FIA in no "immediate rush" to fill vacant rally director role

The new World Rally Championship season began last month in Monte Carlo with the rally director role vacant after Matton's surprise decision to leave the role, which the former Citroen WRC boss had held since 2018.

Matton, instrumental in the formation of the new Rally1 regulations, announced his departure a matter of days after the FIA welcomed its new president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and deputy Robert Reid.

Last month's Monte Carlo season opener was held with Bruno Famin, the FIA's deputy secretary general sports acting unofficially as the interim rally director.

Speaking to media at the event, Reid, who will heavily involved in rally via his new role, confirmed that the FIA won't rush to find a replacement for Matton.

"Again it is something to look at, said Reid," when asked about plans to replace Matton.

"I spent the whole of last week in Geneva and we are finding out lots of information and were understating the organisation as a leadership team we were all there.

"We need to look at what we need going forward and the type of person we need to lead the rally department going forward.

Yves Matton, FIA Rally Director WRC

Photo by: DPPI

"I don't think there is any huge rush. The championship is starting, all the work that goes into that is starting. We need to look at the car for three years time and we need to start looking.

"I don't think there is any immediate rush to go out and look for somebody."

It appears likely the position will continue to be filled on an interim basis when the WRC heads to Rally Sweden at the end of the month.

The task of installing a new rally director is among a number of items Reid wishes to address in the rallying arena through his new role.

As previously reported, Reid is pushing the WRC to start to consider its next generation of regulation and cars to follow Rally1, that could be introduced as earlier as 2025.

In addition to this, the new FIA administration plans to investigate ways it can increase the participation levels in the discipline from the grassroots upwards.