World Rally Championship: Rally Scotland to take place in October as 2027 calendar released

The season will start on the icy tarmac roads in Monte Carlo from 21-24 January before rounds in the snow in Sweden and vast landscapes of Safari Rally Kenya.

Three tarmac events in a row then take place in Croatia, the Canary Islands and Japan, before the Acropolis Rally in Greece.

The WRC’s Italian round moves from September to July, and will switch from the gravel roads of Sardinia to tarmac in Rome.

The high-speed events in Estonia and Finland retain their back-to-back summer slots before the USA hosts its first WRC round in 39 years from 26-29 August.

The WRC last held a points-paying round in the USA at the Olympus Rally in 1988, and the championship will return as a gravel round after a successful candidate event in June.

Rally Scotland takes place in early October before a South American double-header, in Paraguay and Chile, and Rally Saudi Arabia round out the calendar.

A Saudi Arabia race was set to end the 2026 season but it was cancelled because of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Rally de Portugal will not feature in the 2027 calendar but is in talks to return in 2028.

The upcoming season will mark a new era for the sport with the introduction of a new promoter along with WRC27 regulations which will limit costs and reduce the horsepower of the top cars.

It will also mark the return of Ford as a manufacturer to the sport in a collaboration with the M-Sport banner.

2027 World Rally Championship calendar

Rallye Monte-Carlo 21-24 January

Rally Sweden 18-21 February

Safari Rally Kenya 18-21 March

Croatia Rally 8-11 April

Rally Islas Canarias 6-9 May

Rally Japan 3-6 June

Acropolis Rally Greece 24-27 June

Rally Italia Roma 8-11 July

Rally Estonia 22-25 July

Rally Finland 29 July-1 August