2014 World Rally Championship season

Sébastien Ogier will start the season as the defending World Drivers' Champion.

The Volkswagen Polo R WRC, the car entered by defending World Manufacturers' Champions Volkswagen Motorsport.

The 2014 World Rally Championship season will be the forty-second season of the World Rally Championship, an auto racing championship recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile as the highest class of international rallying. Teams and drivers will contest thirteen rallies across four continents, competing for the FIA World Rally Championships for Drivers and Manufacturers. The WRC-2, WRC-3 and Junior WRC championships will all be run in support of the premier championship.

The 2014 season will see Hyundai return to the championship as a manufacturer for the first time since the 2003 season.^[1] The Rally of Poland will return to the calendar after a five-year absence, replacing the Acropolis Rally.^[2]

Sébastien Ogier will start the season as the defending drivers' champion.^[3] His team, Volkswagen Motorsport, will start the season as the defending manufacturers' champions.^[4]

Calendar

The 2014 calendar was announced at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Croatia on 27 September 2013.^[5] The season will be contested over thirteen rounds in Europe, North and South America and Australia.

Round	Dates	Rally name	Rally headquarters	Surface
1	16–18 January	82ème Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo	Gap, Hautes-Alpes	Mixed
2	5–8 February	62nd Rally Sweden	Hagfors, Värmland	Snow
3	6–9 March	28º Rally Guanajuato México	León, Guanajuato	Gravel
4	3–6 April	48º Vodafone Rally de Portugal	Faro, Algarve	Gravel
5	8–11 May	34º Rally Argentina	Villa Carlos Paz, Córdoba	Gravel
6	6–8 June	11º Rally d'Italia Sardegna	Olbia, Gallura	Gravel
7	27–29 June	71st LOTOS Rally Poland	Mikołajki, Warmia-Masuria	Gravel
8	1–3 August	64th Neste Oil Rally Finland	Jyväskylä, Keski-Suomi	Gravel
9	22–24 August	32. ADAC Rallye Deutschland	Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate	Tarmac
10	12–14 September	23rd Coates Hire Rally Australia	Coffs Harbour, New South Wales	Gravel
11	3–5 October	Rallye de France – Alsace 2014	Strasbourg, Alsace	Tarmac
12	24–26 October	50º Rally RACC Catalunya – Costa Daurada	Salou, Tarragona	Mixed
13	14–16 November	70th Wales Rally GB	Deeside, Flintshire	Gravel

Calendar changes

• Rally Australia and Rally New Zealand will abandon the event-sharing arrangement established in 2008 that saw each event host a round of the championship every other year. After hosting an event in 2013, Rally Australia will remain on the calendar throughout 2014 and 2015 before the arrangement is due to be renegotiated.^[2]
• The Rallye Monte Carlo will relocate its base from Valence in the French province of Rhône-Alpes to the town of Gap in the neighbouring province of Hautes-Alpes.^[6]
• The 2014 calendar will see the Rally of Poland return to the championship for the first time since 2009.^[2] The event will also cross the border into Lithuania for one day of competition.^[5] Its inclusion came at the expense of the Acropolis Rally, which was removed after struggling with its financial obligations to the championship. The Acropolis Rally later moved to the European Rally Championship for the 2014 season.^[7] The rallies of Brazil and China had also been considered for inclusion on the WRC calendar before the FIA approved of the Rally of Poland.^[8][9]

Teams and drivers

Hyundai returned to the WRC in 2014, competing with the i20 WRC.

