver Mikko Markkula. Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson were dropped from the team. They moved to Toksport to compete the WRC2 category. Former Renault Formula One Team manager Cyril Abiteboul became Hyundai's new team boss.

Toyota retained the crews of Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin and of Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen as their two full-time competitors. Rovanperä and Halttunen retained the car number 69 for the season, despite the no.1 plate being available to them as defending champions. Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston stepped up to the works team to share the third car with Ogier and Vincent Landais. The team's fourth car was made available for privately funded competitors when Ogier did not compete, the first of whom were Lorenzo Bertelli and Simone Scattolin at the 2023 Rally Sweden. Team principal Jari-Matti Latvala also made a one-off private return at the 2023 Rally Finland, which was announced after the Safari Rally.

Regulation changes

Rally organisers can include an optional Tyre Warming Zone (TWZ) between the Time Control (TC) and the start of a Special Stage. The evening flexi-service for Rally1 cars was limited to a maximum of two hours every rally weekend. Morning service on gravel rallies was also removed.

The allocation of pre-event test days for the manufacturers was also reduced from 28 days to 21. This change was intended to reduce cost.

Season report

Opening rounds

At the season opener at Monte Carlo, Ogier took his ninth Monte Carlo Rally win, surpassing Sébastien Loeb to become the driver with the most victories at the event. His navigator Landais took his first overall victory in a World Rally Championship round. The second round, Rally Sweden, saw Tänak and Järveoja take an early lead, before being surpassed by Breen and Fulton on Friday evening. However, Tänak and Järveoja fought back on Saturday evening, and eventually won the event. After being absent from Sweden, Ogier and Landais returned at Rally Mexico, where they took another victory after capitalizing on their relative late road position and led the championships, despite only competing in two of the three rounds.

Before the Croatia Rally, Hyundai driver Breen was killed during an accident at the pre-event test after the front-left of his i20 collided with a pole. His co-driver Fulton was unharmed. The rally was led by Neuville and Wydaeghe at early stage, but they crashing out on Saturday morning. Evans and Martin inherited the lead, and eventually won the rally, their first since the 2021 Rally Finland and dedicated the win to Breen.

Mid-season gravel events

The Portuguese Rally marked the start of a sequence of seven consecutive gravel events. Rovanperä and Halttunen dominated the rally, taking their first victory the season as well as winning the Power Stage to add a full thirty points to their championship defence. The Sardinian Rally saw a rainy weekend. Ogier and Landais fought for the lead until they went off the road on Saturday evening. This left the Hyundais of Neuville and Wydaeghe and of Lappi and Ferm out in front before they eventually secured a 1–2 finish for the team. Toyota responded with a 1–2–3–4 finish at the Safari Rally, (their third at the Safari Rally and fourth in the WRC), with Ogier and Landais claiming their third win of the season. Meanwhile, Neuville and Wydaeghe were disqualified from eighth place at the event, due to a reconnaissance breach, having already retired from two of Friday afternoon's stages with suspension damage.

Heading into the second half of the season, Rovanperä and Halttunen did a Rally Estonia hat-trick, winning the rally as well as the Power Stage to extend their championship leads beyond fifty points. However, they retired from their home rally on the first day after they rolled their Yaris out of contention when leading the event. Evans and Martin capitalized on the opportunity to win the event and the Power Stage to cut the championship leads down to twenty-five points. The retirement did not stop Rovanperä and Halttunen from winning the following event at Greece and the respective Power Stage to score maximum points for the third time in 2023. On the other hand, the crew of Neuville and Wydaeghe retired from the rally with suspension damage, whilst the Finnish crew's other main championship rivals in Evans and Martin finished second, further solidifying Rovanperä and Halttunen's chances of securing a second consecutive world title. The final gravel event of the season at Chile, saw Toyota outscore Hyundai by more than thirteen points after Suninen and Markkula retired from second, which meant Toyota secured a third consecutive manufacturer's title. The rally was won by Tänak and Järveoja, their second of the season.

Closing rounds

At the calendar newcomer, the Central European Rally, Rovanperä and Halttunen finished second after title rival and teammates Evans and Martin crashed out on Saturday, which meant Rovanperä and Halttunen successfully defended their world titles. Meanwhile, Neuville and Wydaeghe won the rally, closing the gap to the second placed Evans and Martin in the championships. However, the battle for the runner-up spot was over when Neuville and Wydaeghe crashed out at the Rally Japan, meaning Evans and Martin became the crew who came out in front. They ended the season with a victory as a part of Toyota 1–2–3 finish.

Results and standings

Season summary

Scoring system

Points were awarded to the top ten classified finishers in each event. In the manufacturers' championship, teams were eligible to nominate three crews to score points, but these points were only awarded to the top two classified finishers representing a manufacturer and driving a 2022-specification Rally1 car. There were also five bonus points awarded to the winners of the Power Stage, four points for second place, three for third, two for fourth and one for fifth. Power Stage points were awarded in the drivers', co-drivers' and manufacturers' championships.

FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers

The driver who recorded a top-ten finish was taken into account for the championship regardless of the categories.

FIA World Rally Championship for Co-Drivers

The co-driver who recorded a top-ten finish was taken into account for the championship regardless of the categories.

FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers

Only the best two results of each manufacturer in the respective overall classification and Power Stage at each rally were taken into account for the championship.

Notes

References

External links

• Official website (in English, French, and Spanish)
• FIA World Rally Championship 2023 at eWRC-results.com