Twelve venues unveiled for 2021 World rally champs

Twelve venues have been unveiled in the provisional calendar for the 2021 World Rally Championships, with steps taken to cater for any further coronavirus-hit events.

This year's calendar features only eight because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 2021 calendar features a debut for Croatia and a second event for Estonia, which this year was called up at short notice to host a post-lockdown restart event in September.

Kenya's iconic Safari Rally and Japan, which were both included in this year's schedule but cancelled due to the pandemic, are also listed.

The 2021 season features nine European events and three further overseas, with the majority of events scheduled from June onwards.

Two of the final three rounds take place outside Europe. Chile and Spain precede Japan, which hosts the coveted final round in November. It will be Japan's first event hosting in 11 years.

"Covid-19 has hit international sporting events extremely hard. WRC has not been spared, leading to the unfortunate cancellation of several events throughout 2020," said WRC promoter managing director Jona Siebel.

"So, in developing the 2021 FIA World Rally Championship calendar, we had to take pragmatic and strategic decisions on the continuing impact on global travel next year.

"We could not foresee any long-haul events being held in a safe manner for the public, or for our large group of travelling staff, suppliers, competitors and media, for the first five months of 2021.

"It’s essential our event organisers are fully committed to managing the difficult Covid-19 controls we can expect to be in place next year while delivering high-quality championship rounds. I’m confident the 12 rallies chosen for next year will not let us down."

In a further measure, rallies in Turkey, Latvia, Belgium, Greece, Italy (Monza) and Argentina will be on a reserve list of contingency events in case of Covid-19 issues, the latter as an option for non-European rounds.

PROVISIONAL 2021 WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP CALENDAR

January 21-24: Monte Carlo
February 11-14: Sweden
April 22-25: Croatia
May 20-23: Portugal
June 3-6: Italy
June 24-27: Kenya
July 15-18: Estonia
July 29-August 1: Finland
August 19-22: Great Britain
September 9-12: Chile
October 14-17: Spain
November 11-14: Japan