Safari Rally Kenya will cover more competitive kilometers next 12 months, although the general changes to the World Rally Championship competition formats are more likely to be “evolutionary” reasonably than “revolutionary”.
Changes to event formats have been a subject of dialogue in 2024 with the FIA ​​and the WRC organizer, who want to present event organizers more flexibility when it comes to routes throughout the set Thursday to Sunday framework.
This 12 months, Sardinia tested a more compact '48-hour' sprint concept, while there have been discussions that Kenya had ambitions to expand its event to a more endurance concept.
While significant changes in 2025 are considered unlikely, the WRC organizer has indicated that the Safari Rally shall be longer and an additional stage shall be added on Thursday to extend its distance from the 367.76km that covered this 12 months's event.
“There is no decision on a set style of competition,” said WRC competition director Simon Larkin. “WRC events may be quite complicated because they don't actually want it to be a sprint and an endurance race. If you don't want to prepare various forms of events, there’ll simply be just a little more freedom.
“For example, I do know that Kenya will run over 350 kilometers, that's numerous kilometers, which is great, and that's the results of the evolution of this event.
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport
“The next stage will take place on Thursday on the way back from Nairobi. We try to make the events have a different character, but not have fixed titles.”
Larkin also revealed that Sardinia will once more construct its event across the revised, compact 266.12km route it ran this 12 months.
“I think Italy wants to use the changed format again like this year,” he added. “It was an exciting event, it was a bit more compact, we will see some slightly different events, but they will be evolutionary, not revolutionary.”
The FIA ​​is keen on diversity in competition formats, but says ensuring a balanced calendar is crucial to the championship.
“I don't think too many organizers will stray far from where we are because the principles of what we're doing now suit most people,” said Andrew Wheatley, FIA director of road sport.
“There shall be organizers who wish to do something just a little different. Sardinia was a superb example of attempting to create a rather different program.
“We don't want all events to be a sprint format and no events to be an endurance format. We want to strike a balance between the two.”
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