Teams fear hybrid rules being left too late

What is it about gravel and electric?

They just don’t mix. At least not for now. World Rallycross has failed to secure the necessary support to electrify its future and now the World Rally Championship is, apparently, struggling to meet the looming deadline that is a hybrid 2022 WRC.

WRC rally director Yves Matton (right, top) has confirmed that hybrid will be the way forward, and told Autosport he intends to decide technical regulations next month.

“It’s too early to tell you exactly what 2022 will look like,” said Matton. “Normally in June we will introduce the first principles and, at the end of the year, the intention is to have a technical regulation published with all the technical principles. After that we still need some time to fine-tune this. The idea is for the teams to be able to start working on their cars at the start of next year.”

But that timeline is unpopular with the teams. One senior source told Autosport:

“If we’d been doing this ourselves, we would have been a year ahead of where we are now. There’s simply not enough detail. OK, next month we hope for something on paper, but this is really on the limit for 2022.”

Autosport understands that the FIA will supply common parts including motors and batteries for 2022. The intention is for hybrid to function on road sections and in service; that’s the first level of regulations, while a second tier of rules will follow further down the road incorporating the potential to use a hybrid boost in the stages and in competition.

Toyota chief engineer Tom Fowler admitted his concerns lay with reliability for 2022. “It’s going to be a very difficult technical challenge to get hybridisation into the sport,” he said. “We see such a variation in conditions in the championship and we all know how big a topic reliability is.

“Even with an internal combustion engine driving four wheels that has been the same for decades, we still have issues. As soon as we go to a whole new technology and start to drive up mountains in extremely high and extremely low temperatures with a hybrid system, it’s going to be a massive challenge.”