2023 World Rally Championship

Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen were the reigning drivers' and co-drivers' champions, having secured their first championship titles at the 2022 Rally New Zealand.

[27][28][29][30] The Argentine, Australian and Northern Irish bids failed and Germany organized the Central European Rally along with Austria and the Czech Republic.

[31][32] In addition to the candidate events, the WRC Promoter GmbH was also working on the calendar expansion to the Middle East and United States, but no rallies were added for the 2023 season.

M-Sport signed a full-year deal with Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja after they terminated their multi-year contract with Hyundai.

[47] Adrien Fourmaux, who drove as M-Sport's Rally1 entry in 2022, was demoted to the team's WRC2 program,[48] though he would substitute for Loubet at the season finale.

[66] Toyota retained the crews of Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin and of Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen as their two full-time competitors.

[68] Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston stepped up to the works team to share the third car with Ogier and Vincent Landais.

[69] The team's fourth car was made available for privately funded competitors when Ogier did not compete,[70] the first of whom were Lorenzo Bertelli and Simone Scattolin at the 2023 Rally Sweden.

[72] Rally organisers can include an optional Tyre Warming Zone (TWZ) between the Time Control (TC) and the start of a Special Stage.

[78] The second round, Rally Sweden, saw Tänak and Järveoja take an early lead, before being surpassed by Breen and Fulton on Friday evening.

[81] After being absent from Sweden, Ogier and Landais returned at Rally Mexico, where they took another victory after capitalizing on their relative late road position and led the championships, despite only competing in two of the three rounds.

Before the Croatia Rally, Hyundai driver Breen was killed during an accident at the pre-event test after the front-left of his i20 collided with a pole.

[90] Rovanperä and Halttunen dominated the rally, taking their first victory the season as well as winning the Power Stage to add a full thirty points to their championship defence.

[95] Meanwhile, Neuville and Wydaeghe were disqualified from eighth place at the event, due to a reconnaissance breach,[96] having already retired from two of Friday afternoon's stages with suspension damage.

[99] Evans and Martin capitalized on the opportunity to win the event and the Power Stage to cut the championship leads down to twenty-five points.

[100] The retirement did not stop Rovanperä and Halttunen from winning the following event at Greece and the respective Power Stage to score maximum points for the third time in 2023.

[108] However, the battle for the runner-up spot was over when Neuville and Wydaeghe crashed out at the Rally Japan, meaning Evans and Martin became the crew who came out in front.