WRC 2024: it all starts here

At the end of the 2012 season, Sebastien Loeb clinched his ninth drivers' title in the World Rally Championship – a record that is unlikely ever to be broken – and announced his retirement as a full-time WRC driver.

Nine years later, another Frenchman called Sebastien – this time, Sebastien Ogier – also announced his retirement from the WRC full-time at the end of 2021, as an eight-time champion.

This year isn't quite the same situation, as 23-year-old Kalle Rovanpera has ‘only' won two titles and he says he'll be back in future, but he too is another reigning champion to announce that he won't be doing a full season.

However, both Loeb and Ogier competed on the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally the year after announcing their ‘retirements' (in 2013 and 2022 respectively). You have to go back to 1982 to find the last time that the reigning world champion (back then, Ari Vatanen) wasn't on the start line of ‘the Monte' when it counted for the world championship – the oldest and most famous rally of them all.

So, this year will make history from the very beginning. And with the 92nd Monte Carlo Rally based entirely in Gap (France) rather than the Principality itself, this 2024 WRC will already have quite a different look to it from the very beginning – complete with an overhauled points system (which might not last, as the new format could be dropped quite quickly if it causes too much confusion, just as was the case when Formula 1 experimented with an alternative qualifying format in 2016 – for two races).

Another open point is the very future of the World Rally Car itself, with the possibility that the cheaper and simpler Rally 2 specification will be adopted as the top class once the current rules cycle comes to an end in 2027; or perhaps even sooner.

So, what does all that do to the competitive order? Not much. Most rally drivers are more interested in going flat-out than playing the numbers game, and they will generally drive any sort of car they are given (although Markku Alen's first reaction in 1987, on being shown the Group A Lancia Delta that replaced the Group B version was: ‘Looks very nice. Now show me the rally car').

For Toyota's Elfyn Evans, who has finished runner-up in the championship three times over the last four years, it's obviously a golden opportunity to capitalise on what will be his fifth season at Toyota; probably the most consistent car on the championship.

But of course, there is a big curve ball – and that's Ott Tanak's surprise return to Hyundai. Tanak can be compared to Fernando Alonso in Formula 1: blindingly fast, but with a habit of falling out with people and leaving teams under acrimonious circumstances. Having terminated his Hyundai contract a year early, after also quitting Toyota as reigning champion in 2019, he's now back at Alzenau. The car is broadly the same as the one he left in 2022, but the management is all-new under ex-F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul, who has been recently promoted to oversee all of Hyundai's motorsport programmes (which could be many and varied in the future, according to the rumours). Unbelievably, Tanak has never finished the Monte-Carlo Rally in three attempts at the wheel of a Hyundai but has been on the podium three times in other cars. A strong start is going to be vital to make this relationship work the second time round, with Tanak touted by many as the key rival to Evans this year. Hyundai has stopped at nothing in building a WRC superteam, with four top line drivers, including Thierry Neuville – now entering his 11^th consecutive full season as a Hyundai factory driver. There can be no excuses this time.

But of course, it's not just Toyota versus Hyundai. There's M-Sport (Tanak's former team) in the mix as well, and here's where it gets a bit more perplexing. M-Sport, of course, doesn't quite have the full works team status of Toyota or Hyundai, receiving assistance but no complete funding from Ford. As such, sacrifices have to be made, and that means doing without an established star driver this year. Instead, the team will rely on two largely unproven youngsters: Adrien Fourmaux, a 28-year-old Frenchman who initially trained as a surgeon before becoming a rally driver, and 25-year-old Luxembourger Gregoire Munster. Formaux's best result so far has been fifth, while Munster has had a best score of seventh (from just two appearances in a Rally 1 car) – so this is a big gamble. But sometimes, outsider status takes the pressure off and yields surprising results. Expect also to see the Puma line-up boosted by a few strong privateer drivers this year.

In practice, a few podiums are the best for M-Sport to hope for – but also an entirely realistic aspiration under the right circumstances.

While the main battle is in Rally 1, this year is also an opportunity for the Rally 2 drivers to shine, with the spotlight on the lower formula as a potential replacement for the top class. The big news in Rally 2 is the arrival of the Toyota Yaris in the category, which is expected to be a game-changer. Former Junior champion Sami Pajari from Finland gets to find out for himself, as he'll be at the wheel of the new Yaris in Monaco, together with French stars Bryan Bouffier and Stephane Lefebvre, as well as another former Junior champion, Jan Solans. How the new Yaris shapes up against the established benchmarks from Skoda, Volkswagen, Citroen, Hyundai, and Ford is going to be fascinating – with the WRC2 battle set to be even tighter than the one at the very top (one of the key arguments for promoting it to the main category, along with cost – a Rally 1 car costs nearly a million Euros, a Rally 2 machine is more like 300,000 Euros maximum).

In the meantime, there's a proper show and 324 kilometres of stages to look forward to in the south of France this weekend. The Monte Carlo Rally starts with two stages on Thursday evening in the dark, before concluding on Sunday afternoon with the legendary Col de Turini. Enjoy.