List of World Rally Championship Co-Drivers' champions

Daniel Elena is the most successful WRC co-driver champion, winning 9 times with driver Sébastien Loeb.

The World Rally Championship (WRC) is a rallying series administered by Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), motorsport's world governing body.[1] The WRC was first contested in 1973 though only awarded championship titles to manufacturers to begin with.[2] In 1977 the FIA Cup for Drivers began before being replaced in 1979 with the World Rally Championship for Drivers. There is no official FIA online publication of co-driver champions or when the title was introduced, but according to the printed FIA Yearbooks of Automobile Sport (the official FIA archives of motorsport), the first recorded co-driver world title was awarded in 1982 to Christian Geistdörfer who ran with the driver champion Walter Röhrl that year.[3] The archives of WRC.com had recorded co-driver world champions from 2001, however this page is no longer maintained by WRC.com.[4] eWRC-Results.com, a popular rally results archive has co-driver standings from 1998 onwards on its 'Seasons' pages.[5] The website Juwra.com holds a record of WRC sporting regulations from 2004 and there are references at least to a co-driver championship title from that year.[6] Because of this lack of forthcoming information from either of the official sources FIA or WRC it is not unusual to see conflicting information about who is a champion or not. For example, Nicky Grist may mistakenly be called a co-driver champion for sitting with driver champion Juha Kankkunnen in 1993, however he did not do all the rallies and was outscored by Daniel Grataloup, the official co-driver champion as recorded by the FIA Yearbooks. Some co-drivers may be called champions in years prior to 1982 too, technically speaking they are celebrated as such unofficially. The list below includes these co-drivers, using point scoring systems copied from the drivers championship (or cup from 1977 to 1978).

The driver's and co-driver's championships are separate championships but follow the same structure for accruing points. Since 2010 points are awarded at the end of each rally to the top ten WRC (overall) drivers and co-drivers that qualify as follows: 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1.[7] In addition to those points, from 2011 each event holds 1 special stage, the Power Stage, in which drivers and co-drivers can score extra points – currently awarded to five fastest (5, 4, 3, 2, 1).[8] In previous years the points awarded for overall classification has ranged from between 9 and 25 points for a win and having points awarded to the top 6, 8, 10 or even 15 crews.[7] This makes comparing results across years difficult.

Daniel Elena holds the record for the most co-drivers' championships, winning nine during his career.[9] He also holds the record for the most championships won in a row; he won nine consecutive titles from 2004 to 2012.[10] Julien Ingrassia is second, with eight championships won between 2013 and 2021.

List of co-drivers' champions

By year

List of World Rally Championship Co-Drivers' champions
Season Country Co-Driver Car Wins Podiums Notes
1977  Italy Pierro Sodano Lancia Stratos HF 3 4 FIA Cup for Drivers
1978  Finland Ilkka Kivimäki Lancia Stratos HF / Fiat 131 Abarth 3 7 FIA Cup for Drivers
1979  Sweden Hans Thorszelius Mercedes-Benz 450 SL / Ford Escort RS1800 2 6 First World Rally Championship for Drivers
1980  West Germany Christian Geistdörfer Fiat 131 Abarth 4 6
1981  United Kingdom David Richards Ford Escort RS1800 3 5
1982  West Germany Christian Geistdörfer Opel Ascona 400 2 8 First officially recorded Co-Driver title awarded
1983  Sweden Arne Hertz Audi Quattro A1 / Audi Quattro A2 4 7
1984  Sweden Björn Cederberg Audi Quattro A2 5 6
1985  Finland Seppo Harjanne Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 5 8
1986  Finland Juha Piironen [fi] Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 E2 3 6
1987  Finland Juha Piironen [fi] Lancia Delta HF 4WD 2 5
1988  Italy Tiziano Siviero Lancia Delta Integrale 5 6
1989  Italy Tiziano Siviero Lancia Delta Integrale 5 5
1990  Spain Luis Moya Toyota Celica GT-4 (ST165) 4 9
1991  Finland Juha Piironen [fi] Lancia Delta Integrale 16V 5 7
1992  Spain Luis Moya Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD (ST185) 4 8
1993  France Daniel Grataloup [fr] Ford Escort RS Cosworth 3 6 Only instance of champion drivers and co-drivers from different crews
1994  France Bernard Occelli Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD (ST185) 3 6
1995  United Kingdom Derek Ringer Subaru Impreza 555 2 5
1996  Finland Seppo Harjanne Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III 5 6 Only Co-driver to have won championships with different drivers
1997  Finland Seppo Harjanne Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV 4 9
1998  Finland Risto Mannisenmäki Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V 5 7
1999  Finland Risto Mannisenmäki Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI 4 7
2000  Finland Timo Rautiainen Peugeot 206 WRC 4 7
2001  United Kingdom Robert Reid Subaru Impreza WRC 1 6
2002  Finland Timo Rautiainen Peugeot 206 WRC 5 9
2003  United Kingdom Phil Mills Subaru Impreza WRC 2003 4 7
2004  Monaco Daniel Elena Citroën Xsara WRC 6 12
2005  Monaco Daniel Elena Citroën Xsara WRC 10 13
2006  Monaco Daniel Elena Citroën Xsara WRC 8 12
2007  Monaco Daniel Elena Citroën C4 WRC 8 13
2008  Monaco Daniel Elena Citroën C4 WRC 11 13
2009  Monaco Daniel Elena Citroën C4 WRC 7 9
2010  Monaco Daniel Elena Citroën C4 WRC 8 13
2011  Monaco Daniel Elena Citroën DS3 WRC 5 9
2012  Monaco Daniel Elena Citroën DS3 WRC 9 10
2013  France Julien Ingrassia Volkswagen Polo R WRC 9 11
2014  France Julien Ingrassia Volkswagen Polo R WRC 8 10
2015  France Julien Ingrassia Volkswagen Polo R WRC 8 10
2016  France Julien Ingrassia Volkswagen Polo R WRC 6 11
2017  France Julien Ingrassia Ford Fiesta WRC 2 9
2018  France Julien Ingrassia Ford Fiesta WRC 4 6
2019  Estonia Martin Järveoja Toyota Yaris WRC 6 9
2020  France Julien Ingrassia Toyota Yaris WRC 2 5
2021  France Julien Ingrassia Toyota Yaris WRC 5 7
2022  Finland Jonne Halttunen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 5 7
2023  Finland Jonne Halttunen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 3 8
2024  Belgium Martijn Wydaeghe Hyundai i20 N Rally1 2* 6*
Source:[4][11]
Julien Ingrassia has won eight titles, all with Sébastien Ogier.

