WHAT'S NEW FOR 2019

Thursday 4th of April 2019

The sixth season of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy gets underway at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi this week.

There are a number of changes and additions to World RX for this season, with different rules, new circuits and different teams joining the field.

The most significant change to the sporting regulations is the grid order from Q2 onwards. Q1 will be dictated by the pre-race draw, but for Q2, and Q3 the race order can be reversed by a random draw. Carried out at the end of the last race of Q1 and Q2 the draw will decide if the race order is as usual (fastest cars last) or reversed so that the fastest cars will race first.

At each event a Driver Assistant to Stewards will be present. A number of experienced rallycross drivers will take up the role over the 10 round season, starting with 2015 FIA European Rallycross Champion Tommy Rustad this weekend in Abu Dhabi. There has also been a specific code of driving conduct for rallycross added to Appendix L of the FIA Regulations.

Within a number of minor changes to the technical regulations, Race Nets will now be used in all World RX cars. These will be visible when onboard views are shown and are triangular nets that pass each side of the driver and are connected to the dash board. The Race Nets have been introduced to increase driver protection by offering better restriction on the movement of limbs in the event of a crash.

World RX will visit two new venues in the 10 round season, starting this weekend at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, then travelling to Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium for round three, where the iconic Eau Rouge and Raidillon will heavily feature. The FIA European Rallycross Championship will have a standalone round at Estering in Germany later in August, and all Euro RX qualifying races will be streamed live on the World RX channels.

As part of the 16 car permanent entry list in World RX, four newcomers join the field; Belgium’s Guillaume De Ridder (GCK Academy), Lithuania’s Rokas Baciuska (ESmotorsport), France’s Cyril Raymond (GCK Academy) and Hungary’s Krisztian Szabo (EKS Sport). Britain’s Liam Doran and Norway’s Andreas Bakkerud line up for new team Monster Energy RX Cartel, and STARD has expanded to a two-car team. Under GC Kompetition and GCK Academy, GCK will run four cars. Britain’s Oliver Bennett (Xite Racing) is now a permanent entry, together with Germany’s Timo Scheider (All-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport).