The 2021 WRC calendar was released on 22 October. I’m a little slow looking at it as I was not notified via my WRC news feed of the calendar’s “finalization”. Below is the calendar’s tentative although likely schedule:
- 21-24 January Rally Monte-Carlo
- 11-14 February Rally Sweden
- 22-25 April Rally Croatia
- 20-23 May Rally Portugal
- 3-6 June Rally Italy
- 24-27 June Rally Kenya
- 15-18 July Rally Estonia
- 29 July-1 August Rally Finland
- 19-22 August Rally GB
- 09-12 September Rally Chile
- 14-17 October Rally Spain
- 11-14 November Rally Japan
This is a 12 round calendar which I do like. That being said, are they even going to run a ERC with all their events being WRC rounds. How is this the “World” Rally Championship. This is more like the World Rally Championship of Europe. There isn’t a round in North America, Middle East, or Oceana. Now I applaud the return of Kenya and Japan and the likely move of Rally GB to the Circuit of Ireland but really...........Estonia? Is the pre-Finland round necessary? I get Croatia, they wanted a rocky car killer, but isn’t that what Turkey was for and it was kinda their Middle East round? If the WRC wants to keep me as a spectator and customer they need a more diverse line-up. Only keep the legacy WRC rounds: Monte-Carlo, Sweden, Portugal, Finland and GB. Sorry Italy, unless you want to go back to San Remo, you’re out. Either bring back Mexico or give Canada a shot. Hell, they’ve had problems with snow in Sweden, Canada always has snow! I would love to see Olympus come back for the USA or even a different US rally like LSPR (formerly Press-On-Regardless.....which was once a WRC round). I get Chile as a replacement for Argentina and that is ok but I would like both. New Zealand or Australia could both come back. Maybe they should give Jordan another shot or even Ivory Coast. What about China, it’s a huge auto market which never got a chance to run? I also understand that hosting a WRC round can be costly for some countries (hence no Turkey) but the WRC and/or the FIA need to help out to make this a true World Rally Championship.