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The 2020 FIA World Rally Championship will be the forty-eighth season of the World Rally Championship, an auto racing competition recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as the highest class of international rallying. Teams and crews are due to compete in fourteen rallies for the World Rally Championships for Drivers, Co-drivers and Manufacturers. Crews are free to compete in cars complying with World Rally Car and Group R regulations; however, only manufacturers competing with World Rally Cars homologated under regulations introduced in 2017 are eligible to score points in the Manufacturers' championship. The championship is due to begin in January 2020 with the eighty-eighth running of Rallye Monte Carlo and conclude in November 2020 with Rally Japan. The series will be supported by the World Rally Championship-2, World Rally Championship-3 and Junior World Rally Championship categories at selected events.

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja are the reigning drivers' and co-drivers' champions, having secured their maiden titles at the 2019 Rally Catalunya.

Calendar

The 2020 championship is due to be contested over fourteen rounds in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, North and South America and Oceania.

Round	Start date	Finish date	Rally	Rally headquarters	Surface	Stages	Distance
1	23 January	26 January	Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo	Gap, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	Mixed	16	305.47 km
2	13 February	16 February	Rally Sweden	Torsby, Värmland	Snow	19	301.26 km
3	12 March	15 March	Rally Guanajuato México	León, Guanajuato	Gravel	TBA	TBA
4	16 April	19 April	Rally Chile	Concepción, Biobío	Gravel	TBA	TBA
5	30 April	3 May	Rally Argentina	Villa Carlos Paz, Córdoba	Gravel	TBA	TBA
6	21 May	24 May	Rally de Portugal	Matosinhos, Porto	Gravel	TBA	TBA
7	4 June	7 June	Rally Italia Sardegna	Alghero, Sardinia	Gravel	TBA	TBA
8	16 July	19 July	Safari Rally Kenya	Nairobi, Nairobi County	Gravel	TBA	TBA
9	6 August	9 August	Rally Finland	Jyväskylä, Central Finland	Gravel	TBA	TBA
10	3 September	6 September	Rally New Zealand	Auckland, Auckland Region	Gravel	TBA	TBA
11	24 September	27 September	Rally of Turkey	Marmaris, Muğla	Gravel	TBA	TBA
12	15 October	18 October	ADAC Rallye Deutschland	Bostalsee, Saarland	Tarmac	TBA	TBA
13	29 October	1 November	Wales Rally GB	Llandudno, Conwy	Gravel	TBA	TBA
14	19 November	22 November	Rally Japan	Nagoya, Chūbu	Tarmac	TBA	TBA
Source:

Calendar changes

With the addition of Rally Chile to the calendar in 2019, the FIA opened the tender process for new events to join the championship in 2020. Bids to revive Rally Japan and the Safari Rally were received, and candidate events were run in 2019. Both events were accepted to the 2020 calendar, as was a proposal to revive Rally New Zealand.

• The Safari Rally will be run as a World Championship event for the first time since 2002. The event will be based in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and feature stages around Lake Naivasha. In contrast to the event's traditional endurance format, which featured stages hundreds of kilometres long, the 2020 Safari Rally will follow a compact route to comply with FIA regulations mandating the maximum route distance.
• Rally Japan returns to the calendar for the first time since 2010, replacing Rally Australia as the final round of the championship. The rally will move away from its original headquarters in Hokkaidō to a new base in Nagoya and will be run on tarmac rather than gravel.
• Rally New Zealand will return to the calendar for the first time since 2012. The event will return to Auckland.

The addition of these events saw the Tour de Corse and the Rallies of Catalunya and Australia removed from the calendar. Organisers of Rally Catalunya agreed to forfeit their place on the 2020 calendar as part of a rotation system that will see European events host rallies in two out of three calendar years. The Tour de Corse was removed in response to concerns from teams about the logistics of visiting Corsica, while Rally Australia was removed as the event's base in a regional centre rather than a major metropolitan area meant that the rally struggled to attract spectators.

Entries

The following teams and crews are under contract to contest the 2020 championship. Citroën, Ford, Hyundai and Toyota are all represented by manufacturer teams and eligible to score points in the FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers.

