The 2013 FIA World Rally Championship was the 41st season of the World Rally Championship, a rallying championship recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile as the highest class of international rallying. The season was run over 13 rallies, starting with the Rallye Monte Carlo on 16 January, and finishing with the Wales Rally of Great Britain on 17 November. Volkswagen entered the series as a constructor with the Polo R WRC, while Ford and Mini ended their factory support for the Fiesta RS WRC and John Cooper Works WRC respectively, though both continued to make their cars available to customer teams.
The 2013 season also marked the first appearances of the Super 2000 and Group N replacement category, Group R. As part of this introduction, the support series – Super 2000, Group N Production Cars and the World Rally Championship Academy – were restructured, with the Super 2000, four-wheel-drive Group R and Group N categories reorganised as the FIA WRC2 Championship, two-wheel-drive Group R categories becoming FIA WRC3 Championship, and the WRC Academy becoming the FIA Junior WRC Championship. An FIA Production Car Cup will also be awarded to a registered entrant in WRC-2 who is driving a Group N car.
Sébastien Loeb started the season as the defending World Champion after securing his ninth consecutive title in 2012. However, Loeb did not return to contest the full 2013 season. Citroën were the defending Constructors' Champions. Both Loeb and Citroën secured their titles at the 2012 Rallye de France Alsace.
Volkswagen Motorsport driver Sébastien Ogier won the Drivers' Championship at the Rallye de France Alsace, after Qatar World Rally Team driver Thierry Neuville failed to score maximum points on the rally-opening power stage. Neuville finished runner-up in the championship, ahead of Ogier's teammate, Jari-Matti Latvala. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Volkswagen Motorsport won the Championship at the Rally de España as Ogier and Latvala finished in the top two placings. Abu Dhabi Citroën Total World Rally Team finished second with Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team in third.
Calendar The 2013 calendar was announced at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Singapore on 28 September 2012. The 2013 championship was contested over thirteen rounds in Europe, the Americas and Oceania.
Round Dates Rally name Base 1 16–19 January Monte Carlo Rally Valence, Rhône-Alpes 2 7–10 February Rally Sweden Hagfors, Värmland Snow 3 8–10 March Rally Mexico León, Guanajuato Gravel 4 11–14 April Rally de Portugal Faro, Algarve Gravel 5 3–5 May Rally Argentina Villa Carlos Paz, Córdoba Gravel 6 31 May – 2 June Acropolis Rally Loutraki, Corinthia Gravel 7 21–23 June Rally Italia Sardegna Olbia, Gallura Gravel 8 1–4 August Rally Finland Jyväskylä, Keski-Suomi Gravel 9 23–25 August Rallye Deutschland Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate Tarmac 10 13–15 September Rally Australia Coffs Harbour, New South Wales Gravel 11 4–6 October Rallye de France Alsace Strasbourg, Alsace Tarmac 12 25–27 October Rally Catalunya Salou, Tarragona 13 14–17 November Wales Rally GB Deeside, Flintshire Gravel
Calendar and event changes The route of the Acropolis Rally was heavily revised; where the 2012 event was run over , the 2013 rally route was cut back to just , held over two days of competition. Rally Australia is scheduled to return to the calendar, replacing the Rally New Zealand as part of the event-sharing agreement established between the two events in 2008. The route for the event was adjusted from that used in 2011, with existing stages variously merged and trimmed down to make way for new stages and create a compact route that was as long as possible. The route of the Rallye Deutschland was changed for 2013, with the start moving from Trier to Cologne. The first leg of the event included a series of brand-new stages between the two cities that formed the first leg of the event before the competitors arrive in Trier, which served as the base for the rally. Rally de Catalunya, which had been the final event of 2012, was moved back to the final weekend of October to become the penultimate event of the season. The rally will feature a revised route for 2013, with the introduction of night stages and a more even split between tarmac and gravel roads than in previous years. The Rally Italia Sardegna was brought forward, from October to June. The Wales Rally GB will return to its traditional end-of-season date, having been brought forward to September for the 2012 season in a failed bid to promote tourism in the region. The event was relocated from Cardiff to Deeside in the County of Flintshire. This move enabled event organisers to introduce a brand-new route for the 2013 event, the rally run through the regions of Snowdonia and Denbighshire. More than half the stages will either be brand-new or returning after an absence of over twenty years, and will include a return to Gwydyr, a stage which has not featured in the route since the 1960s. The Rally Mexico featured a heavily revised route, which saw the introduction of several brand-new stages and the reconfiguration of older ones. The route of Rally Sweden crossed over the Norwegian border to include stages previously used in Rally Norway.
