Originally, the 13-round season was due to visit six continents between January and November, with Japan, Kenya and New Zealand making their return onto the world stage. Instead, the 2020 campaign will be held across a seven-round schedule including two newcomer countries, with the Baltic event being one of them.

In the current circumstances, revisiting the calendar for the purpose of hosting international rally events represented a major challenge and required close collaboration between all parties.

Under the direction of its Medical Commission President, Professor Gérard Saillant, the FIA, the governing body of world motor sport, has developed protocols and procedures to manage the risk associated with the resumption of motor sport amid the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Essentially, the Appendix S protocols and learnings taken from the recent FIA Formula One World Championship events have been translated to the WRC to coincide with the resumption of competition for a number of FIA-regulated events.

The extended scope of the Appendix S of the International Sporting Code, approved on September 1 by the World Motor Sport Council, includes the same key sanitary measures: mandatory social distancing, PCR pre-testing, wearing of face masks and hand hygiene, creation of team groups and sub-groups, with adapted implementation to a smaller organisational structure. They are designed to limit the risk of transmission of COVID-19. Trace procedures are also in place along with containment measures in the case of a suspected case.

Equally, podium procedures and press conferences are running under modified formats. The measures will vary from round to round and will depend on the guidelines and regulations issued by the relevant local health authorities.

FIA Rally Director Yves Matton said: “The FIA, WRC Promoter, organisers and local health authorities are working closely together to set up measures to mitigate the risk of the virus spreading on a WRC event and enable the championship to resume in the safest possible environment. It is not an easy task to align every operation with COVID-19 protocols but we’re ready to restart in Estonia with a strong plan in place and I can’t wait to see the first cars back into action.”

“In particular, I’d like to point out the support of the Estonian Government to develop procedures together with the organisers in a short time frame, for example the digital platform solution centralising all applications and testing, to enable all rally stakeholders to join in a safe and controlled environment,” Matton added.

The FIA is the first international sports federation to have resumed its activities at the international level thanks to the strict sanitary protocols.

Appendix S is available to read here.