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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.
Round | Dates | Race |
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1 | 19–22 January | ![]() |
2 | 7–10 February | ![]() |
3 | 1–3 March | ![]() |
4 | 23–26 March | ![]() |
5 | 14–16 April | ![]() |
6 | 5–7 May | ![]() |
7 | 22–24 May | ![]() |
8 | 8–10 June | ![]() |
9 | 2–5 August | ![]() |
10 | 29–31 August | ![]() |
11 | 19–21 September | ![]() |
12 | 12–15 October | ![]() |
13 | 30 October-2 November | ![]() |
14 | 23–25 November | ![]() |
Sources: [1] [2] |
Manufacturer teams | |||||||||
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Team | Manufacturer | Car | Tyre | No | Drivers | Rounds | |||
![]() | Mitsubishi | Lancer Evo IV Lancer Evo III | M | 1 | ![]() | All | |||
2 | ![]() | 1–2, 5–6, 10, 12 | |||||||
![]() | 3–4, 7–9, 11, 13–14 | ||||||||
10 | ![]() | 8 | |||||||
11 | ![]() | 13 | |||||||
13 | ![]() | 13 | |||||||
![]() | Subaru | Impreza WRC 97 | P | 3 | ![]() | All | |||
4 | ![]() | 1, 5–6, 12 | |||||||
![]() | 2–4, 7–11, 13–14 | ||||||||
8 | ![]() | 14 | |||||||
![]() | Ford | Escort WRC | M | 5 | ![]() | All | |||
6 | ![]() | 1–6 | |||||||
![]() | 7–14 | ||||||||
16 | ![]() | 14 | |||||||
![]() | Toyota | Corolla WRC | M | 7 | ![]() | 10–14 | |||
8 | ![]() | 11, 13 | |||||||
9 | ![]() | 10, 14 | |||||||
10 | ![]() | 12 | |||||||
Source: [3] |
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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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![]() | 19 January–22 January |
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![]() | 7 February–10 February |
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![]() | 1 March–3 March |
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![]() | 23 March–26 March |
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![]() | 14 April–16 April |
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![]() | 5 May–7 May |
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![]() | 22 May–24 May |
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![]() | 8 June–10 June |
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![]() | 2 August–5 August |
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![]() | 29 August–31 August |
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![]() | 19 September–21 September |
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![]() | 13 October–15 October |
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![]() | 30 October–2 November |
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![]() | 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 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.
Manfred Stohl is an Austrian rally driver who debuted in the World Rally Championship in 1991. Stohl's co-driver is fellow Austrian Ilka Minor.
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.
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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 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) is an international rally championship organized by the FIA encompassing rounds in Asia and Oceania. Group N cars dominated the championship for many years but in recent years cars built to R5 and S2000 regulations have tended to be the frontrunners.
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 years in a row from 2000 to 2002. 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 WRC2 is a support championship of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the parent series and crews usually compete immediately after Rally1 class crews. WRC2 is limited to production-based cars homologated under Group Rally2 rules. There are separate specific championship titles awarded to Teams, Drivers and Co-Drivers.
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.