Signed teams and drivers
World Rally Championship
The following teams and drivers are scheduled to compete in the World Rally Championship during the 2013 season:
World Rally Car entries eligible to score manufacturer points Manufacturer Car Team Drivers Co-drivers Rounds Citroën Citroën DS3 WRC Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 1 Sébastien Loeb Daniel Elena 1–2, 5, 11 2 Mikko Hirvonen Jarmo Lehtinen All 3 Dani Sordo Carlos del Barrio 3–4, 6–9, 12–13 Kris Meeke Chris Patterson 10 Abu Dhabi Citroën Total World Rally Team 10 Dani Sordo Carlos del Barrio 1, 5, 11 Khalid Al Qassimi Scott Martin 2, 4, 6–7, 9–10, 12 Chris Atkinson Stéphane Prévot 3 Kris Meeke Chris Patterson 8 Robert Kubica Michele Ferrara 13 Ford Ford Fiesta RS WRC Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team 4 Mads Østberg Jonas Andersson All 5 Evgeny Novikov Ilka Minor All Qatar World Rally Team 6 Juho Hänninen Tomi Tuominen 1 Nasser Al-Attiyah Giovanni Bernacchini 3, 6, 9, 12 11 Thierry Neuville Nicolas Gilsoul All Lotos Team WRC 12 Michał Kościuszko Maciek Szczepaniak 7, 9 Jipocar Czech National Team 21 Martin Prokop Michal Ernst 2–4 5–9, 11–13 Volkswagen Volkswagen Polo R WRC Volkswagen Motorsport 7 Jari-Matti Latvala Miikka Anttila All 8 Sébastien Ogier Julien Ingrassia All Volkswagen Motorsport II 9 Andreas Mikkelsen Mikko Markkula 4–7, 12–13 Paul Nagle 10–11 Mini Mini John Cooper Works WRC Lotos Team WRC 12 Michał Kościuszko Maciek Szczepaniak 1–5 World Rally Car entries ineligible to score manufacturer points Manufacturer Car Team Drivers Co-drivers Rounds Citroën Citroën DS3 WRC Abu Dhabi Citroën Total World Rally Team Dani Sordo Carlos del Barrio 2 PH Sport Bryan Bouffier Xavier Panseri 1 Benito Guerra Borja Rozada 3 Tomáš Kostka Chris Patterson 11 Ford Ford Fiesta RS WRC Qatar World Rally Team Juho Hänninen Tomi Tuominen 2 Matthew Wilson Giovanni Bernacchini 2 Nasser Al-Attiyah 4 Elfyn Evans 7 Dennis Kuipers Robin Buysmans 4 Gabriel Pozzo Daniel Stillo 5 Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team Hayden Paddon John Kennard 12 Michał Sołowow Chris Patterson 13 M-Sport Henning Solberg Emil Axelsson 2 Juho Hänninen Tomi Tuominen 8 Romain Dumas Denis Giraudet 11 Jipocar Czech National Team Martin Prokop Michal Ernst 1 Team Emap Yacco Julien Maurin Nicolas Klinger 1 Autotek Motorsport Jari Ketomaa Kaj Lindström 2 Even Management Pontus Tidemand Ola Fløene 2 Hasse Gustafsson Mikael Johansson 2 AT Rally Team Oleksiy Tamrazov Pavlo Cherepin 2 Per-Gunnar Andersson Emil Axelsson 7–9 Hoonigan Racing Division Ken Block Alex Gelsomino 3 Stohl Racing Daniel Oliveira Carlos Magalhães 5 BDS Racing Lionel Baud Alex Chioso 11 Seashore Qatar Rally Team Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari Killian Duffy 12 Mini Mini John Cooper Works WRC Prodrive WRC Team Jarkko Nikara Jarkko Kalliolepo 2, 8 ST Motors Oy Riku Tahko Markus Soininen 8 Motorsport Italia Nathan Quinn Glenn MacNeall 10 Volkswagen Volkswagen Polo R WRC Volkswagen Motorsport II Andreas Mikkelsen Mikko Markkula 8
Team changes
