“As impressive as WRC2 is, no-one really wants to be there”

Believe it or not, the World Rally Car ruleset is the same age as me – I’ll let you decide which has aged better. But based on that useless fact alone, it’s clear to see why the formula is perhaps ebbing away compared to its glory days. WRC cars are still at the top of the tree in World rallying, but the most up-to-date version any UK privateer can realistically get their hands on is now five years old.

R5 – or, should I say, Rally2 – cars meanwhile are continually being developed and are progressing rapidly as a consequence.

Several manufacturers have skin in the game, which is pushing each car to be that little bit better and it’s showing in their pace. Mads Ostberg’s two attempts of the Cala Flumini stage on last year’s Rally Sardinia in a Citroen C3 R5 for instance work out to be 1.8 seconds faster than Thierry Neuville’s benchmark in a Hyundai NG i20 WRC four years earlier…

It does raise the question: why would anybody bother running a World Rally Car in competition? They’re far more expensive and potentially slower too. But that’s overlooking the theatre of a WRC car. The best way of putting it is when watching a rally, I get excited about seeing a World Rally Car; I don’t necessarily get excited by an R5 car. Instead, what excites with R5 cars is the closeness of the competition.

Driving a WRC car comes with the added kick of being able to mimic rallying heroes too. As impressive as the WRC2 roster is in 2021 for example, nobody really wants to be there; they want to be in WRC. No current Ford Fiesta Rally2 driver is going to drive their car and feel like they’re Adrien Fourmaux. To them, Fourmaux is a yardstick or even a rival.

But a current Ford Fiesta WRC driver can very easily feel like they’re Mikko Hirvonen or Jari-Matti Latvala as neither driver is active and the car was used in the top echelon of the WRC, not the second tier.

Ultimately, it all depends on what you want from your rallying. If you’re a driver aspiring to progress or wanting to be as competitive as possible in a given championship, buying or hiring an R5/Rally2 car probably makes most sense. But if you’ve got a bigger budget, fancy a little bit extra horsepower and something with more pedigree that could one day become a collector’s item, World Rally Cars are still more than quick enough to ensure you can have your cake and eat it too.