World motorsport’s governing body will this week give its public backing to an auction of the commercial rights to the World Rally Championship (WRC).
Sky News understands that the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) will endorse a tender process as Red Bull and KW25, the existing rights-holders, seek an exit with seven years remaining on their deal.
Red Bull and German investment company KW25 have been exploring a sale of the asset for close to a year, and have held talks with interested parties, including the private equity firm EQT, Sky News revealed in June.
The impending exit of Red Bull may fuel speculation about the future of its other motorsport interests, and comes in the wake of Christian Horner’s tumultuous departure as the team principal of F1’s Red Bill Racing.
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A sale could value the WRC commercial rights entity, which is called WRC Promoter, and also owns rights to the European Rally Championship, at close to £500m.
The WRC has seen broadcast and in-person audiences grow in recent years, with a 1.3bn cumulative television audience and more than 4 million attendees at races last year.
The next round of this year’s Championship takes place next week in Paraguay.
The tender process comes amid a strengthening of the FIA’s operational and financial performance under president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
It recently struck a €20m decade-long extension to Liberty Global’s deal to run the Formula E electric car-racing series.
Talks with Formula One’s management about a new commercial rights deal are expected to result in a revised version of the sport’s Concorde Agreement before the end of the year.
Structured as a not-for-profit body, the FIA has turned a deficit of €24m in 2021, the year that Mr Ben Sulayem was elected, into a surplus of close to €5m last year.
“The FIA World Rally Championship is at an exciting moment in its history”, Mr Ben Sulayem said in a statement issued to Sky News.
“Millions of fans around the world are following the action, and new, younger audiences are driving its global growth.
“This Championship has enormous potential, and it is our responsibility as a governing body to ensure it continues to grow and reaches new heights.
“This process is an important step and will shape the long-term vision for the WRC, and I am confident that, together with the right partner, we can take the championship to the next level, preserve its proud heritage, and grow its global reach for generations of fans to come.”
After nine rounds of the 2025 WRC series, the championship standings are headed by British driver Elfyn Evans.
There are five remaining races this year.
As well as private equity firms such as EQT, other bidders for the WRC rights are likely to include specialist sports investors and media companies, according to banking sources.
