One of the most important target regions lies in Asia. WRC’s event director, Simon Larkin, has already confirmed that the series wants to add a second event in Asia or the Pacific region alongside Rally Japan.
In addition to Asia, the championship dreams of expanding to the United States. A rally was planned in the state of Tennessee for next year, but at least for now, there will be no WRC event in the USA next season.
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In the Asia-Pacific region, the return of rallies in Indonesia and Australia has been discussed, but China is also a market of such scale that many sporting series are targeting it.
According to Larkin, however, China is not currently the highest priority for the WRC.
“We actually had some meetings at Formula E in London with the Chinese federation. And we’re beginning a new process there, for sure,” Larkin revealed.
“China is important. Personally, I don’t think it’s as important as it was maybe ten years ago, particularly when it comes to the less business-related reasons, even for manufacturers. It’s a challenge,” Larkin continued.
According to Larkin, China is not at the moment very fertile ground for car manufacturers.
“It’s a very challenging market for non-Chinese manufacturers. Particularly, dare I say, for the German manufacturers,” Larkin noted, referring to the ever-increasing electric vehicle production of German carmakers.
According to WRC Promoter’s head of sport, Peter Thul, the COVID pandemic wreaked havoc on the Chinese market and made it harder for many carmakers to gain a foothold in the region.
“As Simon said, our priorities are a little bit different at the moment, but we are not putting it out of sight,” Thul outlined.
The WRC was last staged in China in 1999. In addition to the WRC, the country has also hosted APRC and IRC rallies.
