Croatia will return to the World Rally Championship calendar in 2026 after securing a new multi-year agreement. 

The asphalt event made its WRC debut in 2021, quickly becoming a regular hosting four editions of the event, before losing its place on the 2025 calendar.

The WRC Promoter was in discussions to renew its agreement, with a three-year deal on the table beginning from 2025, but organisers were unable to secure the support and guarantees from the local government.

However, government support has since been sourced in order to strike a new three-year deal. The agreement will see the event host a round of the European Rally Championship next year followed by a return to the WRC for 2026 and 2027.

“When Croatia Rally joined the WRC in 2021, we knew it would become an instant classic, and it hasn’t disappointed in each of the last four editions,” said WRC event director Simon Larkin. 

“We are delighted to continue this adventure for the next three years across both our championships. It will definitely add a new sporting challenge to the ERC, and we think it will appeal to not just our regular ERC competitors, but likely some WRC teams as well.

“We’d like to thank the Croatian Government at all levels – led by Sports Minister Tonci Glavina – as well as Daniel Saskin, the President of the Organising Committee, for their unwavering support of this project.”

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Saskin added: “With the support of the Croatian government and our partners, Croatia will host the ERC next year and welcome the WRC back in subsequent years. 

“I also thank WRC Promoter for recognising the quality of our organisation and choosing to continue hosting these motorsport competitions in Croatia. Through our experience and successful organisation, we continue to position Croatia as a motorsport hub.”

Croatia’s inclusion on the 2026 WRC calendar ensures there will be at least four asphalt rounds on the schedule, joining Monte Carlo, Canary Islands and Japan, the latter having signed a new three-year deal last month. 

The WRC has indicated that it would like to add a fifth asphalt round to its 2026 calendar, with Ireland among the candidates hoping to fill that berth.

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The WRC is currently facing uncertainty over its technical rules for next season after the FIA proposed changes that have been strongly opposed by manufacturers.

In February, the FIA released its vision for the short and long term future of the championship, which included proposed changes to sporting, technical and promotional aspects of the series.

While teams have been largely supportive of the majority of the proposed vision, Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport Ford collectively wrote to the FIA requesting the current Rally1 technical rules remain in place instead of the FIA’s proposed changes. The tweaks to the rules include the removal of hybrid power, a reduction in the aero, achieved by a modified rear wing, and a smaller air restrictor, to bring the cars closer to Rally2 vehicles.

The proposal also includes a plan to introduce an upgrade kit to Rally2 car, which has not been met positively by Rally1 and Rally2 manufacturers.

The idea behind the proposal is to increase the number of cars competing at the sharp end of rallies while the move is seen by the FIA as the first step towards the introduction of new Rally1 regulations for 2027 and beyond.

Manufacturers believe the FIA should focus on 2027 having raised concerns about the short timeframe and the outlay of resources needed to develop revised Rally1 cars, which prompted the push-back letter.

Speaking at last week’s Croatia Rally, team bosses labelled the 2025 rules limbo as a “critical” situation that needs to be resolved with manufacturers required to communicate the future to their boards.

Following a two-day WRC Commission meeting earlier this month, the FIA is now confident that it is edging closer to a compromise with May now the target to deliver its decision to teams ahead of the June World Motor Sport Council meeting.

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

“The position we are in at the moment is we need to find harmony with the manufacturers and honestly I don’t think we are so far away,” said Wheatley at a media roundtable including Motorsport.com.

“We have another World Motor Sport Council coming in June where we have to make the preparations six weeks before and we are now right in the process and we are meeting constantly with the manufacturers and exchanging ideas.

“The latest date [to communicate the technical rules] is the June World Motor Sport Council. There is an impression that there is a war between the FIA and the manufacturers and there is not. We had a meeting in Geneva that wasn’t 100% negative, we had a very good two-day discussion about a number of topics.

“We are fully understanding of the position of where the manufacturers are. They just want to do nothing, nothing at all.”

When asked if the plan is to work on a compromise on regulations with the manufacturers, he added: “I think that is where we are at the moment. That is where the discussion is. We have all the options on the table. We know what the target is and what the aim is.”

Wheatley also clarified the three reasons why the FIA has taken such an intervention to propose changes for 2025 and 2026 instead of focusing on just 2027.

