FIA’s Torque Meter for Dakar: What is it and how does it work?

In order to create a more balanced field in the Dakar Rally, the FIA has introduced a Torque Meter this year. Motorsport.com caught up with the governing body’s cross-country director Jerome Roussel to find all the secrets behind it.

What is a Torque Meter and how does it work?

The Torque Meter is a sensor located inside the gearbox that measures the power reaching the wheels. In case the power exceeds the limit imposed by the regulators, a time penalty is applied.

The system will be used in the entire 2025 World Rally-Raid Championship, starting with Dakar, after the FIA tested the device with several teams, including Ford in the Morocco Rally.

“It’s basically a sensor, a kind of torque sensor, that’s in the gearbox,” explained Roussel. “The good thing is that in cross-country all the manufacturers use the same gearbox, so it’s easy to implement. The gearbox gives the power to the gearbox, and what we want is to measure that power that goes out.

“Before we were measuring what the engine was producing, and now we have the control system which is on a different level in what the engine is producing, so for us it is much easier, because we only monitor what is going to the wheels – we don’t care about the power, just what is going to the wheels.

“It is a better system to control performance, because any technology, whether you have the naturally aspirated V8 or the Toyota turbo, it doesn’t matter, because we look at what comes out.”

Effectively a system of Balance of Performance [BoP], the Torque Meter has already been seen in other categories, although the version used in cross-country rallying is quite different.

“It is not a new system, because it was used in the WEC and Formula 1, so we could benefit from all the experience we have with that technology and implement it in the manufacturers,” Roussel pointed out. “We started the process two years ago, so it’s not something completely new.”

Why was it introduced in the 2025 W2RC season?

Unlike circuit racing, vehicles in the W2RC don’t loop around a fixed track. This creates additional complications and the FIA had to carry out multiple tests with different manufacturers before introducing the device in 2025.

“We needed time to develop it with the manufacturers,” Roussel explained. “Cross-country is quite unique. At Le Mans, every 13 kilometres it is the same route, the same corner, and here you don’t have the same thing twice, the same terrain.

“You have jumps, a lot of compressions, so we needed time to develop it with the manufacturers, that’s why we decided to take it easy, and then the rules are implemented from 1 January.”

How are Torque Meter-related penalties applied in the 2025 Dakar Rally and W2RC?

The FIA ​​did not want to create an imbalance by issuing big penalties for exceeding the maximum power allowed under the regulations, which is why there is a 10-minute limit for offences.

“You never have an automatic penalty. If there is a sanction, it is because our engineers confirmed that something was not in accordance with the regulations,” Roussel explained.

#224 X-Raid Mini JCW Team Mini: Lionel Baud, Lucie Baud

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“In the system we have what we call an ‘integral’, but it is like comparing it to a defined curve of the power that cannot be exceeded according to the regulations and the duration of that moment.

“If you have a small peak for a long time, it’s the same as a big peak for a very short time, and when you have a penalty nothing happens, but everything accumulates.

“All this is also filtered, you have tolerance, all the parameters have been defined to be sensitive.

“When you have that penalty, the first one is 10 seconds. We decided on 10 because it’s not a lot, we didn’t want to penalise something where you would lose a lot for just a moment of exceeding that limit, so we put 10 minutes as the maximum.

“So 10 seconds for us is enough. Then you have something progressive of 20 seconds after you breach it. If a competitor or a team is completely screwing up their strategies, then you could have 1,000 penalties, but we didn’t want to penalise 1,000 times with 10 seconds, so we put a maximum of 10 minutes.

“Because with 10 minutes, you don’t lose the Dakar. [A penalty is] never good news, but you can still win or get a podium. We didn’t want to kill the [chances of a] driver, that’s why we wanted something soft. Maybe in the future it will be harder or softer, depending on how it works.”

First tests of the Torque Meter for Dakar Rally

The FIA ​​Torque Meter was tested at the 2024 Rally of Morocco, with the Ford Raptor in particular, and the results left the governing body encouraged.

“It helped, of course,” remarked Roussel. “Ford used it in the complete package in Morocco, but we also had a Toyota, a Mini and a Dacia that had a Torque Meter.

#203 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota: Lucas Moraes, Armand Monleon

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“All that data was very useful for us to learn and define the control strategy, which are all the parameters we use.

“Also all the teams did some tests, and after each session they sent us the data so our engineers could analyse it. Everything was done in collaboration with the teams to make sure we hadn’t missed anything – you need a bit of testing before introducing a new device and yes, everything was done correctly.”

It is expected that the World Rally Championship will use the same system when it introduces new rules in 2027 that will offer manufacturers greater flexibility on powertrains.