The following teams and drivers are scheduled to compete in the World Rally Championship during the 2014 season:

World Rally Car entries eligible to score manufacturer points
Constructor	Team	Tyre	No.	Drivers	Co-drivers	Rounds
Volkswagen (Volkswagen Polo R WRC)	Volkswagen Motorsport[10]	M	1	Sébastien Ogier[11]	Julien Ingrassia[11]	1-2
			2	Jari-Matti Latvala[11]	Miikka Anttila[11]	1-2
	Volkswagen Motorsport II[12]	M	9	Andreas Mikkelsen[12]	Mikko Markkula[12]	1-2
Citroën (Citroën DS3 WRC)	Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team[13]	M	3	Kris Meeke[14]	Paul Nagle[14]	1-2
			4	Mads Østberg[14]	Jonas Andersson[14]	1-2
Ford (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)	M-Sport World Rally Team[12][15]	M	5	Mikko Hirvonen[16]	Jarmo Lehtinen[16]	1-2
			6	Elfyn Evans[16]	Daniel Barritt[16]	1-2
	RK M-Sport World Rally Team[12]	M	10	Robert Kubica[17]	Maciek Szczepaniak[15]	1-2
	Jipocar Czech National Team[18]	M	21	Martin Prokop[18]	Michal Ernst[18]	1
					Jan Tománek[19]	2
Hyundai (Hyundai i20 WRC)	Hyundai Shell World Rally Team[1][12][20]	M	7	Thierry Neuville[21]	Nicolas Gilsoul[21]	1-2
			8	Dani Sordo[22]	Marc Martí[22]	1
				Juho Hänninen[23]	Tomi Tuominen[23]	2
			TBA	Chris Atkinson[24]	Stéphane Prévot[24]	3

Major entries ineligible to score manufacturer points
Constructor	Team	Tyre	No.	Drivers	Co-drivers	Rounds
Citroën (Citroën DS3 WRC)	Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team[13][15]	M	12	Khalid Al Qassimi[13]	Chris Patterson[25]	2
Ford (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)	M-Sport World Rally Team[12][15]	M	11	Bryan Bouffier[12]	Xavier Panseri[12]	1
				Ott Tänak[26][27]	Raigo Mõlder[26][27]	2
			14	Michał Sołowow[15][26]	Maciek Baran[15][26]	2
	François Delecour[12]	M	12	François Delecour[12]	Dominique Savignoni[12]	1
	Pontus Tidemand[28]	M	15	Pontus Tidemand[28]	Ola Fløene[15]	2
	Henning Solberg[15][26]	P	16	Henning Solberg[15][26]	Ilka Minor[15][26]	2
	Craig Breen[28]	M	17	Craig Breen[28]	Scott Martin[28]	2
	Slovakia World Rally Team[12]	M	22	Jaroslav Melichárek[12]	Erik Melichárek[12]	1

Team changes

• Citroën will scale back its involvement in the championship, limiting its programme to two full-time works-supported cars, with a third car entered in selected events. As a result, its customer car programme will be brought to an end.^[29] The decision to reduce its commitment to the WRC stemmed from Citroën's expansion into the World Touring Car Championship and the logistical challenges of establishing itself in a new series.^[30][31]
• Martin Prokop's M-Sport-supported Czech National Team will expand to enter a second Ford Fiesta RS WRC at selected events throughout the season.^[18] The second car will compete under the name "Slovakia World Rally Team".^[12]
• Korean car manufacturer Hyundai will return to the championship as a manufacturer team, competing with the i20 WRC.^[1] Hyundai had previously competed in the WRC with the Hyundai Accent WRC from 2000 to 2003.^[32]
• The Qatar World Rally Team and Lotos Team WRC will not start the season.^[12]