Citroën will expand its works team, the Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team, to become a three-car operation, with the team's third car to be run part-time. The Abu Dhabi Citroën Total World Rally Team will run two additional cars as a satellite team of the works outfit which is eligible to score manufacturers' points independently of the works team. Ford will no longer provide manufacturer support to its teams in 2013. The M-Sport Ford World Rally Team will still operate as a WRC team and be eligible to score World Championship points, with the team having acquired backing from Qatar to run three cars. Like Citroën, M-Sport's entries were structured into two teams that are able to score points independently of one another; in the absence of a Ford factory team, the Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team became the de facto lead team, and the Qatar World Rally Team was set up as a satellite operation. Hyundai will return to the series in 2014 as a manufacturer after an eleven-year absence. The company has announced plans to compete with the i20 WRC at selected events in 2013, ahead of a full championship campaign in 2014. Hyundai had previously competed in the WRC from 2000 to 2003 with the Accent WRC. In October 2012, Mini formally terminated their factory-supported WRC programme, but stated that as the John Cooper Works WRC had met the FIA's homologation requirements for World Rally Cars, they would make the car available to customer teams who wished to compete with it. Prodrive announced their intentions to continue campaigning with cars, but Team Mini Portugal, Palmeirinha Rally and the Armindo Araújo World Rally Team were closed down. Following the closure of Team Mini Portugal, several members of Motorsport Italia—the organisation that prepared and managed the Team Mini Portugal entries in 2012—formed a new team with the backing of Polish oil conglomerate Grupa Lotos, to be known as Lotos Team WRC. The team later switched to competing with a Ford Fiesta RS WRC. Volkswagen will enter the championship as a manufacturer team, entering two Polo R WRCs for a full-season campaign – to be headed by Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia – who contested the 2012 season with a Škoda Fabia S2000.
Driver changes
Chris Atkinson, who made several guest appearances with a variety of teams in 2012, will drive for the Abu Dhabi Citroën team at events where Dani Sordo will drive for sister team Citroën Abu Dhabi. Nasser Al-Attiyah, who contested the 2012 season with Citroën will switch to Ford for 2013, driving for Qatar M-Sport, where he will compete in selected events on the 2013 calendar. Khalid Al Qassimi will return to the World Rally Championship in 2013, after spending 2012 on sabbatical. Having spent most of his competitive career at the WRC level driving for Ford, Al Qassimi will switch to Citroën for the 2013 season, driving a DS3 prepared by Citroën Racing. Bryan Bouffier, who won the 2011 Rallye Monte Carlo, will make his debut in a WRC-spec car at the Rallye Monte Carlo driving a privately entered Citroën DS3 WRC. 2012 Production Car Champion Benito Guerra will make his debut in a WRC-spec car at the Rally Sweden. Juho Hänninen will return to the WRC after a four-year absence, driving a Ford Fiesta prepared by M-Sport at selected events on the 2013 calendar. In the time since his last appearance at the WRC level in 2007, Hänninen won the 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge, 2011 Super 2000 World Rally Championship and 2012 European Rally Championship titles. Michał Kościuszko will make his World Rally Car debut, driving a Mini John Cooper Works WRC prepared by Italian entrant Lotos Team WRC. Kościuszko later moved to M-Sport.