Six-time Olympic gold medallist and regular motorsport competitor Chris Hoy could make his stage rally debut at October’s McRae Rally Challenge. Hoy has close links with the McRae family and has driven ex-Colin McRae cars on numerous occasions – the last being at the Oulton Park stage on Wales Rally GB last season, where he

Five-time Dakar Rally winner Cyril Despres will enter the 2020 edition of the marathon as part of the Red Bull Off-Road outfit. Red Bull had announced a cross-country junior programme, analogous to its successful Junior Team scheme in Formula 1, in cooperation with Overdrive earlier this month. Young American racers Blade Hildebrand, Mitch Guthrie Jr

Six-time World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier says he has not demanded number one status at Toyota, following his move to the team from Citroen for 2020. Toyota has an all new line-up this year, with M-Sport’s Elfyn Evans and WRC 2 champion Kalle Rovanpera joining Ogier for 2020. Jari-Matti Latvala and Kris Meeke haven’t received

Max McRae could make his British rally debut in 2020 at the McRae Rally Challenge event that will celebrate his uncle Colin winning the World Rally Championship 25 years ago. The October celebration at the Fife racing circuit will be the first time three generations of McRae have competed at the same event with his

The FIA has confirmed 2022 World Rally Cars will utilise hybrid to offer a power boost on the stages as well as for use in towns, cities and service parks. Original talks on hybrid were focused only on ensuring the rally cars drove using electric power through built up areas and in and around the

Pirelli has been selected as the control tyre supplier to the World Rally Championship from 2021, ending Michelin’s strong run at the top level of the WRC. Italian tyre firm Pirelli, which has been involved in the WRC since the start in 1973, will deliver all tyres used by Rally1 (World Rally Cars) and Rally2

The 2019 rally season didn’t disappoint, with Ott Tanak’s first World Rally Championship title and the saga of where he would drive in 2020 eventually concluded in favour of Hyundai. However, as well as the WRC drama, Chris Ingram impressed the rally fraternity by ending a wait of over 50 years for an English winner

Dakar Rally director David Castera has predicted that double Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso will win a stage in his first attempt at the legendary rally raid next month. Alonso will tackle the Saudi Arabia-based event at the wheel of a factory-run Toyota Hilux with Dakar motorcycle legend Marc Coma as his co-driver. Since

Opel has revealed more technical details about the E-Corsa it is durability testing, and will compete in what it believes to be the first all electric rally championship next season. The cars will replace the Adam Cup Car currently being used in its successful ADAC Rallye Cup, the winner of which has been given a

The deadline for a decision on a replacement event for the cancelled Rally Chile has not been set, and could come after the start of the 2020 World Rally Championship. The Concepcion-based event was cancelled earlier this month following a state of emergency declared in Chile following political and social unrest. Spain lost its slot

Takamoto Katsuta will tackle eight rounds of next year’s World Rally Championship in a Toyota Yaris WRC, including his home event – the season-closing Rally Japan. The 26-year-old drove a Yaris during his top-class WRC debut in Germany this year – where he took a top 10 finish – and also contested Spain in the

Oliver Solberg has been linked to a Skoda Motorsport deal next season – even though the team will not run a factory squad in the 2020 World Rally Championship. After being introduced in 2015, the Skoda Fabia R5 has won the WRC 2 championship in each year it has competed, catapulting 2016, ’17 and ’19

Red Bull will field a host of young drivers in the 2020 Dakar Rally as part of its motorsport junior programme’s expansion to rally raids. The new initiative, which will follow in the footsteps of the circuit racing Red Bull Junior Team that produced Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel and grand prix winners Daniel Ricciardo

Ott Tanak has played down any threat of a potentially damaging rivalry between himself and new team-mate Thierry Neuville inside the Hyundai World Rally Championship team for next season. Tanak has joined one of his closest rivals of the last three seasons in Neuville at the Hyundai squad, having just won the WRC title with

Hyundai Motorsport could field a second team in the World Rally Championship next season, in a bid to keep Craig Breen and Andreas Mikkelsen in its squad. Breen impressed the team with his first WRC outing of 2019 in Finland where he was sixth until he ceded the spot for his team-mate Thierry Neuville’s title

