On 7 December 2022, the provisional 2023 calendar was announced during the FIA World Motorsport Council decisions.[3] A calendar update was issued on 3 March 2023.[4] On 21 March, the World RX of Hong Kong, China was announced as the season finale. The event hosted in Hong Kong will mark the first ever championship round in the Asia-Pacific region.[5]
After having trialed a new weekend format in 2022, the format was adjusted again for the 2023 season. The weekend structure was reverted to a system of four heats of five cars (reduced to three heats at double-header events), with two semis and a final with six cars each using a staggered grid. Free practice replaced the shakedown as the first session of the weekend. SuperPole was retained from the 2022 season. Heat 2 will have the fastest drivers from heat 1 going first, whereas heat 3 and 4 will have the slowest drivers from the previous heat going first. At the end of the heats, the top 3 drivers in the heat ranking will be given championship points; 3 to the winner of the heat rankings, 2 to second, and 1 to third. After the final, championship points are awarded to the top 15 drivers across the whole weekend.[8]
On 21 July 2023, at the Lydden Hill Race Circuit in Canterbury, Special ONE Racing's garage was completely destroyed in a fire.[9] Both of the team's Lancia Delta Evo-e RX electric cars were completely destroyed. No one was injured in the fire. For this reason, the World RX of United Kingdom was subsequently cancelled for the RX1e class while a cause was being investigated.[10] Special ONE Racing pulled out of the final six rounds of the season as a result of the incident.[11]
On 1 September 2023, it was announced that the final four rounds of the season in Hong Kong and South Africa would go ahead with the RX1e class drivers competing in the ZEROID X1 car used in the RX2e class.[12] The RX2e season finished at the event before in Germany.
^Following a fire that broke out in Special ONE Racings garage on the friday, the Lydden Hill race weekend was cancelled for the RX1e class while the cause was being investigated.
^All the cars in the 2023 FIA World Rallycross Championship are powered by the same electric powertrain developed by Kreisel Electric.
^All drivers competed in OMSE ZEROID X1 cars for the final four rounds in Hong Kong and South Africa.
^Special ONE Racing was deducted 10 championship points for holding private testing without submitting the necessary application to the FIA.
Special ONE Racing
Hansen World RX Team
Niclas Grönholm
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
Sondre Evjen
Patrick O'Donovan
