Reckoning
It hasn’t been a great few years for the World Rally Championship. Some manufacturers have pulled out due to a lack of promotion and exposure, and the cars have become increasingly irrelevant thanks to misguided technical regulations. Everyone’s been left scratching their heads at an unnecessarily complicated points system.
The sport’s profile casts a thin shadow compared to the epic battles we saw in the ’90s and early Naughties. Instead of Subaru vs. Mitsubishi or Citroen vs. Ford, this year it’s been Toyota vs. Toyota vs. Toyota. Morizo’s marauders at Gazoo Racing have absolutely dominated the running, having locked up the manufacturer’s title a month ago, clinching five in a row.
But that doesn’t mean it’s been a boring season. Oh no. Toyota’s cadre of drivers has been pushing each other so hard that even the typically stoic Sébastien Ogier has cracked. It’s been a thrilling ride, and it’s likely to close with an epic shoot-out between three contenders, each with something to prove.
Kalle Rovanperä – 248 points
A last chance for Mr. YOLO.
In 2022, Kalle Rovanperä became the WRC’s youngest champion at 22. He absolutely blitzed the competition and then celebrated by winning it again in 2023. From there, he threw caution and contract to the wind and took some time off for the ’24 season, running half the rounds.
During his time away he did a little drifting, tried his hand at circuit racing, and even got a go in a Red Bull F1 car. This year, though, he’s been all-in on WRC. He starts the final round of 2025 24 points behind, meaning he’ll have to hope for some trouble from the two ahead of him to really have a chance.
I know he will not be holding back in his quest for a third title. Rovanperä has already said he’ll not be back for next year’s WRC season. He’s instead heading to the world of open-wheel racing, Japan’s Super Formula specifically. I’m convinced he’ll put on a very good show for us there, but not as good a show as this final round.
Seb Ogier – 269 points
The Ice Man is set to strike.
Sébastien Ogier has won more rally championships than every other rally driver in history save one: that other Seb. Nine-time champion Sébastien Loeb holds the record.
Ogier has eight, and as you can imagine, he’s keen to at least get his name level with his fellow Frenchman at the top of the listing. At one point, Ogier seemed less committed to the pursuit, semi-retiring there a few seasons back. He’s since come back with a renewed love of winning, and a new co-driver, Vincent Landais.
Ogier has been looking unbeatable in recent rounds. At least, that is, until he stuffed his Yaris into a tree at the Central European Rally. It was a rare mistake that he made up for by winning the following round in Japan, clawing back a few key points from his biggest rival going into the final round.
Elfyn Evans – 272 points
Over-due yet again.
Where Ogier drives races with cold precision and Rovanperä wheels his machine with glee, Elfyn Evans drives like a man in crisis, squinting and grimacing and leaning forward as if to will his machine quicker to the line. He enters the final rally just three points ahead, meaning even a second-place finish isn’t good enough to guarantee him the title. If Ogier is still running, he’ll need to win if he wants to guarantee the 2025 World Rally Championship.
Elfyn has placed second in the driver’s championship four times, most recently last year, when Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville took the crown. In 2023, Evans was second to Rovanperä, and back in 2021, he was pipped in the final round by a hard-charging Ogier, who used his on-road skills to dominate a rally that mostly criss-crossed the historic Formula One venue at Monza.
If you’re not rooting for Wales’ Elfyn Evans to win, you must be French, Finnish, heartless, or some combination of the three.
The Battleground
We’re in a sad state in many international motorsports, where historic venues that have hosted championship-winning heroics are being replaced by new venues offered by the highest bidder. With that unsavory intro in mind, welcome to the 14th round of the 2025 World Rally Championship, which will take place for the first time in Saudi Arabia.
That’s right, instead of iconic scenes like Rally GB, which saw so many final-round showdowns over the years, we’ll witness a new round that runs through the desert around Jeddah, on the western coast of the country. Seventeen stages covering just short of 200 miles will run from Wednesday through Saturday. Yes, this season will not end on Sunday, seemingly in respect for the Saudi weekend, which runs Friday to Saturday (a custom that Formula One has of late ignored).
Don’t get me wrong, anyone who’s been watching the non-eponymous Dakar Rally lately knows that the Saudi Desert has some spectacular sights. I’ve been there a few times and have been lucky to see some of that epic terrain myself, including getting covered by competitor-flung dust.
As visually stunning as it may very well be, it’s simply not a place that I’m excited to watch more cars race through. It’s a shame we won’t get to see these three duke it out in a more storied stadium, but it should be an epic fight regardless.
How to Watch
Have I piqued your interest? Good. Now the trick will be finding a way to watch along. There are no major broadcasters for WRC events in the U.S., nor do any mainstream content providers carry the action. You’re going to have to go find it.
The official way is Rally TV, which offers live streaming with commentary of every stage. It’s unfortunately a bit spendy. If you can handle a one-year commitment, it’s $129.99. That’s the same cost as F1’s streaming package which gets you 24 rounds of action. A single month of Rally TV is $14.99.
I’d love to see the service launch a lower-cost tier that only includes per-day highlight reels instead of live streaming, but alas, such a thing is not available.
Tragically, that’s the only way to access things in anything approaching real-time. Red Bull TV formerly posted regular highlight packages, but this season has only been providing full event recaps, often posted days later. They’re well produced and usually worth the wait, but you’ll have to dodge spoilers if you’re going this route.
However you find it, make the effort. I have a feeling it’ll be worth it.
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