Driver changes

• Nasser Al-Attiyah will not start the season after the Qatar World Rally Team did not submit an entry and the Qatari government ended its sponsorship of M-Sport.^[12]
• Chris Atkinson will join Hyundai on a part-time basis, competing in selected events including Rally Australia.^[24] Atkinson will share the team's second entry with Dani Sordo and Juho Hänninen.^[33]
• 2012 Super 2000 World Rally Champion Craig Breen will make his debut in a World Rally Car-specification car at the Rally of Sweden^[28]
• Elfyn Evans, who won the Junior World Rally Championship in 2012 and placed seventh overall in the 2013 World Rally Championship-2 season will join M-Sport.^[16]
• Juho Hänninen, who contested three events in 2013 with Qatar World Rally Team, will compete at selected events in 2014 with Hyundai.^[23] Hänninen will share the car with Dani Sordo and Chris Atkinson. Hänninen will make his first appearance for the team at the Rally of Sweden.^[33]
• Mikko Hirvonen lost his seat at Citroën after two seasons with the team.^[14] He will return to M-Sport, the team he competed with from 2006 to 2011, when it was known as the Ford World Rally Team.^[16]
• Former Formula One driver and reigning World Rally Championship-2 champion Robert Kubica will join the sport's top tier of competition in 2014, driving an M-Sport-prepared Ford Fiesta RS WRC as a satellite team of M-Sport.^[17]
• After taking part in selected events during the 2013 season, nine-time World Drivers' Champion Sébastien Loeb will leave the World Rally Championship, moving to the World Touring Car Championship with Citroën Racing.^[30]
• Kris Meeke will return to full-time competition, joining Citroën after making guest appearances in the team's third car in 2013.^[14]
• Slovakian driver Jaroslav Melichárek will make his WRC debut, driving a Ford Fiesta RS WRC run by the Jipocar Czech National Team under the name "Slovakia World Rally Team".^[18] Melichárek had previously campaigned a Citroën C4 WRC in the Czech and Slovakian national championships before joining the team.
• Thierry Neuville will leave the Qatar World Rally Team to join Hyundai's works team.^[21]
• Evgeny Novikov lost his seat with M-Sport.^[16] He ruled out contesting the full 2014 season as he focused on securing funds for a drive in 2015, but expressed a willingness to make guest appearances at selected events.^[34]
• Mads Østberg will leave M-Sport after two seasons competing for Ford-backed teams M-Sport and Adapta. He will be driving for Citroën alongside Kris Meeke.^[14]
• Dani Sordo will leave Citroën for Hyundai, sharing the team's second entry with Chris Atkinson and Juho Hänninen.^[22] Sordo will be the first of the three to drive the i20 WRC, starting the Rallye Monte Carlo.^[33]
• Ott Tänak will return to the World Rally Championship, contesting selected events in a privately entered Ford Fiesta RS WRC whilst campaigning in the WRC-2 series with a Fiesta R5.^[27]

Changes

• Pirelli will return to the World Rally Championship as a tyre supplier in 2014, joining existing suppliers Michelin, DMACK and Hankook.^[35] Pirelli last supplied tyres for the championship in 2010.
• The rules governing the running order for a day's stages will change in 2014, after the FIA expressed dissatisfaction with the qualifying stage format introduced in 2012, whereby the fastest drivers during the event shakedown were given the opportunity to choose their starting position for the rally as a means of discouraging drivers from stopping on a stage in order to gain a more-favourable starting position the next day.^[36] The final format was decided upon at the December 2013 meeting of the World Motor Sport Council, with WRC and WRC-2 drivers starting in their provisional championship classification for the first day of the rally, before starting the second and third days in reverse order of the provisional rally classification. Cars that have retired on one day and are restarting the next under Rally-2 regulations will be placed after the WRC and WRC-2 driver groups.^[37]
• Manufacturers will no longer be required to nominate one permanent driver for the season, but will instead be obliged to nominate one driver for a minimum of ten events, leaving them free to rotate drivers through the remaining events as they so choose.^[37]
• Rallies must now follow a fixed format. There will be a ceremonial start on Thursday, with the last stage run as the Power Stage. The length of the Power Stage must be at least ten kilometers.^[37]
• All competitors registered in the Championships–WRC, WRC-2, WRC-3 and the Junior WRC—will be obliged to use a colour-coded windscreen sticker to distinguish its category.^[37]

Rally summaries

Round 1 — 82ème Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo

Round	Rally name	Podium finishers					Statistics
		Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Stages	Length	Starters	Finishers
1	82ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo (15–20 January) — Results and report	1	1	Sébastien Ogier Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Motorsport (Volkswagen Polo R WRC)	3:55:14.4	(15)1a 14	(383.88km)1b 360.48km	62	40
		2	11	Bryan Bouffier Xavier Panseri	M-Sport WRT (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)	3:56:33.3
		3	3	Kris Meeke Paul Nagle	Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT (Citroën DS3 WRC)	3:57:08.7

