THE NEW RALLYING CAREER ROAD MAP EXPLAINED
We clear up the new route to the top of the discipline
In 1971, Bill Harkin – who passed away last month – designed and built the Glastonbury Festival’s first Pyramid Stage. Fifty years later, Yves Matton, the FIA’s rally boss, can lay claim to a pyramid of his own. But while Harkin’s iconic structure has undergone several redesigns and rebuilds over the years, there was only ever one Pyramid Stage at any one time.
Matton, however, has two pyramids or, to be precise, the FIA Rally Sporting Pyramid is essentially two pyramids rolled into one.
Confused? Really, there’s no need to be because it all becomes clear from a glimpse at the FIA Rally Cars Pyramid, meaning it’s actually 3-1 to Matton on the pyramid count.
The FIA Rally Cars Pyramid actually dates back to 2018 when the World Motor Sport Council approved a new ladder with World Rally Cars (read Rally1 cars from 2022) on the top rung and Rally5 (previously known as R1 cars) on the bottom.
Matton reasoned, quite sensibly, that if Formula 1 was the summit of the single-seater ladder followed by Formula 2, Formula 3 and Formula 4, then the smallest figure should top rallying’s pyramid, hence the adoption of new nomenclature.
This has included R5 cars becoming Rally2 cars, R2 cars becoming Rally4 cars and R1 cars becoming Rally5 cars.
From this season Rally3, the FIA’s affordable four-wheel-drive category that seeks to provide an affordable and accessible step between Rally4 to
Rally2, enters the fray.
There are a couple of abnormalities in RGT (think rally-ready Porsche 997 GT3s, Abarth 124s, Alpine A110s and the like) and Rally2 Kit, the new name for unloved and largely untried R4
Kit class, essentially a Group N with attitude through the use of a kit of performance parts.
But, otherwise, that’s the FIA
Rally Cars Pyramid in a nutshell.
Now for the FIA Rally Sporting Pyramid, which comes into effect from 2022 – sufficient time to allow for the fine-tuning of the rules and for drivers and teams to choose their career route accordingly and for event organisers to understand what’s going on.
Although, visually, the FIA Rally Sporting Pyramid is two sets of rectangles, each provides two different but, to a certain extent, entwined career paths for drivers starting out at international level to follow, so there’s actually really one structure to climb, meaning Harkin and Matton have more in common than first thought.
The FIA Rally Sporting Pyramid begins at European championship level with the new ERC4 category as the starting point for drivers in Rally4 or Rally5 cars.
ERC4 is divided into an Open class with no maximum age limit and a
Junior class for drivers 27 or under at the start of each season.
From ERC4, a driver progresses to ERC3 for Rally3 cars. Again, there’s an Open class with no maximum age limit and this time a Junior class for drivers 28 or under at the start of each campaign.
At this stage, a driver can continue in the ERC by stepping up to the ERC class for Rally2 cars (as the ERC’s top-level category, the FIA wisely opted against calling it ERC2), or they can move sideways to WRC3 for Rally3 cars where an Open and Junior class (for drivers 28 or under at the start of each season) will exist.
The route can take a driver to the Rally2based WRC2 and to an Open class and Junior class, for drivers 30 and under at the start of the season. Or they can head to ERC and progress to Rally2 machinery, with the goal of becoming European champion, in effect.
The WRC category for Rally1 cars – the FIA’s new hybrid-based formula from 2022 – sits at the top of the pyramid with titles for the top driver and make.
For ERC4, ERC3, ERC, WRC3 and WRC2 there are titles for teams and drivers, but not manufacturers.
In addition, the FIA Rally Sporting Pyramid specifies that only Rally1, Rally2, Rally3, Rally4, Rally5 and RGT cars will be eligible for championships
adopting the pyramid, which will also include the FIA’s African, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Nacam regional competitions in the future.
RGT cars won’t quite fit into the Rally Sporting Pyramid but will be permitted on World and European championship events in standalone categories. Rally2 Kit cars will be absorbed into the ERC category, while the current ERC2 for Group N cars, RGTs and Rally2 Kits will disappear.
So why go to all the trouble?
Just like Harkin did when he approached Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis about building his Pyramid Stage, Matton had a clear vision when he took the FIA’s top rallying job three years ago.
“It’s the last stage of a process that started when we created the FIA Rally Cars Pyramid,” Matton explains.
