2023 was a year of sporting achievements and development for the FIA.
WEC welcomed record LMP2 and LMGTE classes, while the Hypercar class more than doubled in size – with nine manufacturers competing across all categories. In Formula E, we saw new Gen 3 cars arriving on track, while WRC offered the first event ever featuring stages in three different countries. World Rally-Raid Championship expanded to five events, and, despite mid-season disruption, WRX also completed its season thanks to the hard work of everyone involved. Finally, we had record participation in Karting, while inaugurating the first season of the International Karting Ranking. And, as always, it was an exciting Formula One season, with strong audiences and on-track performance.
Robert Reid
FIA Deputy President for Sport
A year of sporting achievements and development for the FIA
In addition to delivering our World Championships and regional competitions, we have continued to work towards our goal of increasing global motor sport participation.
We have launched new low-cost initiatives to make motor sport more affordable and accessible to the greatest number of people. Motorsport in a Box is a very simple toolkit which allows our Member Clubs around the world to organise low-cost motor sport events where competitors can use their own standard road vehicles. It is the most basic form of motor sport, and will allow more people to try it for the first time.
Beyond accessible motor sport initiatives, we have worked with our seven Vice-Presidents for Sport to develop regional projects which will broaden the base of the motor sport pyramid. In that respect, I was very proud to witness the first ever Asia Pacific Motorsport Championships in Malaysia. Most Clubs in the region participated, making this event a new landmark in the Asia Pacific motor sport landscape. We want to promote and develop Regional Empowerment and the implementation of new FIA Sport Regional Offices supported by Regional Coordinators in Africa, Asia Pacific, MENA and America is fully aligned with our objective, allowing us to work more closely with all our Clubs, while collecting more local feedback. We also started Tailored Development Plans to develop motor sport organisations’ growth in populous countries such as India, China and Nigeria.
Our Members have also had the opportunity to learn and develop through our educational programmes. I was glad to see our first FIA University graduates in Baku during the General Assemblies Week 2023 and I hope to see many more in 2024. We are positioning the FIA as a knowledge-led organisation and we want to cascade this new approach to all our stakeholders, allowing better decision-making processes for all.
The Federation’s developments in sustainable motor sport are on the right track. We are using the sport as a laboratory for developing sustainable technologies for tomorrow’s cars. There are very exciting projects currently in the pipeline to find the appropriate energy mix for each championship, using our competitions as the best platform to develop, test proof and deploy new technologies, while increasing public awareness. As proof of this, five of our seven World Championships are currently running on sustainable energies.
I would like to thank everyone involved in making our sport more affordable, more accessible, more sustainable and more diverse. This is a collaborative effort and I look forward to seeing our 2024 initiatives come to life, while our ongoing projects continue to grow.
Robert Reid
FIA Deputy President for Sport
