ERC what's new for 2024: The calendar

Getting Hungary: For the first time, Rally Hungary will open the ERC season with the fifth edition taking place from 12 - 14 April. While Rally Hungary is no stranger to the ERC calendar, much has changed for 2024 with a new surface (asphalt to gravel) and a new base (Nyíregyháza to Veszprém).  

Junior time again: Rally Islas Canarias, the first asphalt round of the season from 2 - 4 May, returns to the Junior ERC schedule after missing out in 2023.  

A shorter wait: Fans had to wait until July for the inaugural BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia in 2023. The second edition of the Karlstad-based event is scheduled from 13 - 15 June.

Old favourite returns: Voted event of the year after its ERC debut in 2014 (above), Rally Estonia is back on the European championship trail from 5 - 7 July having last staged the action in 2016. With Delfi Media its new naming rights sponsor, the event starts and finishes in Tartu but the service park will return to its former home within the grounds of Otepää’s Tehvandi Sports Center.  

Fresh power: While Rally di Roma Capitale retains its late July date (26 - 28 July), event organiser Motorsport Italia is planning a new Power Stage location with details of another new stage due to be announced in the coming months.   

Tweaks for long-standing Zlín: Having hosted the ERC for the first time in 1984, Barum Czech Rally Zlín (below) gets a new venue for the Free Practice, Qualifying and Shakedown stage. Organisers are also planning “some changes and also a few sections which have never been used before” in terms of the competitive route when the all-asphalt contest runs from 16 - 18 August.

Britain is back: Wales returns to the ERC roster from 30 August - 1 September after almost 30 years away with Rali Ceredigion also marking the first UK round of the championship since 2016. The event features rapid but narrow country Tarmac lanes close to the famous forests where the principality once staged Britain’s WRC round.  

From gravel to asphalt: When the ERC stars competed in Poland last season, they did so on gravel stages around the town of Mikołajki to the north. When they return in October they will do so on Tarmac tests in and around the southern city of Katowice for the first Rally Silesia to count for the European championship from 11 - 13 October (below).