The World Rally Championship would like to add another asphalt round to its calendar in 2026 to further even out the split between tarmac and gravel rallies.
Now the championship has published an expanded 14-round calendar for next season, the WRC is already looking to 2026 as demand to join the schedule continues to increase.
Several nations have expressed a desire to feature on the 2026 bill. It is widely anticipated that the USA will make its long awaited return through a gravel event based out of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
While expanding into the US is a key aim, the championship also has a wish to increase the amount of asphalt events. Five is the intended target in a likely 14-round season.
Next season will see a continuation of a calendar featuring four asphalt rallies. Monte Carlo, the Central European Rally and Japan retained their places on the schedule, while the Canary Islands has stepped up from the European Rally Championship to replace Croatia, which is also vying to return in 2026.
Ireland is also another contender that could complete the WRC’s asphalt wish, with the nation’s three-year bid to bring the WRC back to the island taking tentative steps forward after failing to secure the €15 million in funding from the Irish government for 2025.
Motorsport Ireland estimated that the rally would generate €300 million for the local economy as it planned to rotate the rally through three locations – Waterford, Kerry and Limerick – across a proposed three-year deal.
Since April’s confirmation that funding wouldn’t be granted for 2025, Motorsport Ireland has confirmed that talks between the government and the WRC Promoter have continued as it hopes to bring the WRC to Ireland in 2026.
“We are working in cooperation with Motorsport Ireland and in particular their president Aiden Harper, who is doing a fantastic job," WRC event director Simon Larkin told Autosport when asked about Ireland’s bid.
“He is night and day on this and we are working with them as hard as we can to realise their ambition as well.
“I think the championship would love to go to Ireland and we also want to add another tarmac event by one event just to balance it out one more. Ireland is a fantastic candidate for that.”
Larkin added: “It is extremely likely that it [an extra asphalt round] will be within an existing 14 round [schedule].”
Larkin headed to Ireland last month where he met with members of the Irish government to discuss the country’s WRC plan.
“We have met with the major sports division part of the sports ministry and we gave a good presentation, and we are following up on that and we will make another presentation,” he said.
“We are doing a three-event economic impact study on the Poland, Latvia and Central European events.
“These are figures, we hope are going too be very boast-worthy. We take government funding for a lot of these events, and we want to prove that it is not wasted money, and this money comes back as the number of international visitors that do attend these events brings new money into the region and the host city, and that pays it back.”
