New rally classes

[itix]

Admittedly, due to life being busy I haven't been able to follow the forum as much as I'd like as of late.

And maybe I'm just stupid but i really don't understand the new rally classes when reading news.

Here's what I know;

WRC 1 - top level cars
WRC 2 -???
WRC 3 - R5 machinery
WRC 4 - R4 machinery maybe?
WRC 5 - R1, R2, R3 and R3t

Correct me if I'm wrong, this is fairly confusing

Thanks a bunch and hi to all you great rally people that I get to talk to way too seldomly these days.

[CWJ]

See

https://www.motorsportforums.com/showthread.php?20629-R-Classes-News

[AnttiL]

WRC 1 - top level cars
WRC 2 -???
WRC 3 - R5 machinery
WRC 4 - R4 machinery maybe?
WRC 5 - R1, R2, R3 and R3t

Let me try to put it better

Rally1 - RC1 - WRC cars - WRC title for drivers and manufacturers
Rally2 - RC2 - R5 & R4 cars, previously S2000 N4 cars - WRC2, WRC3, ERC, national & regional championship titles
Rally3 - something to be introduced later, something like R2 with 4WD
Rally4 - RC4 - R2 cars - JWRC, national & regional championship titles
Rally5 - RC5 - R1 cars

A part of the confusion is in the FIA support class. Until 2018 there was WRC2 for R5 cars and WRC3 for FWD cars (only like three drivers took part in it apart from JWRC drivers). In 2019 WRC2 was split in two, with WRC2Pro (for factory entries) and WRC2 (for privateers). For 2020 these were relabeled as WRC2 for teams (factory or private) and WRC3 for privateers.

[RS]

Wouldn’t it make more sense to name the classes in line with the categories? Ie. Top WRC class cars would be called R1, WRC2 cars R2 etc..

[AnttiL]

Wouldn’t it make more sense to name the classes in line with the categories? Ie. Top WRC class cars would be called R1, WRC2 cars R2 etc..

That's what the new Rally1, Rally2 system is aiming at. The idea is that the old classes (RC1, RC2) and R-groups (R5, R4) would disappear. But if you would name the new categories R1, R2 it would be confusing, that's why the prefix must be changed in order to separate the old from new.

[itix]

Let me try to put it better

Rally1 - RC1 - WRC cars - WRC title for drivers and manufacturers
Rally2 - RC2 - R5 & R4 cars, previously S2000 N4 cars - WRC2, WRC3, ERC, national & regional championship titles
Rally3 - something to be introduced later, something like R2 with 4WD
Rally4 - RC4 - R2 cars - JWRC, national & regional championship titles
Rally5 - RC5 - R1 cars

A part of the confusion is in the FIA support class. Until 2018 there was WRC2 for R5 cars and WRC3 for FWD cars (only like three drivers took part in it apart from JWRC drivers). In 2019 WRC2 was split in two, with WRC2Pro (for factory entries) and WRC2 (for privateers). For 2020 these were relabeled as WRC2 for teams (factory or private) and WRC3 for privateers.Thanks!

So not even what I did know was correct. Swedish e-Motorsport is not using the classes correctly.

I'm surprised the FIA expect the R4 machinery to compete with R5 on a world level. I've gotten the feeling it's more like the old p-wrc and aimed at cost reduction. S2000, and the old N4 maybe.

Would have made more sense to give rally 3 to R4s and it would have been fun to see a lot of home builds in world rallying, kind of like in rally cross.

[itix]

See

https://www.motorsportforums.com/showthread.php?20629-R-Classes-NewsThanks, this was quite helpful!