After meeting in Macau on Tuesday, the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council has introduced several rule changes to the World Rally-Raid Championship and Baja Cups that will take place effective immediately.

Stock

The maximum price to buy a “new ready-to-compete” vehicle for the Stock category has been increased to €350,000 to account for inflation in actual production cars.

While no current Stock competitors are hybrids, they are now permitted to use battery packs from other cars produced by the same manufacturer. This is to give teams a bit of a break since batteries in typical 4WD hybrids are heavier large and heavy, meaning they can switch it out for a lighter unit.

Start order

If it is not set by the finishing results of the previous stage, such as if a Prologue took place (as is the case for bajas and at Dakar, while the FIA has dropped prologues for other W2RC rounds) the start order has been tweaked to be more lenient.

Now, drivers in every class save for Truck who record a stage time within 117% of the overall stage winner will start ahead of the slower cars. Previously, one had to be within 110%.

The FIA starting lineup would be as follows:

• The previous stage’s winner
• Ultimate and Stock drivers whose stage time yesterday is within 110% of the winner
• Gold drivers in Ultimate
• Silver drivers in Ultimate if they asked for repositioning
• Everyone else with a time within 117% of the overall
• Trucks

For safety reasons, Silver drivers can now request for their start time to be changed twice.

Stage penalties

Retiring from a stage “earns” you a stage penalty that drops you to the bottom of the order, but you’re still allowed to continue the race if possible. If you do so multiple times, you’re out of the rally.

Under the revised rule, priority drivers can now have two stage retirements (three for marathons like Dakar), upping by one in each category. This policy was already in place for non-priority drivers.

Priority status

Platinum and Gold priorities have been consolidated into a single Gold status.

Priority statuses are set based on driver achivements. Before the merger, Platinum drivers included the last five Dakar Rally overall winners and those who finished in the top three in W2RC points over the last three years.

Gold drivers are those earning points toward the W2RC manufacturers’ championship, W2RC overall race winners, W2RC Challenger and SSV champs, the top five and stage winners at Dakar, and the top three overall in the World Baja Cup.

Silver classification remains for the Challenger and SSV runners-up and third places, the top three in each of the Baja Cups, and all drivers signed up for points.

The 2026 season had seven Platinum drivers: Nasser Al-Attiyah, Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Henk Lategan, Lucas Moraes, Stéphane Peterhansel, Carlos Sainz, and Juan Cruz Yacopini. With the rule change, all of them will join the 20 Gold drivers.

Safety changes

On the equipment side, the FIA 8855-2021 or FIA 8862-2009 seats will be mdanted across every category starting in 2027. Exceptions will be granted for Ultimat and Challenger cars whose roll cages were homologated before 2024, along with Trucks, T4-, and T2-subcategory cars.

Seats can also be adjusted using cushions and foam inserts in designated areas. Later this summer, the FIA intends to publish “Cross-Country Seat Headrest Foam Guidelines” to ensure the driver’s head remains safe and comfortable.

Featured image credit: Edophoto / DPPI