WRC's brutally powerful new 2022 cars – gallery

Rally News

The WRC's new generation of Rally1 cars will be the most powerful since the hair-raising Group B era – scroll down to view our gallery of the 2022 machines

Puma 1

Purple Puma anyone?

M-Sport

Not since Audi set in motion a four-wheeled revolution has there been such a technical sea-change in the World Rally Championship, with the new Rally 1 regulations coming into play.

Scroll through our gallery below to see this historic new generation of rally cars.

 

The new rules mean new design approaches and new-look cars, with fresh machines brought by the M-Sport Ford team, Hyundai and and reigning champions Toyota.

Rallying is entering its hybrid era: complementing the 400bhp WRC engines is a 100kW electric motor, resulting in cars that will be blasting round the Col de Turini et al with a peak 500bhp available – these are the most powerful off-road prototypes since the 1980’s Group B era.

However, this power won’t be available all the time, with drivers having to choose when to deploy the battery and manage the regeneration. The system will add an extra 100kg of weight to the cars, already heavier than the previous generation due to strengthened chassis for increased safety.

In the opening stages of this morning however, the cars looked no less spectacular, particularly the newly purple-liveried M-Sport Puma in the hands of the cameo-ing Sébastien Loeb, who went fastest on the first pass in Shakedown before being bested by fellow French WRC legend called Seb – Toyota’s Ogier put the Japanese marque’s new Yaris top of the timesheets on the second run.

From the archive

Both the Yaris and the Hyundai i20 have opted for a conservative continuation of last year’s colour scheme, whilst M-Sport’s electrified purple-ism is reflective of its new miraculously irreverent social media presence – having previously represented the colour of Cumbrian slate.

The aforementioned French heavyweights plus fellow Francophone Thierry Neuville and 2019 Ott Tänak champion will be leading the charge, but wildcards in the form of Kalle Rovanperä, Craig Breen and Gus Greensmith mean that tonight’s first stage, from Lucéram to Lantosque, will be well worth watching.