World Rally Championship Rally1 crews will receive an increased tyre allocation to tackle Rally Chile’s abrasive gravel stages this week.
In a bid to avoid a repeat of the series of punctures and tyre delaminations that plagued Rally Paraguay last month, the FIA has made changes to the tyre allocation for this weekend’s round in Chile.
Under the current regulations, Rally1 crews normally have 28 tyres at their disposal for a gravel rally, but the allocation has now been expanded to 36 tyres, as confirmed by an FIA bulletin.
Rally2 crews will continue to have the originally prescribed allocation of 30 tyres. Chile’s stages have previously served up a high puncture risk in the past, with the 2023 running of the event causing several tyre failures for then WRC tyre supplier Pirelli.
After analysing the failures in Paraguay, current WRC tyre supplier Hankook says the unusually warm weather combined with the abrasive nature of the stages caused unexpected extra tyre wear.
“What we saw in the [Friday] morning was much more wear than we expected, much more than last year,” Hankook’s Steven Cho explained to Autosport. “When you see lots of wear, it means that it’s very abrasive and very rough.
“Friday’s loops were really long, so with the temperature being hotter than it was last year, the way that the stages looked with the really compacted clay and the bedrock coming through, it was very hard for the tyre. Ourselves and the drivers and teams found the aggressiveness of the roads to be more than I think anybody expected.
Oliver Solberg, Elliott Edmondson, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: Toyota Racing
“I understand the drivers’ frustrations. At the end of the day, they’re the ones in the cockpit for sure. But, as they are in the cockpit and they have the most focused experience and feeling and challenges on the circuit, they also sometimes don’t have the full view.
“We do still feel that on the broad spectrum, we’ve made a step forward with the current specification. But clearly, what we’re finding now is that in certain specific conditions, we’re still challenged.
“We had cooler temperatures and moisture in Portugal, and the same tyres that we used here again performed well. We’re open-minded to hear everyone’s opinion and comment, and we’ll make the best decision that we can going forward as much as possible.”
Hankook is continuing to develop its tyres for 2027 with the exact specifications not yet fixed for next year ahead of the introduction of the WRC’s new technical regulations.
“We’re working diligently with development and we’re doing it with the manufacturers. We’re not completely fixed yet on what we’re going to do for 2027,” Cho added.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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