No.	Driver name	Co-driver name	Entrant	Car	Tyre	Ref.
4	Esapekka Lappi	Janne Ferm	Citroën World Rally Team	Citroën C3 WRC	M
6	Dani Sordo	Carlos del Barrio	Hyundai Motorsport	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
8	Ott Tänak	Martin Järveoja	Hyundai Motorsport	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
11	Thierry Neuville	Nicolas Gilsoul	Hyundai Motorsport	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
19	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Hyundai Motorsport	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
TBA	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Citroën World Rally Team	Citroën C3 WRC	M
TBA	TBA	TBA	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	M

In detail

Reigning World Champions Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja left Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT and moved to Hyundai Motorsport. Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul remained with Hyundai, marking their seventh season with the team. Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena also renewed their contracts with the team. Loeb and Elena will contest the championship on a part-time basis, sharing their car with the crew of Dani Sordo and Carlos del Barrio.

The Citroën World Rally Team committed to entering two full-time entries instead of three, continuing the policy they introduced in 2019. The crew of Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm stayed with the team, as did Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia. Citroën further explored the possibility of entering a third car as a manufacturer-supported privateer.

Regulation changes

Sporting regulations

The eligibility requirements for crews entering events will be simplified and streamlined until a system called the "FIA Rally Pyramid". The top tier of the sport, known as "Rally 1" will be for World Rally Cars built to regulations introduced in 2017. The second tier, "Rally 2", will be for manufacturer teams and professional independent teams entering R5 cars in the World Rally Championship-2. This will be followed by "Rally 3" for privately-entered and "gentlemen driver" crews competing with R5 cars in the World Rally Championship-3. "Rally 4" entries will not contest their own dedicated championship, but will instead serve as a bridging category aimed at making the step from R2 to R5 more managable by allowing R2 entries to be equipped with four-wheel drive. The final tier, "Rally 5", will be for crews entering R2 cars in the Junior World Rally Championship.

Notes

1. The Monte Carlo Rally is run on a tarmac and snow surface.

References

1. ^ Herrero, Daniel (27 September 2019). "Australia drops off WRC calendar in 2020". speedcafe.com. Speedcafe. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
2. ^ Evans, David (27 September 2019). "WRC drops Corsica, Spain and Australia, three events return for 2020". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
3. ^ Evans, David (8 October 2019). "FIA steps up plan to simplify WRC into five-tier career ladder". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
4. Barry, Luke (27 October 2019). "WRC Spain: Toyota's Tanak takes '19 title, Neuville wins for Hyundai". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
5. ^ "Three new rounds in 2020 WRC calendar". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 27 September 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
6. ^ "Safari back in 2020". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 27 September 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
7. "88th Rallye Monte-Carlo". acm.mc. Automobile Club de Monaco. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
8. "The race". rallysweden.com. Rally Sweden. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
9. "FIA announces World Motor Sport Council decisions". fia.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 12 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
10. Evans, David (8 April 2019). "FIA visits Japan and Kenya in next step for WRC returns in 2020". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
11. Evans, David (2 July 2019). "Safari Rally could officially return in WRC calendar vote this week". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
12. ^ "Lappi joins Ogier at Citroën". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 17 October 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
13. ^ "Sordo extends Hyundai contract". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 9 October 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
14. ^ "Tänak quits Toyota". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
15. Evans, David (12 January 2019). "WRC drivers' competition numbers revealed at Autosport International". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
16. ^ "Neuville signs new Hyundai deal". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 12 September 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
17. ^ "Loeb joins Hyundai". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 13 December 2018. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
18. ^ Evans, David (14 August 2019). "Why Citroen's WRC future looks shaky after Ogier". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
19. Evans, David (27 June 2019). "Why a head vs heart call will shape WRC 2020". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 28 June 2019.

External links

• Official website
• FIA World Rally Championship 2020 at ewrc-results.com

• 2020 World Rally Championship season
• World Rally Championship seasons
• 2020 in motorsport
• 2020 in rallying
• Scheduled motorsport seasons