WRC Central Europe: why tyres matter

For the penultimate round of the World Rally Championship season comes a brand-new challenge: the Central European Rally. It's a unique concept in the modern WRC with special stages to take place in three different countries: Germany, the Czech Republic, and Austria. And while most of those stages will take place over a relatively small geographical area – clustered around the meeting point of the three nations – we can expect a variety of quite different asphalt roads and surfaces.

While this will be the first time that Czech roads have been driven in the WRC, rally fans will be familiar with the nature of the roads around Zlin in the east of the country from the European Rally Championship: narrow, bumpy, and technical tracks, often under trees, and with crests. There will be plenty of that on the Central European Rally stages in the south-west of the country, along with many faster and smoother sections.

A similar variety of roads will be found on the German stages in the hills of Bavaria, which will be quite different to the well-known tests in the Mosel vineyards and Baumholder military ranges, and across the border in Austria.

Adding to the difficulty will be the date of the rally, deep in the European autumn. That could well bring low temperature as well as rain and mud, making grip hard to find. It could make tyre choice absolutely crucial, too. Pirelli's soft-compound P Zero RA WRC asphalt tyre has been selected as the main choice to offer optimal grip with the hard-compound available as an alternative for with long stages and abrasive surfaces. The Cinturato RWB is also available for wet conditions.

The Central European Rally is a true cross-border effort between motorsport authorities in Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria. The Germans bring the organisational experience and efficiency honed while hosting their own WRC round from 2002 to 2019, the Czechs have the enthusiasm and long-held desire to join the calendar, while Austria – already a big player in the WRC through Red Bull – offers some spectacular roads as it returns for the first time since the inaugural season of 1973.

The event's roots lie in the 3-Stadte Rallye (literally Three-City Rally) which in the 1960s connected Munich, Vienna, and Budapest, and was run for the German championship until 2022.

While the service park will be located in the German city of Passau – around two hours' east of Munich – the rally will start more than 200 kilometres north in the Czech capital, Prague. From the start ramp outside Prague Castle on Thursday lunchtime, crews will head to a super special stage on the outskirts of the city, followed by another fan-friendly test in Klatovy. Friday is the longest day of the rally and is also based solely in the Czech Republic, while Saturday and Sunday straddle the border between Germany and Austria. There are 18 stages in all, with a total of 310 competitive kilometres.