Sebastien Ogier says he is not interested in speculating about the breakdown of Ott Tanak’s relationship with the Toyota World Rally Championship team, following Tanak’s 2020 switch to Hyundai. Ogier admitted that Tanak’s decision to move was a surprise. Autosport first revealed Tanak would leave Toyota for Hyundai after failing to agree terms to extend

Mercedes Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas claimed his first win in rallying in the Paul Ricard-based Rallycircuit Cote d’Azur. Bottas, driving a Citroen DS3 World Rally Car as one of five entrants in WRC-spec machinery, topped five of the nine stages and finished the event 50 seconds clear of his nearest rival, sometime European Rally

Kris Meeke’s future in the World Rally Championship remains unclear, and rumour indicates he could be close to announcing his retirement from rallying’s top level. Meeke joined Toyota for the 2019 WRC season alongside Jari-Matti Latvala and Ott Tanak, after Citroen had dropped Meeke part-way through the 2018 season, blaming too many crashes, after nearly

The FIA is considering a revised plan for the World Rally Championship’s future if the manufacturers fail to sign up for 2022 when hybrid technology is set to be introduced. Regulations governing the introduction of hybrid technology will be delivered in December and gives the teams the first quarter of 2020 as to whether they

Citroen’s C3 WRC will be available to buyers and the car could yet compete in the 2020 World Rally Championship, even though the manufacturer has withdrawn its works team. Citroen Racing has told Autosport it won’t run the cars itself – the Versailles team’s only rally commitment moving forward is with its customer programme C3

The World Rally Championship’s Rally Chile that was due to take place in April has been cancelled due to political and social unrest in the country. The organisers of the Concepcion-based event met with government officials on Thursday and agreed, in the face of the continued rioting and with a state of emergency still in

Jari-Matti Latvala could tackle as many as five rounds of the 2020 World Rally Championship in a Toyota Yaris WRC. Latvala lost his full-season seat in the factory team for next season when Toyota announced Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanpera for 2020. But Latvala will join with a car running at the same

Rally Chile’s place on the 2020 World Rally Championship calendar is under threat following recent social unrest in the country. A call on whether the event will go ahead will be made in the coming days, with the rally jeopardised following protests and riots that began across Chile last month. The situation, which has claimed

Toyota president Akio Toyoda has thanked outgoing driver Jari-Matti Latvala for convincing him to bring the brand back to the World Rally Championship five years ago. The manufacturer’s announcement that Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanpera will form its 2020 line-up leaves Latvala – who has driven for Toyota since it rejoined the WRC

Toyota has revealed an all-new driver line-up for next year’s World Rally Championship, with Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanpera signed to drive its factory Yaris WRCs next season. Ogier’s move was telegraphed after he walked out of his Citroen deal a year early last week, which Citroen blamed for its subsequent exit from

Esapekka Lappi says he was ‘shocked’ at Citroen’s World Rally Championship withdrawal, and that M-Sport is his only hope for a seat in 2020. Lappi left Toyota to join Citroen alongside Sebastien Ogier for the 2019 season, but has struggled to master the squad’s C3 and took 10th in the championship with equal best finishes

Citroen’s exit from the World Rally Championship was not exactly unexpected, but Wednesday’s announcement confirming that was nevertheless a bombshell. What was a surprise, too, was the wording of the statement confirming it’s departure that blamed six-time world champion Sebastien Ogier, whose decision to leave left it with no alternative but to withdraw with immediate

Citroen team principal Pierre Budar has defended the manufacturer’s record in this year’s World Rally Championship following the announcement that it will walk away from the series. CEO Linda Jackson said in the statement confirming Citroen’s exit that Sebastien Ogier’s decision to leave the squad was the reason for its WRC withdrawal. Asked by Autosport

Sebastien Ogier has spoken exclusively to Autosport to explain his decision to leave Citroen’s World Rally Championship team with a year to run on his contract. Citroen’s cited Ogier’s departure for Toyota – a deal expected to be announced next week – as the reason for its withdrawal from the WRC in an announcement made

Citroen’s World Rally Championship pullout announcement had been anticipated for a week, and its statement pointed strongly towards Sebastien Ogier’s decision to leave as the cause. But was it that simple? Citroen team principal Pierre Budar spoke exclusively to Autosport about the other factors behind the move. Were the WRC calendar, its profile or the