Next year’s calendar will feature three new rallies: the Canary Islands, Paraguay, and Saudi Arabia. In 2026, the WRC is also expected to head to the United States.
But that’s not all. The WRC Promoter is eyeing another significant expansion.
“Asia, 100 per cent,” said Simon Larkin, the promoter’s event director, in an interview with BlackBook Motorsport.
Larkin highlighted China, a long-standing target for the promoter. He also mentioned Indonesia and Vietnam, with plans to visit the region later this year.
According to Larkin, the WRC needs at least a couple of events in Asia.
“It also makes sense just from a logistics (point of view), we send one set of kit over there and it can do two events. Australia and New Zealand remain interesting for us, and they’re probably going to be in our future. I consider them in Asia Pacific, so let’s just say it’s that area.
In 2024, the WRC calendar will consist of 14 events. While Formula 1 and MotoGP host significantly more races, the WRC has no plans to create such a busy schedule.
There are practical reasons for this approach.
“The difference between us and MotoGP and Formula One is our events take a week. We can’t do back to backs,” Larkin emphasised.
“If the right opportunity came along that we could find the right package of support for teams, for us to put into a prize fund we could justify and to offset additional costs, we would do 15. But it’s not a priority for us to expand for the sake of it,” Larkin concluded.
