[WRC] News & rumours (part II)

[pantealex]

Östberg is not missing Wales, he has number 6 (Stobart) in FIA-list for manufacturers entry

[skarderud]

i heard one of the days that østbergs budget for last two rounds, and for whole next season is OK.
good news for all

[focus206]

If it's like this, then very good. I read that he was planning to do Catalunya instead of GB, but if he found the budget also for GB, good

[mousti]

Kevin Abbring is selected to do drive for VW with the Fabia Super 2000 in Wales!!!

[focus206]

Kevin Abbring is selected to do drive for VW with the Fabia Super 2000 in Wales!!!

Great! I really hoped he had a chance from VW!

[Barreis]

I'm not sure about Ostberg. Though B-Teams are allowed to drop two rounds (Kimi dropped 3), which will free Ostberg's budget up a little. He still will need to make the choice of taking the car to one international event, either Mexico, Argentina or NZ. I'm not sure how much the withdrawl of Stobart is going to impact his ability to have the funds to get the car out of Europe. Ostberg is missing GB, and has missed Australia, so he's been able to miss 2 rounds like a B-Team would, and has spent more by getting the car to Mexico and Argentina. How much did Stobart subsidise the overseas transport? And will Ostberg be able to get the same commitment from Adapta as well as other sponsored for 2012? If he can't do GB due to lack of sponsorship I'm not sure how well he'll do attracting sponsors for 2012. He'll be going back to the same sponsors and looking for a season commitment rather than one rally. A much bigger commitment. I do hope he can get the funds though.

Henning has somehow kept the money going all these years. He'll be a part of some B-Team, whether he gets in contact with FERM, or puts some Monster branding on his car. He has Expert, Samsung and Ludo all behind him at the moment. Samsung might share its money with Block as they would get something out of that relationship. I put Petter up as moving to a Ford and creating a B-Team mainly because the Ford is well known to be cheaper than the Citroen, Monster Energy would only be interested in the most charismatic of WRC drivers to go alongside Ken Block (Petter has those attributes). Plus he already has some sponsorship behind him. Another long shot is Team Solberg.

I think there is really no doubt that Wilson won't be around, if he is, his car will be very empty on the outside.

Wilson - Likely gone
Ostberg - 50/50
H Solberg - 70%
P Solberg - 90%
Block - 100%

Block has stated before that he wants to concentrate solely on WRC as it is his main focus, and main desire, Gymkhana is just a game to him, he wants to be taken seriously. His latest Gymkhana might be its swansong as it was very over the top, and he did a tour for it. Maybe one last Gymkhana, then he'll make rallying videos and such forth.

Wilson won't be gone.

[Mintexmemory]

Great! I really hoped he had a chance from VW!

+1

[noel157]

Kevin Abbring is selected to do drive for VW with the Fabia Super 2000 in Wales!!!

Excellent news.

[not12listen]

my wife and i have ventured a guess that Petter is to be signed by VW for 2012, as they'd want an experienced driver to put down some very solid results - and Petter wants a solid seat with factory backing.

we've also guessed that Ford will drop Mikko (his results have not impressed) and he'll be the 2nd driver in VW.

Ford would then pickup Ogier. Ogier and Latvala would be allowed to fight out the entire season tooth and nail, with the 1 'rule' that they finish as many rallies as possible (ie. do not crash out to beat your team mate).

and then it is RUMORED that Saab and Toyota are coming back into WRC. admittedly, the chances of Saab coming back in are slim... Toyota already has the prototype vehicle last i saw - Yaris (US name) which will use much of the same running gear as the Corolla that ran in the Australian Rally Championship (with the engine fitting to the current 1.6L Turbo spec of course).

but, again... all rumor and guesswork so far...

----

a few links to help fuel the Saab fire...

http://www.worldcarfans.com/11008092...er-wrc-in-2012

http://www.rallybuzz.com/saab-wrc-2012/

http://www.rallybuzz.com/saab-linked-wrc-2012/

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/News/Se...e-for-the-WRC/


and a bit of fuel for the Toyota fire...

http://www.rallybuzz.com/toyota-vw-wrc-meetings/

http://www.insideline.com/toyota/toy...-mans-wrc.html

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=912

[AP-Racing]

I heard that some people of FIA supports the idea to create more long cross-border events like Germany/France, Sweden/Norway, Finland/Russia, Poland/Czech Republic etc...

Mirek, Finland/Russia - it's impossible, because our customs service working very long and make big problem for quickest crossed border