World Rally Championship

Peugeot 206 Juuso Pükalistö at the 2003 Rally Sweden

Preparation for the season begins a few months before the start of the first stage. The governing body of the FIA ​​(International Automobile Federation) approves the routes, stages and the final order of all stages of the rally around the world and presents copies of the rules to the participants.

At each rally, two days are allotted to familiarize with special stages, one day to test equipment. The main competitions (rallies) are held within 3, and very rarely 4 days and usually consist of 15-25 special stages.

Manufacturers' teams (factory teams) exhibit 2 cars each and arrive at the rally venue at least a week before the start of the training stage. Cars start in accordance with their arrangement in the standings, that is, the leading pilot starts first. Typically, 60 cars take part in the competition, since, in addition to factory teams, private teams, participants in the Youth Championship on less powerful cars of another class or participants in championships of manufacturers also participate.

The World Cup was preceded by the popular large-scale Tour de Corse and RAC 1972. The WRC for this sport marked the beginning of a new era, while by coincidence the Tour de Corse at that time said goodbye to several cars, including Simca CG, Ligier JS2, Ford GT70, Ford Capri RS2600 and Peugeot 304 SLS. Lancia Stratos made its debut in this tournament, but nevertheless the birth of a new major championship attracted enough attention. In 1973, about 300 cars and many new names were presented in Monte Carlo.

Before the start of the competition, the driver and the navigator get acquainted with the tracks. They usually drive on special stages in a regular car on Tuesday and Wednesday before the competition days. It is here that the navigator, solely from the words of the pilot, details with his notes the features of the road (records a transcript), which he will directly read to the pilot during the race. It is the correct records of the navigator, according to the pilot during the familiarization, that have a decisive influence on the result of passing the SU. For each special stage it is allowed to drive no more than two times, while the speed is limited by the rules of the road.

Special stages are sections of tracks on which crews travel as fast as possible to show the best time. The route can go along roads with different surfaces: gravel, asphalt, snow or ice. With the exception of the super special, the race route runs along public roads, which are naturally closed to other vehicles during the competition. In a typical rally, there are about 25 special stages, the passage of which is reserved for 3 or 4 days. The sections of roads on which racing cars move between special stages are called road sections. Every day, the crews travel about 150 km, where special stages make up about a third. The length of the sections ranges from 2 to 60 km, and the time is fixed after each special stage with an accuracy of a tenth of a second.

Cars in the WRC do not compete directly with each other. The main determinant of the winner is time. Cars in the rally start in turn with an interval of 2 minutes according to the set timer from which the passage time of the section is recorded. If the crews do not encounter serious malfunctions, they rarely meet each other on the track. After completing all the special stages, the driver who spent the least time in total is the winner.

The results of each of the stages of the rally are calculated by the International Automobile Federation in two tests: firstly, by pilots, and, secondly, by manufacturers. Drivers get points according to the scheme:

In addition, there is an accrual of additional points for the show-special stage ("Power-stage"):

• 5 - for the first place,
• 4 - for the second,
• 3 - for the third,
• 2 - for the fourth,
• 1 - for the fifth.

And manufacturers add up the points scored by their crews, which are declared in the standings of the manufacturers. In this case, points to manufacturers are considered separately and are not associated with points scored in the absolute standings.

The rally is regulated by a strict schedule, for violation of which drivers are punished with a penalty time. Arriving at special stages, entering and leaving technical maintenance services should be done strictly according to the time determined by the schedule — neither earlier nor later. Deviation from the schedule is penalized by 10 seconds for each minute of being late, and advancing is penalized by the minute, and it is attributed to the total time of the driver. Drivers can be disqualified for a 15-minute delay at checkpoints, a 30-minute delay for a special stage, or if the time of all delays exceeds 60 minutes in total.

After a certain group of special stages is completed, cars can visit maintenance points where car mechanics can repair a car under strict supervision for 15 minutes. At the end of each day, teams are allowed to spend another 45 minutes on car repair before being put into a special parking lot, where no one is allowed until the next morning before the race. Teams are also penalized for exceeding the time limit for maintenance.

Most of the champion titles are in French pilots (16), slightly less than Finnish (13), but Finland is ahead in the number of world champions - there are 6 of them (Vatanen, Mikkola, Salonen, Kankkunen, Mäkinen and Gronholm), while in France - three (Oriol, Loeb and Augier), the UK and Sweden have two champions, and Italy, Germany, Spain, and Norway - one each.

The absolute leader in the number of championships won in the individual standings is Sebastien Loeb - 9, and he won them in a row in 2004-2012. Six titles from another Frenchman named Sebastien - Ogier , four championship titles on the account of the Finns Kankkunen and Myakinen .

• Group B
• Intercontinental Rally Challenge
• Auto Racing Dictionary
• Motorsport

• Official website of the World Rally Championship
• Information resource about the rally. News and regulations. Information about riders, teams and tracks. History of WRC (Russian)
• Russian project on world rally (rus.)
• Rally World Championship Standings
• The official website of the "Auto Plus" channel broadcasting WRC in Russia and the CIS. (Russian)