FIA announces 2015 World Rally Championship calendar

The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) has announced the 2015 World Rally Championship (WRC) calendar with some significant date changes in the first part of the season.

The FIA has also confirmed the start order and format of rallies for the 2015 season. In a statement, FIA says rallies will continue to be organized in a span of two and a half days, from Friday to Sunday with a minimum of 300 km of special stages. The format for the 2015 WRC events will be in Championship order for Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, FIA says P1 and P2 crews will run in reverse classification order.

The 2015 WRC season will adopt Rally 2 regulations for the first time. Under Rally 2 regulations, a car which has not started from the start line within 20 seconds will be considered as retired. However, retired competitors are given the opportunity to restart on the following leg.

Moreover, the transmission of performance data to or from a competing car that does not concerns safety is not allowed during special stages to make the competition more exciting.

The 2015 FIA World Rally Championship calendar is confirmed as follows:

January 22-25 Rally Monte Carlo

February 12-15 Rally Sweden

March 5-8 Rally Mexico

April 16-19 Rally Argentina

May 21-24 Rally Portugal

June 11-15 Rally Italy

July 2-5 Rally Poland

July 30 to August 2 Rally Finland

August 20-23 Rally Germany

September 10-13 Rally Australia

October 1-4 Rally France

October 22-25 Rally Spain

November 12-15 Rally Great Britain