We continue our success | Looking back at the 2024 season

At the end of the 2024 season, Oliver Solberg was three points away from the WRC2 title. Did this mean that the season was unsuccessful for the Škoda motorsport team and its customers? Not at all. Take a look at what Škoda rally cars and their crews have achieved this year.

Rally is a sport where the line of success is often very thin. Even though the Solberg/Edmondson crew won three events in this year's World Rally Championship and had the highest number of stage wins, they still fell short of the title. An unfortunate crash in Portugal and a puncture in Chile put an end to their title hopes. But that's the way it goes in rallying sometimes. But it was a great spectacle. In addition to the Fabia's total of 135 stage wins, we will remember the dominant drives on the fast gravel in Latvia and Finland, with Lauri Joona's incredible leap during the Finnish shakedown. The sparkle in Josh McErlean's eyes on his podium debut in Portugal or Martin Prokop's excitement after his first kilometres with the Fabia RS Rally2 on the World Championship tracks. Armin Kremer's victory in the Masters Cup is also worth mentioning. His lead of 60 points over second place was truly impressive. Škoda cars were the most represented brand in the WRC2 category and in the European ERC Championship this year. And one more interesting figure. Thanks to the use of sustainable fuel, Škoda cars saved almost 160 tonnes of CO2 emissions in the WRC2 category this year.

Mathieu Franceschi confirmed his increasing speed in the ERC Championship, moving up from 6th overall in 2023 to 2nd this year. Two other crews with Fabia RS Rally2 cars finished behind him. In total, Škoda had 6 representatives in the top 10 of the overall ERC standings. To this achievement we won 1 world and 3 continental championship titles and 18 national championship titles. By the way, this year, for the first time, we spiced up the ERC competition with a bonus program for winning crews, where there were vouchers for spare parts and very significant discount on new car up for season 2025. Thanks to the very positive response, we have prepared its extension for the next ERC season.

Titles in championships

The year 2024 also confirmed that the Škoda Fabia rally cars are a bestseller. Thanks to strong demand, we significantly exceeded our annual production plan for new units and reached the significant milestone of the 600th Rally2 car sold. A few weeks ago, the 200th RS Rally2 body was also produced. Our cars compete in 69 countries around the world, and their overall stats for the 2024 season are truly impressive. In total, Škoda cars have taken part in 1039 rallies, in which they made 4367 starts. Our customers have won more than 35% of these competitions. If they started with an RS Rally2 car, the success rate of winning was almost 50%. This year, Škoda cars have also competed in 1039 rally events and this is a great showcase of the season and we are really happy about it.

We are extremely pleased that we help our customers to succeed not only with a good basis for a car, to which, as Oliver, Armin and Mathieu would certainly confirm, a wide range of drivers can easily adapt, but also in our category with unique engineering/technical support. Thanks to our experience, the Oliver Solberg/Eliott Edmondson crew gained valuable experience for future career progression, and driver Josh McErlean gained a great foundation for moving up to a higher category in the World Championship.Together with our engineers, not only have they worked on their speed and consistency, but so have many other customer crews around the world. Their progress is always great to watch.

However, it is important not to rest on our laurels. That's why we've also been testing and further developing the Fabia RS Rally2 this year. And one more important area that we have been focusing on a lot this year and that is the future. For example, we are working on the implementation of new sustainable materials in the rally car. We presented many of them on the rally car at the Motorsport Sustainability Forum at this year's Rally Finland. Our engineers also took a moment to apply them into a design and engineering study based on the production Skoda Enyaq Coupé RS during the demanding season. In addition to these, many purely racing solutions from the RS Rally have also found their way into this electric car, including drastic weight reduction. The Enyaq RS Race was created, which showed the possibilities of combining road and rally cars. We hope that in the near future, even production car drivers will be able to get a better taste of Škoda's successful competition DNA.

This year, we also celebrated one important anniversary, the 50th anniversary of the Škoda 200 RS. In 1974, it was our first competition car to carry the letters RS in its name. Today, these are the hallmark not only of Škoda's sportier production models, but also of the current rally special, which was largely responsible for this successful season.

And this year also marks the 30th anniversary of the Favorit's greatest triumph in the FIA World Rally Championship in the Formula 2 category for single-axle drive cars with an engine capacity of up to two litres. For this achievement, the Favorit imported a 1.3-litre OHV eight-valve four-cylinder engine with a power output of around 105 hp.

The year 2024 was a turning point in many ways. We thank all customers for their successes, fans for their support and the entire team for their commitment. We wish everyone an equally great 2025 season.