WRC's brutally powerful new 2022 cars – gallery

Not since Audi set in motion a four-wheeled revolution has there been such a technical sea-change in the World Rally Championship, with the new Rally 1 regulations coming into play.

Scroll through our gallery below to see this historic new generation of rally cars.

The new rules mean new design approaches and new-look cars, with fresh machines brought by the M-Sport Ford team, Hyundai and and reigning champions Toyota.

Rallying is entering its hybrid era: complementing the 400bhp WRC engines is a 100kW electric motor, resulting in cars that will be blasting round the Col de Turini et al with a peak 500bhp available – these are the most powerful off-road prototypes since the 1980’s Group B era.

However, this power won’t be available all the time, with drivers having to choose when to deploy the battery and manage the regeneration. The system will add an extra 100kg of weight to the cars, already heavier than the previous generation due to strengthened chassis for increased safety.

In the opening stages of this morning however, the cars looked no less spectacular, particularly the newly purple-liveried M-Sport Puma in the hands of the cameo-ing Sébastien Loeb, who went fastest on the first pass in Shakedown before being bested by fellow French WRC legend called Seb – Toyota’s Ogier put the Japanese marque’s new Yaris top of the timesheets on the second run.