Discussions about the WRC competition format have been ongoing throughout this year. For now, no major overhauls are planned for next season—rallies will typically begin on Thursdays and finish on Sundays.
In recent years, Kenya’s Safari Rally has included more kilometres than other events. Next year will be no different, with even more special stage kilometres expected in this demanding race.
“We don’t want there to be a sprint and an endurance. We don’t want to have different types of events. There’s just going to be a little bit more freedom for events,” explained Simon Larkin, WRC Promoter’s Event Director.
“I know that, for example, Kenya next year is going to run over 350 km. It’s a lot of kilometres, which is great.”
The Safari Rally format will see slight adjustments compared to this year’s event, which featured a total of 367.76 kilometres of special stages.
“There’s going to be another stage on Thursday, on the way back from Nairobi. So there’s going to be the super special stage and then another stage,” Larkin revealed.
This year’s Rally Sardinia featured a unique format, with the shakedown stage taking place on Friday morning instead of Thursday and the rally starting on Friday afternoon. Over 48 hours, the event included 16 special stages totalling 266 kilometres.
A similar format is planned for next summer on the Mediterranean island.
“I think Italy is looking to do a revised format again like they did this year. That was an exciting event. It was a bit more compact; it was great. So we’ll see some slightly different events, but nothing evolutionary,” Larkin noted.
The 2025 WRC season will begin with the iconic Rally Monte Carlo in late January.
