[WRC] 2025 News & Rumours

[becher]

This guy knows his stuff and been studying aero for years, so I'd be careful of being critical. Interesting comments though.

Of course the slower acceleration wont affect the aero effect so much as it's at lower speeds. Its mainly on the high speed sections where the aero really works and lack of hybrid cooling vents will be affecting it much more.

I guess this is why some drivers have complained with the lack of time to properly test the cars' before Monte 2025. As well as performance changing there is also the safety aspect of trusting it at high-speed.

I'm certainly not claiming that their analysis and description how parts work or influence airflow is wrong. I just think there is at times a overestimation of how much load is produced or how much influence certain aspects have on the general load.

But this is a general misconception in regards of aero, people talk about down force on roadcars, yet 99% of roadcars produce lift. A small spoiler does not automatically produce down force, it just reduces lift for example.

[EstWRC]

Show me a (regular or even harscore) fan, who (without knowing) can clearly see and say that this car drove by without hybrid..

Look videos of Sesks from Poland, can't say his driving looked crap and not enjoyable..

Amen

[Steve Boyd]

This guy knows his stuff and been studying aero for years

That may well be the case, but he's very good at spinning out the obvious without giving any real conclusions.
That article basically says:
Without hybrid the cars will be slower & if they go slower the aero will give less downforce - he doesn't quantify, because he doesn't know how much.
It then goes on:
Without the hybrid there won't be any need for the cooling ducts so the aero will be beter. Again no attempt to quantify & no attempt to say whether the improvement in aero due to removing the hybrid cooling will be more or less than any loss due to lack of speed.
You might just as well say that the cars will be slower with full fuel tanks. It's all too superficial to learn anything.

[paddocknews]

Show me a (regular or even harscore) fan, who (without knowing) can clearly see and say that this car drove by without hybrid..

Look videos of Sesks from Poland, can't say his driving looked crap and not enjoyable..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icOagwiwpC8

[dodge33cymru]

If all cars are Hybrid they are spectacular and those without are sadly in the shadow. If all the cars will be without the unit, they will be spectacular, again over Rally2. If that last category would be the top, I'm pretty sure most of front guys would make them spectacular, because there would not be nothing to compare to, except Rally3 and so on. That's why Rally1- and Rally2+ would never work and that's why multi-power unit thing probaby won't work too (I had exact opposite opinion a while ago). At the end no matter what we end up, I just hope it's worth it for us to watch, to bring new teams, drivers, sponsors, events and spectacle.

Completely agree and why I've wanted to see Rally2 as top class for a while - I do get the 'it might make costs spiral' argument (which I'm not convinced on, but it's plausible), but not so much the cars being unspectacular, because the drivers make the cars spectacular.

When you watch the top guys really pushing Rally2's they are plenty spectacular, especially when they have a bit less - go watch Neuville's various runs in R5s and Rally2s in Ypres; car moves around more, has less rear grip.

That hope is gone, but for me it's the drivers that make the cars spectacular at the top 4wd level, with how far they're willing and able to push them beyond their limit.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

That may well be the case, but he's very good at spinning out the obvious without giving any real conclusions.
That article basically says:
Without hybrid the cars will be slower & if they go slower the aero will give less downforce - he doesn't quantify, because he doesn't know how much.
It then goes on:
Without the hybrid there won't be any need for the cooling ducts so the aero will be beter. Again no attempt to quantify & no attempt to say whether the improvement in aero due to removing the hybrid cooling will be more or less than any loss due to lack of speed.

He does make some conclusions though, even if the amounts aren't yet quantifiable.

And when teams make regular changes to such small things as door mirror design, you have to admit that these new changes will be seen as having a significant effect on the cars' (in perfect condition).

[deephouse]

''We have officially signed a contract with the WRC Promoter for organizing the European Rally Championship (ERC) in 2025 and the World Rally Championship (WRC) in 2026 and 2027. The ERC Croatia Rally will take place in October 2025, while the WRC event will continue to be hosted in April as in previous years.'' official Croatia Rally FB account.

[TypeR]

[AndersX]

This start to become massive BS - i like Fourmaux, but after one plus minus decent season to play this all out like he would be some kind of superstart, might turn into some PR disaster. He has not won a rally yet. What if he switches to Hyundai, but would not be able to drive it ( number of those who failed is bigger than those who mastered it). All this smoke 2 months till new seasons is bad PR to all, including M-Sport.

[deephouse]

This start to become massive BS - i like Fourmaux, but after one plus minus decent season to play this all out like he would be some kind of superstart, might turn into some PR disaster. He has not won a rally yet. What if he switches to Hyundai, but would not be able to drive it ( number of those who failed is bigger than those who mastered it). All this smoke 2 months till new seasons is bad PR to all, including M-Sport.

And also just for one season. He will surely not be in the mix straight away. Look how much Tanak did need to adapt to drive that car. Even this year he looked like he would waste another season try to managing i20.

Adrien also saying that he haven got M-Sport offer yet. So if that moment was before he publicly say he know where he will drive then, it's sure it's Hyundai. But M-Sport is trying to find a budget every year and it's understandable to be the last at the party.

Well, his call. I hope that at least M-Sport would get something from rival team.