Details of decisions declared at yesterday’s World Motor Sport Council’s meeting have been released by the FIA, the most fundamental being a controlled return to traditional rallying formats. These include (a) return of night stages which were officially dropped in
1996, on account of safety reasons, as well as promotion, (b) return of stages with more than one type of surfaces, so long as the same tyres are used for each, (c) greater flexibility in total lengths of stages, from 300 to 500km, (d) ability to run rallies on anything from two to
four days, so long as the rally finishes on a Saturday or a Sunday, (e) official podiums at the end of each day, (f) increased opportunity to make use of remote service points so long as the total recce period remains within a 48 hour framework, (g) using promotional opportunities
both on the recce and also making scrutineering a major promotional activity.

Many factors are still under consideration but include (i) using shakedown for qualifying which dictates the official start order for the rally, (ii) issuing bonus points per day, but also requiring
drivers compete the full route before being listed as official finishers, (iii) using official driver seeding records for qualification as priority status, (iv) accepting cars using regional modifications on their cars, so long as this offers no performance advantage and the basic car is homologated by the FIA.

The world championship 13 event calendar for 2010 has been declared with two events specifically nominated as reserve events, Italy and Argentina. The issues as to which reserve event will be selected, if one event fails, depends on suitability within the structure of the
event, rather by priority of one event as opposed to the other. No policies for 2011 and onwards have yet been declared by the championship promoters, the ISC.

The transition period between the existing World Rally Car and the new WRC rules coming into effect at the start of 2011 is limited to the proposed WRC Cup for cars complying with the new rules that are running during 2010, details of which are still under consideration. As a policy, the use of 1600 Turbo engines will be permitted alongside two-litre normally aspirated engines subject to new performance equivalence factors, indicating that the 2011 version World Rally Car will be a dual regulation formula. It is also currently expected that Super 2000 based cars being modified for World Rally Car use can be widened up to 1820mm maximum width, providing not only bodywork changes but also modified suspension systems, but technical details of these changes are not yet available.

For turbocharged cars complying with Group N, a 33mm turbo restrictor will be allowed from the start of the 2010 season instead of the existing 32mm restrictor.

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