EA Sports WRC Le Maestros DLC: 6 Cars, 12 Stages Coming 28 January

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EA Sports WRC Le Maestros - Citroen C3.jpg
Images: EA Sports
As promised last year, EA Sports WRC is set to receive the Le Maestros DLC on 28 January bringing a full class of six cars plus 12 stages to existing rallies.

In October of 2024, EA Sports WRC received its first major content update and DLC bringing the official World Rally Championship game up to 2024 standard. But upon the update's announcement, EA Sports also let fans know that a further, less time-relevant DLC would launch in early 2025.

Well, now we know what that DLC will include following its announcement and it turns out it is not as timeless as we may have thought. Here is all you need to know about the EA Sports WRC Le Maestros DLC.


What is in Le Maestros DLC for EA Sports WRC?​

With the 2025 FIA WRC season kicking off at the end of the month with the 93rd Rallye de Monte Carlo, the official rally game is set to receive its second additional DLC pack on that same weekend.

The Le Maestros DLC will reportedly feature a major focus on the history of French rallying with a new class joining the title, celebrating a period of French dominance in the sport alongside two sets of six stages at pre-existing locations.

12 Le Maestros Stages​

Launching on the same weekend as this year's Monte Carlo Rally, the DLC will feature six new stages for the Monte Carlo location in EA Sports WRC. A longer 14.3km stage will break down to create a further two with each layout running also in reverse.

6 new Monte Carlo stages coming to EA Sports WRC.

6 new Monte Carlo stages coming to EA Sports WRC.

The same breakdown is true for the second set of stages joining the game as part of the upcoming update, this time with Rally Portugal getting an expansion with 11.3km of new road to explore. Notably as part of the Portuguese stages is a trip to Fafe, the iconic region used by the real WRC, as yet unavailable in the game.

Here is the full list of new stages coming to EA Sports WRC with Le Maestros DLC.
  • Monte Carlo: Briançonnet-Entrevaux (14.3km)
  • Monte Carlo: Entrevaux-Briançonnet (13.7km)
  • Monte Carlo: Les Vénières (6.9km)
  • Monte Carlo: Parbiou (6.2km)
  • Monte Carlo: Le Champ (7.4km)
  • Monte Carlo: Pertus (7.4km)
  • Portugal: Fafe (11.3km)
  • Portugal: Vila Pouca (11km)
  • Portugal: Barbosa (5.7km)
  • Portugal: Passos (5.5km)
  • Portugal: Moreira do Rei (5.5km)
  • Portugal: Ruivães (5.5km)


6 new Portugal stages coming to EA Sports WRC.

6 new Portugal stages coming to EA Sports WRC.

​

6 New EA Sports WRC Cars​

As aforementioned, the 12 new stages are not the only additions as part of the DLC with an entire new car class joining the fray. World Rally Cars from between 2012 and 2016 sit provide a step between the 2010s WRC racers and post-2017 rally cars already in the game with two new cars forming the new class: the 2012 Citroën DS3 WRC and 2013 Volkswagen Polo R WRC.

As you can tell, these are models made famous by a pair of French Sebastiens - Loeb and Ogier. These represent great success in the World Rally Championship and are reported fan favourite requests since the launch of EA Sports WRC. They are not the only cars in the pack however with a further four models coming in to pad out other classes.

Citroen C3 WRC - a hotly anticipated addition.

Citroen C3 WRC - a hotly anticipated addition. Image credit: EA Sports

The WRC 2017-2021 category will get a third entrant in the form of the Citroën C3 WRC, helping to liven up the competition online. Another Citroën hitting the title is the Xsara Kit Car, joining the F2 Kit Car ranks. Not to be confused with the faster WRC variant, this is a front-wheel drive model best suited to tarmac stages. The Peugeot 206 S1600 and Citroën C2 R4 complete the additions as part of the DLC. Here is the full list of Le Maestros cars:
  • Citroën C2 R4
  • Citroën C3 WRC
  • Citroën DS3 WRC
  • Citroën Xsara Kit Car
  • Peugeot 206 S1600
  • Volkswagen Polo R WRC

In addition to the six paid-for models, a further free car will join the title. The Mini John Cooper Works JCW will be provided to all players and join the WRC 2012-2016 class allowing anyone and everyone to take part.

Peugeot 206 S1600 joins the roster.

Peugeot 206 S1600 joins the roster.