He added: “There were three key elements, the first was Pirelli not committing [to a new tyre deal]. The second, the drivers not wanting to do the championship and the third was, and we always have this discussion about Ford whether they are in or out, but there was an additional layer and that was about Hyundai continuing [in the WRC]. That has been a fundamental change in the discussion going forward.”

The WRC Commission is set to meet again on April 25.

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The title rivals were locked in a titanic scrap across the day’s eight stages, which saw the lead change hands and the margin between the pair never exceeding five seconds, having started Saturday tied on overall times.

A maximum attack approach, assisted by a beneficial tyre call in unpredictable weather, ultimately resulted in Hyundai driver Neuville ending the day with a 4.9s lead from Evans. The pair picked up 18 and 15 provisional championship points respectively, which can be collected if they finish the rally on Sunday.

Eight-time world champion and part-time Toyota driver Sebastien Ogier kept himself in the victory battle, 11.6s adrift in third, scooping up 13 points. Hyundai’s Ott Tanak held fourth [+1m15.5s] to claim 10 points ahead of M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux [+1m35.4s], who snared a provisional eight points.

Threatening skies again put the focus on tyres for Saturday’s afternoon loop as Toyota clearly expected rain, selecting four soft and two wets as the package for its three GR Yaris entries.

Hyundai and M-Sport were more conservative, opting to take hard-, soft- and wet-compound rubber in case the rain didn’t arrive.

Light rain greeted the crews ahead of Stage 13 [Smerovisce-Grdanjci -15.72 km] before the shower became increasingly heavier, which played into Toyota’s hands.

Evans took advantage of the changeable weather and a stage win duly followed as he re-took the overall lead from Neuville in the process by a margin of two seconds. Evans was however unsure if the tyre call would pay off for the remainder of the loop.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Neuville dropped 6.7s to stage winner Evans, who took the stage by a second from team-mate Ogier.

“I pushed very hard and tried to carry on, I knew we were losing time, but we limited the time loss. It’ll be difficult [to bring it back],” said Neuville.

M-Sport’s Fourmaux also bore the brunt of a wrong tyre decision as the Frenchman ceded 15.5s to the lead group.

“I’m not happy. I don’t understand how we can be so bad. We have a lot of data and yet we cannot make a good tyre choice. It’s so disappointing,” said Fourmaux.

Tanak also endured tyre woes, revealing that he had a moment due to the lack of grip on the stage.

However, the tide turned in favour of Hyundai and M-Sport after stage 14 [Stojdraga-Gornja Vas 20.77km]. The early runners encountered a damp start to the stage, but the road surface would become drier by the time the leaders tackled the test.

This benefitted the hard-tyre-shod Neuville, and despite a late shower that threatened to thwart his run, he responded with an impressive stage win to snatch the lead back from Evans.

Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

A committed Neuville stopped the clocks 3.9s faster than Ogier and 4.3s quicker than Evans. The net result was Neuville leaving the stage with a 2.3s lead over Evans.

“When we found out there could be rain at the end, we just went flat out,” he said.

While Neuville’s risk-filled run paid off, team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen was caught out by a tight left resulting in his i20 N understeering into a bank. Luckily, the low-speed impact didn’t cause any damage, but on the final stage, he suffered a delaminating tyre.

The weather pendulum continued to swing in Hyundai’s favour as the field welcomed a dry road and no sign of rain for the penultimate stage [Vinski Vrh – Duga Resa — 8.78km].

Once again, the hard-tyre-shod Neuville prevailed but the Belgian revealed his run to a stage win was “on the edge”. Neuville pipped Ogier by 1.6s and was a tenth faster than Evans as this relentless scrap for the victory took another twist.

Tanak was the best of the rest, posting the fourth fastest, having conceded that there was nothing to fight for, sitting in a relatively comfortable fourth overall.

Neuville completed Saturday in style by winning stage 16 [Pecurkovo Brdo – Mreznicki Novaki – 9.11km] to claim his ninth fastest time, pipping Ogier by 0.5s after a faultless run. The time was enough to extend his overall lead to 4.9s after Evans reached the stage end 0.9s adrift. 

Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin maintained his lead of the second-tier class from Citroen team-mate Yohan Rossel.

Four more stages await the crews on Sunday.