The first round of the season was run in difficult conditions, with heavy rain making for a slippery surface and low visibility. Former Formula One driver Robert Kubica took an early lead, but fell behind on the first leg when he made the wrong tyre choice. French privateer Bryan Bouffier - who won the event in 2011, when it was a round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge - took control and led the field at the end of the first day. Bouffier came under pressure from reigning World Champion Sébastien Ogier on the second day, and ultimately lost the lead when he spun during the afternoon stages, whilst Kubica crashed out. Ogier's rally was not without incident, with the Volkswagen driver surviving several close encounters with walls as he tried to recover from a poor start. Ogier went on to win the rally by over a minute, with Bouffier second and Kris Meeke finishing third. Hyundai's return to the World Rally Championship started and ended poorly as Thierry Neuville crashed heavily on the first stage and team-mate Dani Sordo was forced to retire with a suspected electrical fault.
Notes:

• ^1 - The Monte Carlo Rally was shortened when a competitor stopped on Stage 14, blocking traffic and forcing organisers to abandon the stage.

Results and standings

FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers

Points are awarded to the top 10 classified finishers. There are also 3 bonus points awarded for Power Stage wins, 2 for second place and 1 for third.

Pos. Driver MON SWE MEX POR ARG ITA POL FIN DEU AUS FRA ESP GBR Points 1 Sébastien Ogier 12 27 2 Bryan Bouffier 2 18 3 Kris Meeke 33 16 4 Jari-Matti Latvala 51 13 5 Mads Østberg 4 12 6 Elfyn Evans 6 8 7 Andreas Mikkelsen 7 6 8 Jaroslav Melichárek 8 4 9 Matteo Gamba 9 2 10 Yuriy Protasov 10 1 — Mikko Hirvonen Ret 0 — Thierry Neuville Ret 0 — Dani Sordo Ret 0 — Robert Kubica Ret 0 — François Delecour Ret 0 — Martin Prokop Ret 0 Pos. Driver MON SWE MEX POR ARG ITA POL FIN DEU AUS FRA ESP GBR Points

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Withdrew entry before the event (WD) Notes: 1 2 3 – Indicate position on Power Stage

FIA World Rally Championship for Co-Drivers

Pos. Driver MON SWE MEX POR ARG ITA POL FIN DEU AUS FRA ESP GBR Points 1 Julien Ingrassia 12 27 2 Xavier Panseri 2 18 3 Paul Nagle 33 16 4 Miikka Anttila 51 13 5 Jonas Andersson 4 12 6 Daniel Barritt 6 8 7 Mikko Markkula 7 6 8 Erik Melichárek 8 4 9 Nicola Arena 9 2 10 Pavlo Cherepin 10 1 — Jarmo Lehtinen Ret 0 — Nicolas Gilsoul Ret 0 — Marc Martí Ret 0 — Maciek Szczepaniak Ret 0 — Dominique Savignoni Ret 0 — Michal Ernst Ret 0 Pos. Driver MON SWE MEX POR ARG ITA POL FIN DEU AUS FRA ESP GBR Points

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Withdrew entry before the event (WD) Notes: 1 2 3 – Indicate position on Power Stage

FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers

Pos. Manufacturer No. MON SWE MEX POR ARG ITA POL FIN DEU AUS FRA ESP GBR Points 1 Volkswagen Motorsport 1 1 37 2 4 2 Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 3 2 33 4 3 3 M-Sport World Rally Team 5 Ret 10 6 5 4 Volkswagen Motorsport II 9 6 8 - Hyundai Shell World Rally Team 7 Ret 0 8 Ret - RK M-Sport World Rally Team 10 Ret 0 - Jipocar Czech National Team 21 Ret 0 Pos. Manufacturer No. MON SWE MEX POR ARG ITA POL FIN DEU AUS FRA ESP GBR Points

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Withdrew entry before the event (WD) Notes: 1 2 3 – Indicate position on Power Stage

References

External links

• Official website of the World Rally Championship