EA Sports WRC Le Maestros DLC Release Date​

Alongside this more exciting content, the Le Maestros DLC will also receive no fewer than 16 new Moments mode challenges and 17 exclusive liveries. But as you do not typically see the outside of your car during a rally - at least if you're doing t it right - we know this is far from the exciting part.

At the time of writing, there is no price announced for the pack. Le Maestros will be available to purchase from 28 January.

Will you be buying the Le Maestros DLC for EA Sports WRC? Let us know in the comments below and join the discussion in our WRC forum!
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Angus Martin
Angus Martin
Motorsport gets my blood pumping more than anything else. Be it physical or virtual, I'm down to bang doors.

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Ole Marius Myrvold
Club Staff
Premium
Marc Collins said:
So, it's really two new stages.

Not complaining as the high-quality stage recreations are the best feature of this otherwise very problematic title. Just wish the PR department would be clearer about the length of unique km of stages throughout the game.
Click to expand...

It's the GT/Forza way of counting cars -.-
 
Peter Kerényi
I won't be getting it... because at the end of each stage the performance drops significantly (around 80 to around 50 FPS) for me and many users with AMD GPUs. I had the same experience around launch, I tried it recently again on Game Pass (wanted to try MSFS24) and it was unfortunately the same. If that problem was resolved I would gladly give it another go, but now it's simply too frustrating to play, as I am pretty sensitive to frame rate...
 
Last edited:
Saintbert
Yannik Haustein said:
Even though it's been about 17 years since I stopped learning French in school and I'm veery rusty as a result, I was wondering the same thing 😄
Click to expand...

If only EA had access to localization teams in obscure languages like French to chip in.

Anyway, I still have a lot of basic content in the game I am not familiar with. I've never got into the game the way I did with DR2.0, even though I find the handling good. I am going to study VR settings next to see if there's been anything new and useful that's been discovered since I last launched the game.
 
R
For me, this is the biggest sim racing announcement from yesterday! Pleasantly surprised by finding 6 cars and a new category in the announcement, I thought three would be the upper limit. And two from one of my favourite eras of 2011-2016 rules.

The stages were known and, although they're a bit shorter than the base game ones, another 25km of unique stage KMs is very much appreciated - especially big fan of them adding the mileage to existing locations to bring more variety to those locations.

I still have big issues with the game - particularly the game modes - career mode feels like such a such step back from the randomised events, stages and simplicity of DR2 that it's just no fun to play, so I only do single events. How will the new stages be integrated with the career? Will they at all?

But content-wise, this is very promising stuff.


Saintbert said:
What is le Maestros? Why is it Le Maestros and not "les"?

Well, you caught my attention, EA!
Click to expand...

It's because it's content based on two people that have been referred to, even by English commentators, as 'Le Maestro'. I think it's poking a little fun at the English commentators more than anything ;) They obviously don't have permission to use Loeb's likeness or name though, so let's hope he hasn't trademarked it!
 
Last edited:
Saintbert
Rodger Davies said:
It's because it's content based on two people that have been referred to, even by English commentators, as 'Le Maestro'. I think it's poking a little fun at the English commentators more than anything ;) They obviously don't have permission to use Loeb's likeness or name though, so let's hope he hasn't trademarked it!
Click to expand...

That explains the word "Maestro" which is Italian and of course can be used in other languages but the problem is the singular article "le" for the plural noun. It's just a bit of mangled French and I can't believe I am slightly upset on behalf of French speakers because no one needs that. The French announcement for the DLC uses the singular word "Maestro" for title, by the way. I think they will yet adjust the title for international public too.

But yeah, I agree with you on both points - that the game is missing the fun factor a bit but that new content is good to see. I'm glad they've chosen to add to and develop the base game instead of branding and packaging it anew every year.
 
W
The amound of content this game has is insane. Comparing to past rally games, nothing comes close and the cars are all unique. Glad codemasters owns the license.
 
testdriver77
Tons of liveries and the iconic Toyotas are missing....
So there is still room for improvement in terms of content
 
R
testdriver77 said:
Tons of liveries and the iconic Toyotas are missing....
So there is still room for improvement in terms of content
Click to expand...
It's a real pity that there are so many nice liveries created that can't be added to new slots for some reason. And the livery editor in game..... I can't believe you can't even make liveries with the official sponsors of the WRC.

So many game design choices I don't understand with this game.

And something not really in the team's control...... the two main manufacturers Hyundai and Toyota being unwilling to licence their historic content. What a daft situation :(

Thankfully, the important part of driving a rally car on a stage..... yes it could be improved (feels slightly too grippy to me) but it's a good experience.
 
