2025 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC)

The addition of a new event in South Africa and changes to the points’ system are the two major innovations introduced for the fourth season of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC).

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hosts the 47th Dakar Rally on January 3rd-17th before the series remains in the Middle East for the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge on February 21st-27th.

Argentina’s Desafío Ruta 40 has now been replaced by the new South African Safari Rally, which takes its place in the revised five-event calendar on May 18th-24th.

The introduction of the new event in the southern hemisphere means that the Portugal-based BP Ultimate Rally-Raid switches from an April date to September 22nd-28th and will cross into neighbouring Spain for a second year.

The Rallye du Maroc in Morocco will be the final round of the championship once again across the North African deserts on October 10th-17th. The five events are spread across three continents – Asia (Middle East), Europe and Africa.

The Dakar Rally is the flagship round of the championship and is running in Saudi Arabia for a sixth successive year and the fourth as a round of the W2RC. Hosted by the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF) and the Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.), it starts in Bisha for the first time and finishes deep in the remote Empty Quarter at Shubaytah, close to the frontier with the UAE.

The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge was founded by FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem in 1991 and joined the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies two years later. Based in the Abu Dhabi emirate, the event has been revised for 2025 but still features gruelling stages in the remote Rub Al-Khali (Empty Quarter) region of the UAE.

The South African Safari Rally will be based out of Sun City in the North West Province of South Africa and marks cross-country rallying’s return to the country for the first time since the Paris-Cape Town Rally finished there in 1992. The event is being held in collaboration with Motorsport South Africa.

The BP Ultimate Rally-Raid is organised by the Automóvel Club de Portugal (ACP) and takes its place in the calendar for a second season. A similar event called Rally Transibérico ran back in 2006 and was a round of the FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup.

The Rallye du Maroc is often used as a testing ground for the following season, in addition to deciding the outcome of the W2RC. Competitors are faced with a challenging five-day desert route that offers an exquisite blend of gravel and rocky stages, ergs and tricky dune crossings.

Titles are awarded for overall Driver and Co-driver, Manufacturers, Challenger Driver and Co-driver and SSV Driver and Co-driver.

The Cross-Country Rally Commission carried out an assessment in 2024 and has restructured the points-scoring system. For Marathon events with more than five stages (the Dakar), the points scale of 50, 40, 30, 26, 23, 20, 17, 13, 11, 9, 7, 6, 5 and 4 is in situ and will also see four awarded for classified competitors from 15th place onwards and two points awarded to unclassified competitors.

A series of proposals have also been approved in the FIA Cross-Country Rally Sporting Regulations to finalise the deployment of the FIA torque meter.

This will be the primary system for monitoring and controlling powertrain performance in Ultimate group cars. Sporting penalties of 10 seconds per infringement will be imposed for up to five, 30 seconds for six to 10 or a fixed penalty of 10 minutes per stage for more than 10 infringements.

The 2025 Cross-Country Rally Sporting Regulations are available here.