Yves Matton: “The next step will be to see the Rally1 in action”

Patron of rallies at the FIA, Yves matton can show his satisfaction. Following the first two events of the year, the Rally Monte-Carlo and the great novelty of the Arctic Rally Finland, won by Sébastien Ogier – Julien Ingrassia and Ott Tänak – Martin Järveoja, the World Motor Sport Council has formalized the finalization of the Rally1 regulations.

This new step for the WRC will see the premier category cars adopt hybridization provided by Compact dynamics. M-Sport Ford was the first to release some images of its future car, without revealing the model, while the Fiesta is currently in use.

This is all we can show you for now as we embark on an intense program of research and development with the @FordPerformance Rally1, but keep a look out for more updates over the coming weeks and months… #BringOnTomorrow #WRC #MSPORTERS #FordPerformance pic.twitter.com/4f7V2mKUcK

- M-Sport (@MSportLtd) March 9, 2021

#BringOnTomorrow pic.twitter.com/jQrI6s6SbX

- M-Sport (@MSportLtd) March 9, 2021

The coming weeks could therefore be more informative on the progress of the projects of the various manufacturers with the supply of the first elements of the hybrid system.

« [This approval] was the last point as the main milestones had already been achieved thanks to the excellent work that the FIA ​​engineers and manufacturers did together to finalize the regulations, argues Yves Matton. The next big step will be to see these Rally1 cars in action for the first time. »

A more readable FIA ​​pyramid

The other major announcement from the last World Motor Sport Council consisted of the finalization of the famous FIA pyramid, highlighting the new categories Rally2, Rally3, Rally4 and Rally5, with a better defined progression scale with the championships ERC and WRC.

“This is the final step in a process that began two years ago when we created the pyramid, Matton continues. Some categories were starting to disappear, like Group N for example, some categories were at the same level, like the old R2 and R3 categories, and now we have Rally3 coming.

As of 2022, there is a path from the lowest level to the highest level that is easy to understand. This will also allow each championship to have its own personality. With a Rally2 car you can win the ERC but with the same car the same driver can go to WRC2, try to win the championship and then develop as a professional driver in the future.

Each championship will have the same names for the car groups and categories within them to make things much more obvious and easily understandable for everyone. »