The 2020 championship is contested over ten rallies that form part of the World Rally Championship. Crews nominate eight rounds to compete in, seven of which are in Europe; the eighth must be Rally México or Rally Japan. The rallies were mandated by the FIA to prevent a situation that had arisen in 2019 where crews that were competing for championship titles were not competing against each another on the same events.
Calendar changes
returns to the calendar for the first time since 2010, replacing Rally Australia as the final round of the championship. The rally will move away from its original headquarters in Hokkaidō to a new base in Nagoya and will be run on tarmac rather than gravel. The Tour de Corse and the Rallies of Catalunya and Australia removed from the calendar. Organisers of Rally Catalunya agreed to forfeit their place on the 2020 calendar as part of a rotation system that will see European events host rallies in two out of three calendar years. The Tour de Corse was removed in response to concerns from teams about the logistics of visiting Corsica, while Rally Australia was removed as the event's base in a regional centre rather than a major metropolitan area meant that the rally struggled to attract spectators. The Rallies of Portugal and Italy were postponed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The route of Rally Mexico was shortened to allow teams time to pack up and return to their headquarters before several European nations imposed travel bans in a bid to manage the pandemic.
Entries
The following teams and crews are entered in the 2020 World Rally Championship-2:
Summary
's factory team entered selected rounds of the 2019 championship, but will not compete in 2020 after the company withdrew from rallying. The Citroën C3 R5 will remain available to independent teams. PH Sport will run one C3 R5 for Mads Østberg and Torstein Eriksen. M-Sport Ford WRT committed two cars to the championship for crews led by Adrien Fourmaux and Rhys Yates. Gus Greensmith and co-driver Elliott Edmondson, who drove for the team in 2019, will not contest the championship as the joined the sport's premier class. Hyundai Motorsport entered the championship under the name Hyundai Motorsport N. The team entered two Hyundai i20 R5s, one for Nikolay Gryazin and Yaroslav Fedorov, and the other for Ole Christian Veiby and Jonas Andersson. Toksport WRT became the first independent team to join the championship. The team entered a Škoda Fabia R5 Evo for 2017 World Rally Championship-2 drivers' champion Pontus Tidemand, who returned to the championship. Škoda announced that they would not enter a works team, arguing that Škoda Motorsport had proven themselves as a team and that the company would instead turn to supporting independent teams and drivers in 2020. Similarly, Volkswagen will not enter a works team. The company cancelled all of its petrol-powered motorsports programmes to focus on electric racing, but will allow development of the Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 to continue.
Changes
In 2019, the championship was run as the World Rally Championship-2 Pro, a class within the World Rally Championship-2 for professional crews entered by manufacturer teams. However, the multi-class structure was found to be too confusing, and so the category was re-structured for the 2020 season. Professional crews will contest the World Rally Championship-2 and privateers will contest the World Rally Championship-3. Some privately-entered crews will be eligible to compete in the World Rally Championship-2 provided that they can demonstrate their commitment to contesting the entire championship.
Results and standings
Season summary
Scoring system
Points are awarded to the top ten classified finishers in each event. Unlike the World Rally Championship, extra points are not awarded for the Power Stage.
