Calendar
The 1997 championship was contested over fourteen rounds in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania.
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The 1997 World Rally Championship was the 25th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season saw many changes in the championship. Most notably, Group A was partially replaced by the World Rally Car with manufacturers given the option which regulations to construct to. One inherent benefit to manufacturers by adopting WRC regulations was removing the need to mass-produce road-going versions of the cars that they competed with, under the previous rules for homologation. This meant that vehicles such as the Escort RS Cosworth and Subaru Impreza Turbo no longer had to be mass-produced for general sale in order to compete at World Championship level, and thus acting as a means of attracting increased competition and involvement by manufacturers. In the few years that follow, the Championship saw the added presence of WRC cars from companies such as Toyota, Hyundai, Seat, Citroën, and Peugeot, who would all compete under WRC regulations without having to manufacture equivalent specialised road cars for public sale. Both Ford and Subaru switched to WRC in 1997, except Mitsubishi who stayed with Group A to maintain the links to their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution road cars. Subaru's transition was much more gradual for similar reasons with the early Subaru Impreza WRCs still largely Group A in nature.
Events also became shorter and more compact, event rotation system used in previous three seasons was dropped and registered manufacturers were required to contest the expanded 14 event calendar for the first time. In due course the World Rally Car rules would bring new manufactures into the sport, but at the start of 1997 it was still Subaru versus Mitsubishi versus Ford as before, although, by mid season Toyota Team Europe were back with a Corolla World Rally Car. The Drivers' championship was very tightly contested and in the end Tommi Mäkinen won his second drivers' world championship in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV by a single point ahead of Subaru Impreza WRC driver Colin McRae after the final round in Great Britain. Carlos Sainz was third in the leading Ford Escort WRC. The Manufacturers' title was won by Subaru with Ford second and Mitsubishi third.
One major flaw in the new class system was exposed by the increasing speed of the naturally aspirated front-wheel-drive FIA 2-Litre World Rally Cup cars. The tarmac specification cars built by Peugeot and Renault that competed in the all-tarmac French and Spanish championships became major threats on WRC tarmac events Rallye Catalunya and the Tour de Corse with Gilles Panizzi defeating all but two of the WRC four-wheel-drive turbos in his Peugeot 306 Maxi, taking third place in both events.
The 1997 championship was contested over fourteen rounds in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania.
| Team | Manufacturer | Car | Tyre | No. | Driver | Co-Driver | Rounds |
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 Mitsubishi Ralliart | Mitsubishi | Lancer Evo IV | M | 1 |  Tommi Mäkinen | Seppo Harjanne | All |
| Lancer Evo III | 2 |  Uwe Nittel |  Christina Thörner | 1–2, 5–6, 10, 12 | |||
| Carisma GT Evo IV |  Richard Burns | Robert Reid | 3–4, 7–9, 11, 13–14 | ||||
| Lancer Evo III | Y | 11 |  Ed Ordynski | Mark Stacey | 13 | ||
| 13 | Kenjiro Shinozuka |  Fred Gocentas | 13 | ||||
| 555 Subaru WRT | Subaru | Impreza S5 WRC '97 | P | 3 | Colin McRae | Nicky Grist | All |
| 4 |  Piero Liatti | Fabrizia Pons | 1, 5–6, 12 | ||||
| Kenneth Eriksson | Staffan Parmander | 2–4, 7–11, 13–14 | |||||
| 8 | Piero Liatti | Fabrizia Pons | 14 | ||||
| Impreza 555 | 10 |  Peter 'Possum' Bourne | Craig Vincent | 9 | |||
 Ford Motor Co. Ltd. | Ford | Ford Escort WRC | M | 5 |  Carlos Sainz | Luis Moya | All |
| 6 | Armin Schwarz |  Denis Giraudet | 1–5 | ||||
| Phil Mills | 6 | ||||||
| Juha Kankkunen | Juha Repo | 7–14 | |||||
| 16 | Angelo Medeghini | Barbara Medeghini | 14 | ||||
| Toyota Castrol Team | Toyota | Corolla WRC | M | 7 | Didier Auriol | Denis Giraudet | 10–14 |
| 8 | Marcus Grönholm | Timo Rautiainen | 10 | ||||
| 9 | 14 | ||||||
| 9 | Neal Bates | Coral Taylor | 11 | ||||
| 8 | 13 | ||||||
| 9 |  Freddy Loix | Sven Smeets | 12 |
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| Black = Tarmac | Brown = Gravel | Blue = Ice/Snow | Red = Mixed Surface |
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| Rally Name | Dates Run | Podium Drivers (Finishing Time) | Podium Cars |
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 Monte Carlo Rally | 19 January–22 January |
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| Swedish Rally | 7 February–10 February |
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 Safari Rally | 1 March–3 March |
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 Rally Portugal | 23 March–26 March |
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| Rally Catalunya | 14 April–16 April |
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| Tour de Corse | 5 May–7 May |
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 Rally Argentina | 22 May–24 May |
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 Acropolis Rally | 8 June–10 June |
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| Rally New Zealand | 2 August–5 August |
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| Rally Finland | 29 August–31 August |
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 Rally Indonesia | 19 September–21 September |
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| Rally Sanremo | 13 October–15 October |
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| Rally Australia | 30 October–2 November |
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| RAC Rally | 23 November–25 November |
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| Source: [1] | |||
The World Rally Championship is an international rallying series owned and governed by the FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the second oldest of the FIA's world championships after Formula One. Each season lasts one calendar year, and separate championship titles are awarded to drivers, co-drivers and manufacturers. There are also two support championships, WRC2 and WRC3, which are contested on the same events and stages as the WRC, but with progressively lower maximum performance and running costs of the cars permitted. Junior WRC is also contested on five events of the World Rally Championship calendar.
