[WRC] News & rumours (part II)

[Rallying UK]

LOEB: Could Sébastien Loeb be about to stay in WRC?

This article suggests he could:

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[sollitt]

Really? It appears to me to confirm exactly the opposite.

[MJW]

The way I read the article it looks very bad for PSA Group. If no green light is given for the WTCC, it says that the rally programme had already receive massive cuts and its only the Abu Dhabi investment that keeps Citroen in WRC. The article looks pretty sobering (allowing for the translation website losses) but if job losses like is being talked about and record financial losses, to me it could be that Citroen goes the same way as Ford. What will be left then is a replica of the QATAR MSport in Abu Dhabi PHSport. I can't see Seb Loeb staying around then against a fully factory VW / Ogier combination.
I am not suggesting the Seb Loeb runs away, but you can not escape the fact he is 39 this month, a career in GT Racing could be enough to keep him happy.
Sometimes its difficult to let our passion for motorsport rule our head but politically that suicide mission President Hollande is no friend of motorsport. If the business news about PSA is as bad as is expected then I cant see the boards being brave enough to sign any motorsport programme off. It was the same with Ford, there is some behind the scenes involvement, but politically it was seen best not to be in rallying.
Maybe WRC will be the big 3 (manufacturers) playground, incidentaly theese consist of Toyota, GM and VW, with Hyundai in 4th, we know VW is in WRC, and have all seen and followed the rumours of Hyundai and Toyota coming.

[AndyRAC]

It could be said that they were fortunate to carry on this long.

Peugeot pulled the plug on their 2012 Sportscar programme very late – they even had engineers/drivers in Sebring for testing. This after pretty poor sales/financial figures.
They’ve been in since 2001, apart from the 2006 ‘sabbatical’ – that’s a pretty good run. Loeb has other fish to fry, driving and running his own team. I feel the WTCC effort was just an excuse for Citroen to keep Loeb, and satisfy his racing ambitions - not likely really, the WTCC is a mickey mouse series, with boring, underpowered cars.

[EightGear]

not likely really, the WTCC is a mickey mouse series, with boring, underpowered cars.

You keep saying that, but the truth is that from 2014 onwards the regulations change and the cars will be more spectacular. Not least because the manufacturers (including Citroen!) wanted that.

[rallyfiend]

You keep saying that, but the truth is that from 2014 onwards the regulations change and the cars will be more spectacular. Not least because the manufacturers (including Citroen!) wanted that.

Which manufacturers? Isn't Honda the only committed manufacturer in the series for 2013?

All the others are just customer teams running old, undeveloped kit.

[MJW]

You keep saying that, but the truth is that from 2014 onwards the regulations change and the cars will be more spectacular. Not least because the manufacturers (including Citroen!) wanted that.

Manufacturere involvement in motorsport is to sell cars, if traditional makets like Europe are suffereing from economic woes, then its time to look at those who are buying cars, i.e. the BRICS countries, WTCC has a round in Brazil and China, maybe WTCC from 2014 will be the place to be for manufacturers.

[pantealex]

so 2 drivers are on par,or very close at results ,the one drives a n4 the other a s2000 and we are asking who is the faster?

N4 cars in Finland are not FIA N4, but You are right.

[Mirek]

If I remember Lappi came last year from R2 to S2000 and with this new car he won every rally where he started except Monte Carlo and Rally Communidad de Madrid. You don't need to win by minutes and to defeat Salo in every round even with better car is something - considering no reasonable S2000 or even 4WD experience for Lappi.

[EightGear]

Which manufacturers? Isn't Honda the only committed manufacturer in the series for 2013?

All the others are just customer teams running old, undeveloped kit.

Honda, Citroen, and reports are Renault and Subaru too. And I guess Seat and BMW still have some say in it since they have cars that are being run by privateer teams.