* Season still in progress.

By co-driver

List of World Rally Championship Co-Drivers' Champions by co-driver
Co-Driver Total Seasons
Monaco Daniel Elena 9 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
France Julien Ingrassia 8 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021
Finland Juha Piironen 3 1986, 1987, 1991
Finland Seppo Harjanne 3 1985, 1996, 1997
Germany Christian Geistdörfer 2 1980, 1982
Italy Tiziano Siviero 2 1988, 1989
Spain Luis Moya 2 1990, 1992
Finland Risto Mannisenmäki 2 1998, 1999
Finland Timo Rautiainen 2 2000, 2002
Finland Jonne Halttunen 2 2022, 2023
Italy Pierro Sodano 1 1977
Finland Ilkka Kivimäki 1 1978
Sweden Hans Thorszelius 1 1979
United Kingdom David Richards 1 1981
Sweden Arne Hertz 1 1983
Sweden Björn Cederberg 1 1984
France Daniel Grataloup 1 1993
France Bernard Occelli 1 1994
United Kingdom Derek Ringer 1 1995
United Kingdom Robert Reid 1 2001
United Kingdom Phil Mills 1 2003
Estonia Martin Järveoja 1 2019
Belgium Martijn Wydaeghe 1 2024
Estonian Martin Järveoja is one of the newest additions to the champion co-drivers list, having won in 2019 with Ott Tänak

By nationality

List of World Rally Championship Co-Drivers' Champions by nationality
Country Co-Drivers Total
wins
 Finland 6 13
 France 3 10
 Monaco 1 9
 United Kingdom 4 4
 Sweden 3 3
 Italy 2 3
 West Germany 1 2
 Spain 1 2
 Estonia 1 1
 Belgium 1 1

See also

References

  1. ^ "About FIA". FIA. Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 31 October 2008.
  2. ^ "What is WRC?". World Rally Championship. Archived from the original on 20 September 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  3. ^ "Yearbook of Automobile Sport 54th edition (2021)". store.fia.com. Retrieved 2021-04-06.
  4. ^ a b "Championship standings - archive". wrc.com. Archived from the original on 2019-10-17.
  5. ^ Shacki. "Season 1998 rally". eWRC-results.com. Retrieved 2021-04-06.
  6. ^ "juwra.com Regulations archive". www.juwra.com. Retrieved 2021-04-06.
  7. ^ a b "juwra.com Rule changes summary". www.juwra.com. Retrieved 2021-04-06.
  8. ^ Rule changes summary juwra.com
  9. ^ "Loeb clinches eighth title". Sky Sports. 12 November 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  10. ^ "Hirvonen's exit hands eighth straight world title to Loeb". CNN. 11 November 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  11. ^ Shacki. "Season rally". eWRC-results.com. Retrieved 2021-04-06.