Rally1 crews can now select up to 20 soft-compound option tires, a figure already increased from the usual 8-12
Photography by Toyota & Hyundai
Words by Luke Barry & Alasdair Lindsay
Hankook has increased the number of soft tires available at Rally Chile for a second time, upon request from a World Rally Championship manufacturer.
Hankook’s hard compound has been nominated as the prime tire for the 11th round of the 2025 season, meaning up to 20 of those are available to use for Rally1 crews.
Usually, drivers can only take a maximum of 12 option tires – which this weekend is the soft – but that allocation was initially increased to 16, and has now been upped to 20 due to concerns that potentially wet stages will not favor the hard tire.
That means Rally1 drivers could end up using more of the option soft tire than the prime hard compound, with a maximum quantity of 28 tires available per rally weekend.
Explaining why Hankook has altered the allocation not once but twice, Hankook Competition CEO Steven Cho told DirtFish: “This is us trying to do whatever we can to support the requests from the manufacturers.
“We had already made an increase from the standard 8-12 to 16, and then we had a discussion here [in Chile]. I think after the last couple days of recce with the heavy rain and the very low temperatures, there was a little bit of concern that if there’s a fully wet rally for the entire event, they very much would like to run on the soft, so they wanted to just make sure that they had enough.
Tires have already become a watchword and Rally Chile has yet to start!
“For us also, as it’s our first year, we want to make sure that we’re supporting the manufacturers as much as is possible. And the FIA is in the same position as well. And so generally speaking, as long as everyone agrees, then we’re happy to support, right?
“And so it was a request from one of the manufacturers. It was unanimously agreed that they would support that, and we were able to do it, and so we were happy to do that.”
Asked specifically what drove the decision, Cho added: “I think it’s a combination of the potential for rain, also the temperatures here are lower than expected. As we’ve been seeing a lot of uptake on the soft spec, the performance is of course better than what you can get on the hard.
“And because our soft does operate a wider operating window than what might have been originally expected, whenever possible, the teams are opting to run softs as much as they can.
Hankook is keen to accomodate teams' requests where possible
“So that comes with a downside as well. They’re prone to puncture a little bit more than the hard, but it’s a part of the compromise. And so I think the teams are, on one hand, of course there’s the potential for wet conditions, but they’re also looking for as much performance as they can find.”
Cho believes this is a strong example of Hankook working with the teams to be reactive to their requests.
“We’ve been trying, actually, all through the season to make these kind of pivots and small changes whenever we can to try to have the best product available for the teams,” he said.
“And actually, you know, with the manufacturers, they’ve been very collaborative as well, behind the scenes saying, ‘OK, this is what we have to work with’. They’ve been very open to sort of say, ‘hey, maybe this combination would work better’. And then as long as everyone agrees, we’ve been making those pivots.
“We’re being asked about it this time, but actually we’ve been making these small changes and these small adjustments all through the season, and we’ll continue to do that as much as we can.”
Tags: Hankook, Rally Chile, Rally Chile 2025, Tires, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date September 11, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/09/DVCPg6RT-ROVANPERA11CHL25tb204-780x520.jpg September 11, 2025
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