TheFlying5
Saintbert said:
If only EA had access to localization teams in obscure languages like French to chip in.

Anyway, I still have a lot of basic content in the game I am not familiar with. I've never got into the game the way I did with DR2.0, even though I find the handling good. I am going to study VR settings next to see if there's been anything new and useful that's been discovered since I last launched the game.
Click to expand...
Go through this VR guide on how to set up the game for it.
Makes a HUGE difference on visuals and performance

 
testdriver77
Rodger Davies said:
It's a real pity that there are so many nice liveries created that can't be added to new slots for some reason. And the livery editor in game..... I can't believe you can't even make liveries with the official sponsors of the WRC.

So many game design choices I don't understand with this game.

And something not really in the team's control...... the two main manufacturers Hyundai and Toyota being unwilling to licence their historic content. What a daft situation :(

Thankfully, the important part of driving a rally car on a stage..... yes it could be improved (feels slightly too grippy to me) but it's a good experience.
Click to expand...
Yeah, all this license nonsense and the childish car manufacturers behaviour is through all the years stupid.
At one point they want to have profit of advertising their brand but on other end just dont do anything beside driving their cars. Boring.
We... or generally motorsport fans want to drive their iconic cars. It looks like they dont want.
Its just a game.....

The livery editor is a joke so i dont even bother with it.
There are so many talented people outside and why they dont let the community create proper skins its a riddle.
Yeah, i know... the license **** again probably.

Beside this incoming DLC i am asking myself what they are doing all the time?
The replay is a mess. I have an high end pc and when i watch the replay a see the tons of landscape pop ins or other aweful things so its getting annoying.
Also the stupid "automatic camera switching" is like from the 90s.
The cams switching here and there with no proper focus on the car or hairpin.
Lot of improvement. Even the old Race07 had better replay function than this.

I like to drive this game but there are so many strange things like already mentioned.
Anyway. Lets what happen next
 
R
testdriver77 said:
Beside this incoming DLC i am asking myself what they are doing all the time?
The replay is a mess. I have an high end pc and when i watch the replay a see the tons of landscape pop ins or other aweful things so its getting annoying.
Click to expand...

We'll see what the next patch has, but let's be honest, the game hasn't been a smash success. More people are playing DR2 on Steam, despite far more content being in WRC.

The last patch for the '24 relaunch opportunity was beyond disappointing IMO and I'm not sure EA see the game as worth investing in... https://www.gamesindustry.biz/f1-developer-codemasters-affected-by-layoffs - we'll see whether the next patch looks interesting at all.

Ironically, I bet locking down the game less would massively improve its appeal, but I don't expect to see massive changes now. I'm just hoping they find some way to add seasonal randomisation to the career mode.
 
Fleskebacon
Rodger Davies said:
It's a real pity that there are so many nice liveries created that can't be added to new slots for some reason. And the livery editor in game..... I can't believe you can't even make liveries with the official sponsors of the WRC.

So many game design choices I don't understand with this game.

And something not really in the team's control...... the two main manufacturers Hyundai and Toyota being unwilling to licence their historic content. What a daft situation :(

Thankfully, the important part of driving a rally car on a stage..... yes it could be improved (feels slightly too grippy to me) but it's a good experience.
Click to expand...
Apart from the historic Hyundais and Toyotas, the game is pretty well equipped. The old Kyloton WRC series had the old Toyotas, both the Corolla and the Celica, wonder what black magic makes it impossible for CM to put these cars into their game. When they can make a Talbot Sunbeam, it's obviously not becausd of a lack of time...
 
Saintbert
TheFlying5 said:
Go through this VR guide on how to set up the game for it.
Makes a HUGE difference on visuals and performance

Click to expand...

Thanks for nudging me in the right direction. It's worth going through every step of that guide. I got around to it today and it is indeed like night and day compared to my previous experience with the game. It's like I am looking at DR2.0 which is all I ever wanted graphics-wise.
 
R
Fleskebacon said:
Apart from the historic Hyundais and Toyotas, the game is pretty well equipped. The old Kyloton WRC series had the old Toyotas, both the Corolla and the Celica, wonder what black magic makes it impossible for CM to put these cars into their game. When they can make a Talbot Sunbeam, it's obviously not becausd of a lack of time...
Click to expand...

It's a long-standing beef between Toyota and Codemasters, if you go back for a decade or more there aren't Toyotas in the main series of rally games. I wish they'd sort this silly feud out as it's us lot that lose out for it, absolutely no-one wins.
 

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