Tanak: 2025 Rally1 cars are how a "rally car should be"

The 2025 specification World Rally Championship cars without hybrid power are much "simpler" and "a lot easier" to drive, according to Hyundai Motorsport's Ott Tanak.

The WRC will usher in new technical regulations this season after the FIA decided to remove hybrid power from Rally1 cars, which will also now run on a new control tyre supplied by Hankook.

As a result of the regulation change, Rally1 cars are now expected to be slower minus the extra 130 horsepower that was generated by the hybrid unit, connected to a 1.6-litre turbocharged engine. However, the removal of hybrid power has also made the cars approximately 87 kilograms lighter and therefore more agile.

This week's season opener in Monte Carlo will see the 2025 cars in competitive WRC action for the first time.

WRC crews have been testing the non-hybrid versions of their cars since the back end of last year and in pre-season to adapt to the change while gathering valuable data about the new tyres.

Tanak believes this latest spec of Rally1 car is "like how a rally car should" and the reduction of power has made the car no less exciting to drive.

"It has been a huge job to adapt the car to the regulation change," said the 2019 world champion.

Ott Tänak, Hyundai World Rally Team

Photo by: Vincent Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport

"The concept of the rally car is much simpler again, as before we had all kinds of strategies and then we had to play with the hybrid and how and when to use it for every stage, and add it into our pacenotes. This is now back to a quite basic [car] and how it used to be years ago.

"It is a lot more simpler. I think it is a bit easier to run the car but it is also a lot easier to drive the car.

"Driving-wise I like it, it is like a rally car should be. The car is lighter which is great as in motorsport, weight is everything and if it is lighter the car is more playful, which is positive.

"We lost one millimetre on the turbo restrictor which for a driver is not so positive with less power, but altogether the concept is not too bad."

Despite a lot of unknowns surrounding the performance of the new Hankook tyres, Tanak actually feels more at home in his i20 N heading into the start of the 2025 season compared to last year.

"First of all, we definitely feel much more comfortable going into the season than we did last year," he added.

"We already know the car and the team and we are definitely a lot more prepared than we were a year ago. I feel quite good in the car and especially at the end of last year on tarmac I actually felt good in the car and I had much more confidence.

"It [Monte Carlo] is a rally maybe used to enjoy a bit more in the past. In the hybrid time it has been demanding but I have been going back and forward within the teams, so every year I have been in a new car with a new team so this has been challenging to start a season.

"This year coming back in the same car we have learnings from the past, so this helps a lot."