The FIA has published the Sporting Regulations for the upcoming 2024 WRC season, including big changes to the WRC’s points system, especially regarding Sundays.
The FIA and WRC Promotor will introduce a new points system for the 2024 WRC season, which will be seen in effect from next month’s Rallye Monte Carlo, the first round of the new season.
The format changes come after WRC drivers, teams and fans have been vocal about the lack of excitement on Sundays specifically, where drivers cruised to save their tyres before the final Power Stage. To boost the excitement and competitiveness, the following changes come into effect from 2024:
Points will not be awarded by the final general classification. Instead, the general classification after Saturday will be the first moment where crews can score WRC points. The following points structure applies for the general classification after Saturday:
P1: 18 points
P2: 15 points
P3: 13 points
P4: 10 points
P5: 8 points
P6: 6 points
P7: 4 points
P8: 3 points
P9: 2 points
P10: 1 point
Crucially, these points are only awarded if the crew is classified the final classification of the rally. If a crew fails to reach the finish of the rally (i.e. doesn’t finish on Sunday), they won’t be awarded 18 points, with the 18 points to be awarded to the next placed crew.
‘Rally winner’ won’t necessarily score the most points
On Sunday, crews can score additional points based on the general classification for Sunday only. This means that a ‘separate’ classification applies for Sunday from the first time control after the overnight regroup until the final time control of the rally. Based on Sunday’s classification, the following points are awarded:
P1: 7 points
P2: 6 points
P3: 5 points
P4: 4 points
P5: 3 points
P6: 2 points
P7: 1 point
The points awarded for the Power Stage, the final stage of the rally, remain unchanged.
A perfect result still awards a maximum of 30 points: 18 points for P1 after Saturday, 7 points for P1 on Sunday and 5 points for P1 in the Power Stage.
The crew with the best overall time over the (full) rally will still be declared the winner of the event as the prive-giving regulations (article 66.2) haven’t been changed. However, with this new points system, it is theoretically possible that a driver other than the rally winner scores more points during the rally.
WRC2 Power Stage removed
The new points system only applies to the WRC, that is, the WRC Drivers’ championship, the WRC Co-Drivers’ championship and the WRC Manufacturers’ championship. All other championships (like the WRC2, WRC3, Junior WRC), points will be awarded based on the general classification. This effectively means that nothing changes regarding the points system for all support championships.
A slight tweak was implemented for the WRC2 however: the WRC2’s Power Stage has been removed, meaning that the maximum scoreable points per rally in the WRC2 is reduced from 28 points (25 points for WRC2 rally win + 3 points for WRC2 PS win) to 25 points.
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