Richard Alexander Burns was an English rally driver who won the 2001 World Rally Championship, having previously finished runner-up in the series in 1999 and 2000. He also helped Mitsubishi to the world manufacturers' title in 1998, and Peugeot in 2002. His co-driver in his whole career was Robert Reid. He is the only Englishman to have won the World Rally Championship as a driver.
Juha Matti Pellervo Kankkunen is a Finnish former rally driver. His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1983 to 2002. He won 23 world rallies and four drivers' world championship titles, which were both once records in the series. Both Sébastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier have since collected more world titles, but no driver was able to repeat Kankkunen's feat of becoming a world champion with three different manufacturers until Ogier matched this achievement in 2020.
Tommi Antero Mäkinen is a Finnish racing executive and former rally driver.
A World Rally Car is a racing automobile built to the specific regulations set by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and designed for competition in the World Rally Championship (WRC). The cars were introduced in 1997 as a replacement for Group A regulations used in the manufacturers' championship, and were replaced by Group Rally1 in 2022.
Markko Märtin is a retired rally driver from Estonia, who competed in the World Rally Championship from 2000 until 2005.
Kenneth Eriksson is a now retired World Rally Championship rally driver. He drove for several manufacturer teams, including the Subaru World Rally Team, Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Škoda. He also competed for the manufacturer Mitsubishi squad in the Cross-Country World Cup and Dakar events between 1991 and 1992. He was the 1986 Group A Champion in the competition's only year, his best performance, overshadowed by the fatalities that occurred in that season.
Ralliart is the high-performance division of Mitsubishi Motors. It was responsible for development and preparation of the company's rally development of high-performance models and parts available to the public. Ralliart scaled down its business activities in April 2010, though the brand will continue to be used by Mitsubishi.
The 2001 World Rally Championship was the 29th season of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC). In a tightly contested year, Subaru's Richard Burns took his first and only drivers' world title, beating Ford's Colin McRae, Mitsubishi's Tommi Mäkinen and the defending champion Marcus Grönholm of Peugeot. Peugeot successfully defended their manufacturers' title.
The 2000 World Rally Championship was the 28th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 14 rallies. The drivers' world championship was won by Marcus Grönholm in a Peugeot 206 WRC, breaking the streak of Tommi Mäkinen who had won the previous 4 titles for Mitsubishi, ahead of Richard Burns and Carlos Sainz. The manufacturers' title was won by Peugeot, ahead of Ford and Subaru.
The 1999 World Rally Championship was the 27th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 14 rallies. Tommi Mäkinen won his fourth drivers' world championship driving for Mitsubishi, ahead of Richard Burns and Didier Auriol. The manufacturers' title was won by Toyota, ahead of Subaru and Mitsubishi.
The 1998 World Rally Championship was the 26th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 13 rallies. Tommi Mäkinen won his third consecutive drivers' world championship driving for Mitsubishi, ahead of Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae. The manufacturers' title was won by Mitsubishi, ahead of Toyota and Subaru. This year also marked the Ford Escort's last full-season works outing before being replaced by the Ford Focus WRC in 1999. The season ended in dramatic fashion when Carlos Sainz's Corolla WRC stopped approximately 300 metres from the finishing line in the final stage at Margam due to mechanical failure, thus surrendering his fourth place on the rally and handing the title to Mäkinen.
The 1996 World Rally Championship was the 24th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 9 rallies. As a result of their 1995 disqualification, Toyota Team Europe were not allowed to compete in this year's championship, so only three works teams contested the championship. The drivers' world championship was won by Tommi Mäkinen in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3, ahead of Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz. The manufacturers' title was won by Subaru.
The 1995 World Rally Championship was the 23rd season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) World Rally Championship (WRC). The season consisted of 8 rallies. The drivers' world championship was won by Colin McRae in a Subaru Impreza 555, ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz. The manufacturers' title was won by Subaru.
The Peugeot 206 WRC is a World Rally Car based on the Peugeot 206. It was used by Peugeot Sport, Peugeot's factory team, in the World Rally Championship from 1999 to 2003. The car brought Peugeot the manufacturers' world title three consecutive years. Marcus Grönholm won the drivers' title in 2000 and 2002.
The Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT) was Subaru's World Rally Championship (WRC) team. It used a distinctive blue with yellow colour scheme that is a throwback to the sponsorship deal with State Express 555, a BAT cigarette brand popular in Asia. 555 logos were found on Subaru cars from 1993 to 2003, although less prevalent since 1999 due to BAT's participation in Formula One with British American Racing. Subaru's WRC efforts date back to 1980, however, in 1989 British firm Prodrive took over its operations, and its base moved from Japan to Banbury, England.
The FIA Super 2000 World Rally Championship was a support championship of the World Rally Championship (WRC) that ran for three seasons from 2010 to 2012.
The FIA Production car World Rally Championship, or PWRC, was a companion rally series to the World Rally Championship, contested mainly by Group N rally cars.
Citroën Xsara Kit Car is a rally car derived from the Citroën Xsara, it was built by Citroën Sport based on the FIA Kit car F2 regulations to participate in the French Rally Championship, in which it raced from 1998 to 2001.
The 1999 Monte Carlo Rally was a motor racing event for rally cars that was held over three days between 18 and 20 January 1999. It marked the 67th running of the Monte Carlo Rally, and was the first round of the 1999 World Rally Championship season. The 1999 event was based in the city-state of Monaco and was contested over fourteen special stages, covering a total competitive distance of 424.69km.
