World Rally Championship

The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. Each season lasts one calendar year, and typically consists of 13 three- to four-day rally events driven on surfaces ranging from gravel and tarmac to snow and ice. Each rally is usually split into 15–25 special stages which are run against the clock on up to 350 kilometres (220 mi) of closed roads.

Separate championship titles are awarded to drivers, co-drivers and manufacturers. There are also two support championships, WRC2 and WRC3, which are contested on the same events and stages as the WRC, but with progressively lower maximum performance and running costs of the cars permitted. Junior WRC is also contested by younger drivers on five events of the World Rally Championship calendar.

Manufacturers must register to be eligible to score in the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers and must compete in every rally of the season with Group Rally1 specification cars (World Rally Car between 1997 and 2021).

As the manufacturers use the highest performance car and usually employ the best drivers, it is usually the case that these crews and cars take the majority of drivers/co-drivers championship points. Thus, combined with the money invested by the manufacturer teams, promotion of the WRC only tends to include the manufacturer crews and privateers in the Rally1 car or World Rally Car. These crews are given Priority 1 (P1) status on rallies and contest the stages before other crews. However it is not unusual for competitors in lower performance cars to take points in the drivers or co-driver's championships.

Any crew entering any WRC rally are eligible to score points in the overall World Rally Championship for Drivers and World Rally Championship for Co-Drivers. This is regardless of car technical class, number of rallies entered or if they are also entered into the support championships. Although co-drivers are permitted to drive the cars at any point during the rally, they must only do so under a 'force majeure'.

The World Rally Championship also features support championships called WRC2 and WRC3. These championships are contested on the same events and stages as the WRC calendar and have tighter restrictions on eligible car criteria.

WRC2 is contested using only Rally2 cars with championships for drivers, co-drivers and teams. Drivers and co-drivers can enter a maximum of 7 events and their best 6 results will count towards their championship tally. Teams must enter two cars into a maximum of 7 events, only 5 of 6 events entered in Europe will score, with points from a 7th rally entered outside Europe also scoring points towards the championship tally. Power stage points are also awarded. Drivers, co-drivers and teams must all nominate if they wish to be eligible for championship points before a rally and can do so independently. For that reason the same crew pair in the same team may compete in all events in a season yet nominate and score points in different events. Crews competing in WRC2 are given Priority 2 status and run the stages immediately after P1 crews. WRC2 replaced SWRC when Group R was introduced in 2013 and the eligibility rules relaxed.

In 2023, WRC2 Challenger Driver and Co-Driver Championships will run for WRC2 drivers who have not won the series before, or who have not driven for a manufacturer entry in the previous 5 years.