“Some categories were beginning to disappear, like Group N, some categories were at the same level, like the old R2 and R3 categories, and now we have Rally3 coming in. From 2022, there is a pathway from the lowest level to the highest that’s easy to understand.”
Matton and his team at the FIA in Geneva identified six targets when formalising the Rally Sporting Pyramid with the repositioning of the ERC as, according to the governing body, “both a feeder to the WRC and a goal in itself for drivers and teams”, central to the plan.
Firstly, they identified the need to align the Rally Sporting Pyramid with the Rally Cars Pyramid. They then needed to match the championship names with the group names (for example WRC3 is for Rally3 cars not Rally2 cars as things stand). They also wanted to make their “sporting pathway more understandable”, while “increasing accessibility with different categories to suit different customer requirements”. The decision was also made to only award titles if there are enough drivers entered on events.
“The pyramid allows each championship to have its own personality,” Matton says. “With a Rally2 car, you can win the ERC and it can be your goal. But, with the same car, the same driver can go to WRC2, try to win the championship and then grow further as a professional driver in the future.
“Each championship will have the same names for the car groups and the categories within them to make things much more obvious and easily understandable for everyone. It has not been possible to do it before but now we are at the final step of this process.
“While they will be able to compete on all rallies, we won’t have a specific category for two-wheel-drive cars in the WRC framework. With a championship that’s mainly based on gravel and with the new Rally1 cars, it will be difficult for these kinds of cars to compete consistently on the same events.
“But in the European championship, where you have more Tarmac events and more accessible categories for Rally5 or Rally4 cars, this championship is perfect for these cars and it really makes sense. We believe both championships should be equally strong.”
Forever the poor relation to the WRC, trashed by many who fail or simply don’t want to understand its purpose – namely a feeder to the top tier or a chance for more drivers to compete abroad for an affordable price – through misguided fear that it’s some kind of threat, the
ERC rarely gets a break.
For the first time, the FIA has officially recognised the championship as a legitimate career route. It’s also positioned the ERC as the official first step on the international ladder by effectively changing the status of the Junior WRC.
The ERC4 class will be the starting point as the only international-standard category for two-wheel-drive Rally4 and Rally5 cars, while the JWRC will become WRC3 Junior, but for fourwheel-drive Rally3 machinery, the step up from Rally4 and Rally5.
ERC promoter Eurosport Events should also take heart from the fact that its groundbreaking junior class for Rally2 cars will now be adopted in the WRC. While there is a risk that once a driver is ready to step up from Rally4 they might miss out the ERC and follow a WRC route only, the fact drivers are being encouraged to start on the road to the top of the WRC by competing in the ERC is a big opportunity for the European championship.
It’s unsurprising, therefore, that Eurosport Events has latched onto this chance by altering the format of its Junior championships by calling time on ERC1 Junior for Rally2 cars and making ERC Junior for Rally3 machines the top of its young driver tree.
The Paris-based firm has also changed the prize structure and is handing its ERC3 Junior champion (the current name for its entry-level Rally4 and Rally5 division) an ERC Junior programme in 2022 (six events if they win ERC3 Junior in a Fiesta Rally4 or three rounds if they’re in a car from another make). The ERC Junior champion can look forward to a season in WRC3 Junior in a Fiesta Rally3.
It’s all part of a four-way deal between Eurosport Events, the FIA, M-Sport and Pirelli, which was brokered by ERC boss Jean-Baptiste Ley.
“It would be easy to rest on our laurels after a very good ERC1 Junior season [in 2020] when several of our young drivers scored overall podiums and victories,” Ley says. “But we made two important observations. The first is that those drivers have demonstrated they have what it takes to challenge for the overall title and that’s what we hope they will continue to do [this] season. At the same time, it’s clear the step between ERC3 Junior for two-wheel drive and ERC1 Junior for four-wheel drive is not getting any smaller, while the finances required are proving increasingly harder to obtain due to the global pandemic.
The Rally3 category is therefore the perfect answer to the needs of ERC Junior with a smart balance between cost and 4WD experience.”
The original Pyramid Stage took three months to build, while the FIA’s Rally Sporting Pyramid has been three years in the making. Like the name of the Somerset farm where the current
Pyramid Stage stands, the Rally Sporting Pyramid is a Worthy addition to the international rallying universe.
“It’s a path that is easy to follow Yves Matton