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More than 20 years after a British driver last won the World Rally Championship, hope is alive again.

So who could emulate the late, great Richard Burns, who triumphed for Subaru in 2001?

Among the candidates are Welsh driver Elfyn Evans, who has finished runner-up to Toyota team-mate Sebastien Ogier in the past two seasons, Irishman Craig Breen, who is embarking on his first full campaign with M-Sport Ford after impressive cameos last season, and England’s Gus Greensmith, who partners Breen in the striking new Ford.

It’s a brave new world for the WRC as the championship adopts new eco-friendly hybrid power, which leaves Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport – the three manufacturers – in the dark about the pecking order.

Perhaps more importantly, for only the second time since 2004, this year’s World Rally Championship will not be won by a driver called Sebastien.

After the domination of Sebastien Loeb, who won nine consecutive championships from 2004-2012, and with the semi-retired Ogier’s eight titles in nine years only interrupted by Ott Tanak in 2019 – 10 drivers will be fighting it out for one of the biggest prizes in world motorsport.

But they will have to contend with both Sebastiens at some point, as they make cameos at events across this season.

With the 13-round season on the horizon, what can we expect as the WRC heads into the unknown?

A new era

The WRC is aiming to be more environmentally sustainable with new ‘Rally1’ hybrid cars for the 2022 season.

A 100kW electric motor and a 3.9kWh battery will sit alongside a 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol engine.

These combined will make the cars faster by more than 500hp while also reducing harmful emissions.

As Evans explains: “You definitely feel the extra weight from the battery and that can be a disadvantage at some times.

“We now have tubular chassis so the way the car is working is completely different – both the gearbox and transmission is different so there’s a lot of things to get used to in the early part of the season.”

It’s not only the cars that will see changes. A completely new fuel derived from a blend of synthetic and bio-derived components will be used, meaning the fuel in WRC’s top tier will be 100% sustainable for the first time.

Evans’ big chance?

Evans will be continuing his bid for a maiden WRC title, having narrowly missed out two years running, but it’s not something the Toyota driver says he is dwelling on.

“Obviously I still feel a little disappointed not to come away with the title, but in some ways it makes you a bit more determined for the coming year.”

The 33-year-old from Dolgellau in north Wales believes with all the new changes to the cars it is wide open as to which car and which driver will be ahead of the pack.

“Since everybody has redesigned their cars from the ground up, I think we could see potentially some teams ahead of the rest, whereby I think we were all fairly closely matched over the last few seasons but again, that’s yet to be seen. We really have to wait and see,” said Evans.

Evans’ team-mate and reigning champion Ogier may only be competing in selected races this season, but the Welshman insists that does not mean he’s getting carried away with the thought of winning the championship.

“I’m not sure it changes to too much, with so many new things going on I think there’s a lot of things that has to work out this year to challenge for the title,” he said.

“Of course when you have somebody as successful as that not competing the full season then it is in effect one less person to worry about but to have Seb still in the team is a positive thing.”

Breen looks to step up

After being a solid and reliable support act until now, Breen is being let off the leash for the first time and there is genuine excitement about what the 31-year-old is capable of when he gets the chance to lead M-Sport’s charge.

It was his cameos in 2021 that really caught the attention of M-Sport when he picked up three podiums from his five outings for Hyundai – and now he has been rewarded with a dream full-time drive in the WRC.

WRC’s new dawn brings a new role for the Irish driver as he takes on the team leader role at the Cumbria-based outfit, a position he is relishing.

A man who lives and breathes rallying, not even a crash in testing on Wednesday could dampen his enthusiasm for the new project as he gets to grips with the “amazing” Ford Puma.

“I really can’t wait. Up until Wednesday morning everything was perfect. The project has been amazing since the very beginning.

“I’ve been involved in this project from quite late on, but the work that has gone into it, I don’t think the public realise how much effort and energy went into all these cars.”

As for his title prospects? He may not yet be an established frontrunner across an entire season but Breen has championship-winning pedigree to rely on, most notably his 2011 WRC Academy title, SWRC championship in 2012 and his dominant Irish Tarmac Championship campaign from 2019.

“I’m definitely confident we can get a victory in a rally. Rallying is a confidence thing,” he said.

Greensmith and Ingram hopeful

Greensmith, Breen’s team-mate at Ford, will also relish the chance to win rallies as he looks to progress from the points finishes he achieved last year.

“The new car’s a lot easier to drive – we focused our development on this year’s car,” he said. “Things feel really good. No apprehension on my side about reliability – I don’t worry about things not in my control.

“We want stage wins and to be getting on the podium. Maybe we’ll exceed that, but we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.”

The 2019 European Rally Champion Chris Ingram has stepped up to race his Toksport-entered Skoda Fabia in the second tier, WRC2 category.

“I’ve been to watch Monte a couple times in the past – it’s just an incredible place to go,” said Ingram.

“It’s the most prestigious rally in the world and to be able to compete with the best guys… it’s gonna be a massive occasion. You can see the headlights bouncing off the clouds – there’s just a different atmosphere.”

He added: “If I can just relax and gel and get into a flow… especially in the dark – I always go well in the dark.”

Highly rated Northern Irish driver Josh McErlean is also set for a return to the World Championship after several outings in WRC3 in 2021.

McErlean, 22, secured a maiden podium in Spain in October and is understood to be working on stepping up to WRC2 this season.