ERC – Changes for the 2015 season

If the FIA ​​enjoys several media successes with the rise of Rallycross or the debut of Formula E (tomorrow in Beijing, China), theERC struggling to take off after being installed in place of the IRC Series. The World Council meeting yesterday in Beijing therefore adopted several measures to increase the popularity of the European Rally Championship, the promoter of which remains Eurosport Events (which also manages the WTCC).

The main ERC category will be reserved for R5 cars and S2000s. ERC 2 will be set up for drivers driving Group N cars (currently N4), while ERC 3 will be reserved for cars from Groups R3, R2 and R1.

The Drivers, Co-Drivers and Teams titles will be rewarded. The number of events will be reduced to ten, with the seven best results of ERC and ERC 2 drivers taken into account (six for ERC 3 drivers). Additionally, the maximum age of ERC Junior drivers has been raised to 27 in a bid to attract more drivers and match the limits imposed in the National Junior Championships. Only ERC Priority drivers will be able to take part in practice and qualifying.

The events must offer a timed course of between 200 and 230km in order to obtain better consistency in the Championship. In addition, the number of tires will be reduced in order to limit costs. 4WDs will be limited to 18 tires per event, while 2WDs will be limited to 14 tires. Finally, testing will be reduced to one day for each event contested by a driver.